paulry

Same here with the UK police, I have a lot of respect for them. Over here I find that more than 50% of the time they are aggressive for no good reason when they stop me for RBTs.

scottishcelts

it's true, I agree.

Bernieboy

Growing up in the north of Ireland,i always found the protestant ooops i mean 'impartial' police force kindly and always very helpful to a poor wee fenian b'stard,ooops sorry again i was just remembering what they used to call me,so all in all they were firing live rounds,ooops i mean fine.

IvanM

You drove nude over there as well?

Toe Dipper

It is always easy to throw your weight around knowing that you can pull out your gun/tazer and use it only a few times.

However, if you only have a batton, and decent training, you are more likely to negotiate a situation down first, for no other reason than self preservation.

Remember the history (and I am talking generally here)... in the UK, the enforcement authority was requested by the people, but in Australia, they were used to control the masses from the start. This principle of control/enforcement rather than protection still stands, as far as I can see.

In my experience, (cos I'm reasonably law abiding), Mr & Mrs average do not seem to appreciate the constant control on minor things, but recognise that some limitations have to apply. The general public get penalised and hence become alienated.

In modern Australia, the old tradition of having a healthy disregard for authority has been replaced by the requirement of almost total compliance to irritating and irrelevant petty rules - which you can see as an outsider, but the population at large seem to be unaware of.

Yet I still like it here - just goes to show how tolerant I am!!

TD

paulry

That's a very good analysis of the situation and it's origins.

As a law abiding citizen I don't appreciate aggressive behaviour from people who are supposed to be on my side.

geordiebloke

All true, however, every time a cop takes hold of someone or uses force, there will always be those that think he is being heavy handed, usually based on the fact that they have a limited appreciation of what has gone on and or, have absolutely no experience in dealing with aggressive/violent individuals

Equally, there will be those who view exactly the same incident, who will criticise that the police have not dealt with that violent person robustly enough.

geordiebloke

Believe me, the British police are no more or less likely to behave in a thuggish manner, than their Australian counterparts

renth

Dude had it coming to him. I think it shows the cops in a good light. If it had been me I'd have tazed him.

Amazulu

I personally had to deal with thuggish cops in London once