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Is the Metropolitan Police institutionally corrupt?

“Today’s police force was born directly out of the demand to protect the interests of the wealthy and the powerful and to defend their needs and their property. Understanding this history is key to understanding how we create a police service that protects rather than criminalises working class and marginalised communities.

The experience was something I faced growing up in Liverpool 8 in the 1980s. I remember how the police imported tactics and weapons from the occupation of Northern Ireland, using CS gas against protestors for the first time, including against members of my own family, during the so-called 1981 ‘Toxteth riots.’ To us, it was evident that the police were not here to protect us; they were here to occupy our streets and wage war on our communities. This was evidenced again in the treatment of striking miners at Orgreave and against Liverpool fans following the Hillsborough disaster—injustices for which those truly responsible were never held to account.”

https://tribunemag.co.uk/2023/05/the-police-dont-care-about-ending-institutional-racism
 
Finnegan said:
“Today’s police force was born directly out of the demand to protect the interests of the wealthy and the powerful and to defend their needs and their property. Understanding this history is key to understanding how we create a police service that protects rather than criminalises working class and marginalised communities.

The experience was something I faced growing up in Liverpool 8 in the 1980s. I remember how the police imported tactics and weapons from the occupation of Northern Ireland, using CS gas against protestors for the first time, including against members of my own family, during the so-called 1981 ‘Toxteth riots.’ To us, it was evident that the police were not here to protect us; they were here to occupy our streets and wage war on our communities. This was evidenced again in the treatment of striking miners at Orgreave and against Liverpool fans following the Hillsborough disaster—injustices for which those truly responsible were never held to account.”

https://tribunemag.co.uk/2023/05/the-police-dont-care-about-ending-institutional-racism
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Christ, you bunch of lefties :D
 
RoA said:
Christ, you bunch of lefties :D
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If wanting a police force to protect communities and not just the interests of the wealthy and powerful is being a leftie, then I am a leftie.

If wanting a police force where importing the tactics of maintaining a historic sectarian divide is thought inappropriate is being a leftie, then I am a leftie.

If wanting a police force that does not use violence against workers to further the objectives of a right wing political ideology is being a leftie, then I am a leftie.

If wanting a police force that does not criminalise and kill football fans is being a leftie, then I am a leftie.

The question then becomes, what to call someone who does not want those things? Fascist? Bully? Anti democratic authoritarian? Or something more pithy, more Anglo Saxon?
 
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Finnegan said:
“Today’s police force was born directly out of the demand to protect the interests of the wealthy and the powerful and to defend their needs and their property. Understanding this history is key to understanding how we create a police service that protects rather than criminalises working class and marginalised communities.

The experience was something I faced growing up in Liverpool 8 in the 1980s. I remember how the police imported tactics and weapons from the occupation of Northern Ireland, using CS gas against protestors for the first time, including against members of my own family, during the so-called 1981 ‘Toxteth riots.’ To us, it was evident that the police were not here to protect us; they were here to occupy our streets and wage war on our communities. This was evidenced again in the treatment of striking miners at Orgreave and against Liverpool fans following the Hillsborough disaster—injustices for which those truly responsible were never held to account.”

https://tribunemag.co.uk/2023/05/the-police-dont-care-about-ending-institutional-racism
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They omitted the Battle of the Beanfield.
 
flatpopely said:
So where are the accounts about the rioting and reasons for setting peoples cars on fire?
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the piece is entitled 'why people raged at the police' it's not a news piece. RoA wanted a socialist account so I posted one. Many people have been predicting 'riots' aimed at the police for a while now because they've lost public confidence and not just in the poorer communities. People would do well to read a good balance of news and comment more generally...
 
Today is the third anniversary of the murder of George Floyd by police thugs. It is IMHO an appropriate day to reflect on just how little has been learned and reformed both in the USA and here in the UK. Our policing remains dysfunctional, dangerous to the end-user, and totally unfit for purpose.
 
ff1d1l said:
They omitted the Battle of the Beanfield.
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I knew people who were there. It was an all out attack. Independent witnesses agree

“The final assault began at 7pm, by which time all the officers had changed into riot gear. Pregnant women were clubbed with truncheons, as were those holding babies. The journalist Nick Davies, then working for The Observer, saw the violence. 'They were like flies around rotten meat,' he wrote, 'and there was no question of trying to make a lawful arrest. They crawled all over, truncheons flailing, hitting anybody they could reach. It was extremely violent and very sickening.”

https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2005/jun/12/ukcrime.tonythompson
 
Ponty said:
Steady on, it must be somebody else’s fault! If not the police then it’s down to Thatcher.
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If the police in this area were generally seen as reasonable, trustworthy and on the side of the ordinary person, do you think it likely that this incident would have led to rioting?

This isn't a one-off event in response to a one-off event, this is a simmering pot boiling over. Unless and until the reasons why the pot was simmering in the first place are considered and addressed, there is no prospect of change.
 
Sue Pertwee-Tyr said:
If the police in this area were generally seen as reasonable, trustworthy and on the side of the ordinary person, do you think it likely that this incident would have led to rioting?

This isn't a one-off event in response to a one-off event, this is a simmering pot boiling over. Unless and until the reasons why the pot was simmering in the first place are considered and addressed, there is no prospect of change.
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Are you excusing the behaviour of the rioters?
 
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