Policing and democracy

Policing is a difficult job.

I've known several police over the years (even considered dating a couple, a long time ago), met civilians who've worked there, and there is my uncle, who I've mentioned a few times (possibly on my main [spiritual] blog) who left another state's police because an enquiry "didn't get all the crooked coppers". That has been one source of information on this, but there has also been some reading, some ads a few years ago by police, and just seeing what they do - and what they have to put up with.

As an example from my area, police received a lot of criticism a few years ago over the fatal shooting by police of a young man who had a knife. That led to police being given better tools and training, but I thought at the time, and still do, that having someone charge at you with a knife is not an easy situation in real life - no matter how Hollywood portrays it, which is where I sadly suspect some people get their ideas.

On the other hand, police do make mistakes.

Some of their recent  actions will have made it hard for people to comfortably consider calling police when it is necessary, and there have been large scale enquiries, such as the indigenous deaths in custody enquiries (still not properly implemented, I consider), and current controversies - such as the ill-considered decision to use a lawyer to spy on her clients.

That enquiry is still continuing, but is showing a few problems - particularly in the decisions taken to end a crisis of public intra-criminal world violence early this century. I consider a key part of those problematic decisions, by the way, to be the public pressure on police - including from the media - to end the violence.

It also shows, in my opinion, the problem of rigid, stereotypically male thinking (I use the word stereotype because not all men think this way - it is a somewhat Hollywood simplification) which afflicts all organisations which exert power in our society - and police, with their weapons, permission to kill, and frequently exercised powers that harm people arrested (who can reasonably be considered victims of policing), police forces are such organisations.

Just as we need women in politics and on Boards to change those organisations, we need women in police to change those forces - my home state's police were best, in my opinion, under Christine Nixon, who had a speciality and focus on community and preventative policing, which never sits comfortably with the sort of rigid thinking that I was referring to above (and which I and many others fight against in the business corporate world every day).

There has been a lot of disturbing information in recent months from NSW, including the sexual abuse by police of people - not only children - through strip searches, currently a key part of a Royal Commission (which is also showing the flaws of using dogs to detect drugs).

Last night on Twitter (my apologies, but I'm not going to try to find the footage now) of a Member of Parliament who had complied with orders being arrested and searched (possibly strip searched in the open back of a van - are they insane or just incredibly stupid about privacy?), and an officer who deliberately got unreasonably close to and intimidated a young girl.

It was appalling, power-drunk thuggery similar to the officer in my home city who went on  rampage with a baton against protestors.

That girl will likely never call on the police when she needs them. The behaviour was unnecessary, and I read comments by former police on witter (again, my apologies, but I'm not going to try to find those now)who were critical of that behaviour. (Did the officer concerned think she was a "naughty" child needing to be smacked?)

It compares poorly with most of the face-to-face interactions I've had with police throughout my life. 

Now, a lot of people don't realise that police are not only enforce the law, they also enforce public order - and it is THAT aspect that they keep getting into problems with, because their enforcement of that too often puts them into conflict with democracy.

Our society's greatest aspects are NOT those related to orderliness, they are those related to democracy - and protesting is a very key part of that.

Those police who treated the Parliament of their land with contempt by arresting an MP who had already complied with their instructions, or who violently and unnecessarily attack protestors, or thuggishly intimidate little girls, are directly,  personally,  attacking  democracy.