dboy

If anyone cares, some knob of a lawyer on the Canada forum thinks coppers are overpaid and are akin to Mcdonald's employees and are worth about as much (scroll to the bottom of the page):

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...=660852&page=2

Baz

That's rich comming from a lawyer, they are definately overpaid, and make about as much of a contribution to society as a dole bludger.

dboy

not sure what i did to upset him - maybe I make more than him and he's jealous or he's just your stereotypical cop hater?

simon_cassie

I wonder who he calls when it goes bang outside his house in the middle of the night the nearest mcdonalds i wonder

Pincher

A typical attitude of a shiney arsed pen pusher who has no idea what the real world is really like!
The sort of person who bitches that here are never enough coppers, the world's gone to wrack and ruin as a result, yet will complain if you stop him for speeding or running a red.
I've been in the job 17 years now, and the only people who truly understand me, the job, what it involves and what it puts me through are other Cops and my very patient, understanding wife.

mhfoster

Lawyers are just jealous of us because the general public generally respects us and in some cases adores us, while the same can't generally be said about the legal profession as a whole.

I actually think I recall seeing an Ipsos-Reid survey that ranked politicians and lawyers at the same level of public respect as used car salesmen, and below prostitutes.

I'm not sure where McDonald's employees rank on that scale but I have far more in common with those hard working, polite working class people, than with self-serving politicians and lawyers.

I myself have two degrees, speak two languages, have served in the UK and Canadian military, volunteer with the Duke of Edinburgh's Award, coach rugby, rescue and rehabilitate wildlife with the SPCA, the regional parks board, and a mountain search and rescue group. I actively get my hands dirty making my community a better place to live. Most cops I know do the same- coaching sports, doing Big Brothers, running in charity marathons, getting our heads shaved for cancer, working with developmentally handicapped people for the Special Olympics. I have not met a copper hired in the last 10 years where they have not had significant post secondary education, volunteer service, life experience, and a challenging work history. The days of the high school grad getting on the job here are long past.

I work for a police service where there is NO overtime paid out, the working conditions are appalling, EVERY call for service is a gun call....and I love it. I am hardly motivated by money- unless our learned friend is doing pro bono work, he cannot say the same thing.

Yup, there are some bad cops, some dumb cops, some fat cops, and some lazy cops, and sometimes, a combination of some or all of those factors. But they represent a small percentage of the whole. I don't seek to condemn all blacks, all natives, all heavy metal music fans, all Harley Davidson riders, based on the activities and behaviours of a very few of their members; why does this legal beagle seek to paint all cops with the same brush?

ann m

Yeah, but sometimes there are exceptions

licinius

So what is a stereotypical cop hater? People don't just wake up one morning & decide to hate someone, the hatred has to develop somewhere.

licinius

You've listed quite a lot in your post about what you do to make your community better but I'd like to ask what do you do about the catergory of cops you have listed above?

Can you give us an example of what action you personally have taken against a bad or lazy cop???

dreadsoc

Lawyers = VERY overpaid and VERY underworked in general !!!! Unlike the average copper these days.
In the UK most police forces have to find between 25% and 40% cuts to their budgets now which is going to be pretty tough all round. Strangely enough I don't hear of any cuts being made to the rest of the legal profession.
As for the manner in which many of these so called lawyers abuse the legal aid system, don't get me started !!!!

Dread - 'fully legal
x

licinius

The problem is dreadsoc that British bobbies make a rod for their own back. The latest decision not to prosecute Ian Tomlinson's killer just adds to countless other cases where police are seen committing violent acts & walking away scot free. How do you expect to gain support from the public when they are scared of even coming into contact with police?

Only 1 in 10 police are on the street fighting crime, it sounds to me that a 40% budget cut is more than affordable.

p.s. Well said about lawyers, best advice I can give to anybody who has a run in with the law is to represent yourself in court, if you use a lawyer you deserve to get convicted guilty or not!

Steve K

A rod for there own backs eh???
The problem with People like you is that you jump on the media bandwagon and put your two pennyworth in without having a clue about the legal system.
What do you work as again????? I will bet my bottom dollar its nothing to do with the Police or legal system.

Give me two other recent examples where the cops have gotten off with anything.
I can easily give you 2 examples of where the cops have been convicted of something they shouldn’t have been.

What many people forget is that the latest decision not to prosecute that officer has been based on hard evidence. Something which is not used for the criminals who go through court proceedings!!!!!
Now don’t get me wrong, my heart goes out to the family of Ian Tomlinson, however just because a decision has been made that you think favours the Police, you immediately use it to start a hate campaign!! People like you make me sick.

You will be one of the first to slag the cops off, but I will put my house on the fact that you will be one of the first to call us out when something goes wrong.

Without any consideration for our own safety we would be the first person to walk into a pub fight with odds stacked against us, or tackle a knife wielding idiot, or approach some clown who is holding a gun, only to be blinded when we get shot!!!
Does that last example ring any bells???? I bet it doesn’t to you does it you absolute idiot!!

Thank God that we do have support from the majority of the public and people like you are few and far between.

licinius

Jean Charles de Menezes & Christopher Alder. As the latter lay dying on the floor in the custody suite, his murderers were heard CLEARLY making monkey noises by the station CCTV cameras (did I mention that Mr Alder was black?).

Go on then I'm all ears, but I think I will be waiting for a long time!

So I'm an idiot am I? What have you based that assumption on? I see you fly off the handle & lose your temper very easily Stephen, hardly the type of quality required in a police officer is it? However as this most recent of cases shows, it is an all too common trait.

The decision not to prosecute was based on 2 things. Firstly, had it been a member of society commiting the offence, he would've been arrested & charged of "suspicion of..............." before his release, the case would've then been built afterwards. Secondly, two pathologists said Mr Tomlinson died of internal bleeding, the 3rd autopsy was carried out by a pathologist who is under investigation for other matters. I'm sorry but your definition of hard evidence is very differnet to mine.

You're quite right I don't work in the legal profession (neither would I want to). But then I don't need to. I used a solicitor once when GMP tried to fit me up & he lost the case. I was so disgusted by his performance that I went to crown court myself to appeal the conviction.............. and won!

the next time BTP tried to fit me up, I didn't bother with a solicitor at all & represented myself from the start. Funny how a man who's only legal knowledge was obtained from google (moi) can single handedly take on a crown prosecuter and three serving police officers & win don't you think?

No I wouldn't be the first to call you because it's a waste of time (other than to get a crime number for my insurance of course). Again I'm speaking from experience here.

I'm glad I make you sick Steven, because every man and his dog has seen the footage, Mr Tomlinson was doing nothing wrong & was attacked without provocation by a man who you unreservedly defend............ says a lot for the sort of man you are doesn't it? But it says even more for the type of bobby you are!

Without any consideration for your own safety did you say? So why did it take a week to track down Mr Moat? Oh yeah I remember now, it was unsafe to go get him because he threatened to kill police & you called upon the HS&E at work act 1974...................

I laugh when police say they have the support of the majority, what is this statement based upon? A facebook page last week attracted more than 30,000 people within 24 hours. last week at Newcastle United v Carlisle United both sets of fans were heard chanting Raoul Moat's name, it would seem you don't have quite as much support as you would like to think.

dreadsoc

I speak from personal experience and would say that the majority of police officers I have come accross are hard working, decent and honest people. Like any occupation, there are some idiots and bad apples - and most of them are despised by their colleagues who see them for what they are.

My personal view is that unless someone has SEEN ALL THE EVIDENCE of a case, then they are in no position to judge. One can see a clip of a video, but do they see only a clip or the whole ? One can comment on a shooting, but were they there, or have they considered ALL the associating factors? The media in the UK only report what they want to and our nation is so 'dumbed down' that they just accept what the average journalist has said. Again I speak from personal experience here, having been asked to appear on Panorama and asked to give a completely false representation of facts !! Yep how many people out there watch that programme and have their opinions swayed eh?!!!

Police officers are human beings and like any human organisation, they are not infallible. The situation for British policing was not helped by the Labour Government's obsessional bean counting in order to report to the public on a manipulated set of statistics - hence the lack of bobbies on the beat - they were all pulled into offices to count statistics to feed the Labour ego machine !!

Remember also that some police officers have been killed and/or permanently disabled as a result of just 'doing their job' - most doing their job within the law and with fairness. I think the toll for deaths on duty at Macdonalds is hardly on a parr, as I doubt are the death tolls in most other occupations.

So people let's try a balanced viewpoint.

Dread - evening out
x

Baz

You seem to get in allot of trouble. I find it hard to believe that different police officers from different incidents are all trying to 'fit you up,' usually people who come up with this excuse are people who have done the wrong thing, and would rather blame the police than accept some responsibility for their actions. As for winning an appeal, or winning a case in court, the whole system is so heavily bent in favor of the defendant, it really means nothing.