Ash UK/US

So why the difference? It seems in the UK people don't really give a toss about the police (untill they really need help) the kids have little respect for them.
Seems to be a whole different story in the US (or maybe I have seen one too many edited versions of Cops). On the whole there does seem to be a lot more respect for them over here.
Is it the fact the Police here carry guns? or do the police in the UK need more power to control the people?

What are your thoughts?

fatbrit

Cops over here have a paramilitary attitude, and indeed many of them have a military background. About half of them in my estimation were lucky to have fallen on the right side of the wall -- they were either going to be a serial murder or a cop.

Difference between Brit and Yank cops is a little like the old Customs and Excise and the Inland Revenue where the former had a definite military bent (you didn't mess with the VAT man!) whereas the latter was dusty bureaucracy and preferred writing rude letters to sailing through your windows in a raid.

chicagojlo

Like most things in the UK I think kids have little respect for coppers because they are constantly hearing from their parents what a waste of time they are. Same goes for schools, teachers, getting a job only to have the taxman take it all etc. Here you just don't get that (yet).
I was personally always raised to have the utmost respect for the law and anyone in authority. I was rather ashamed of myself last week for getting a parking ticket (and even then I had paid, just in the wrong machine!). But I had plenty of friends in my scabby little town that would think nothing of throwing a brick at a cop car, and their parents likely wouldn't have flinched.

anotherlimey

Gees where were you living in the UK?!

When I was younger I would never argue with a cop, throw a brick at their car, or even talk badly about them, I had no reason to. Over here it seems no one likes, trusts or respects the cops at all unless they are related to one!

pejpm1

I had the utmost respoect for the police in London.....until a few weeks before I left London when my friend and I were attacked a few yards from a police station and they did nothing (despite my girlfriend running in to raise the alarm). They were rude, totally unresponsive, and the whole thing was a very distressing experience. To be attacked by a group of guys virtually outside a police station and for nothing to happen is just ridiculous. I hope that mine was just a one off case, but anecdotal evidence suggests otherwise.

Octang Frye

Jeez. No offense, but this is the kind of mentality I'm glad I left behind in the UK.
Why would they "need more power to control" anyone? Why this need to yield to "authority" or someone "in control". It farking disgusts me, to be honest.

I've probably posted this before but it bears repeating: I listen to Five Live and I hear a constant litany of whinging, whining busybodies sticking their nose into someone else's business, usually under the auspices of "being for the children" or "if it saves just one life." We need more legislation... the government needs to do something about it...

As a people, the British have by and large been emasculated and personal responsibility and self-reliance have been abrogated. They have deserve the Nanny state they've got.


pejpm1, both my parents work/worked for the police. The Met police are arrogant scumbags drunk on their own importance. They are unhelpful, rude, and obnoxious.

What was funny though was I'm better armed than the police guarding 10 Downing Street.

\ Citizen, not a subject.

britvic

Here here.

surly

Probably wouldn't be a good idea to throw a brick at a cop car in the US.

anotherlimey

They'd bring in the artillery!

Bob

Around here, most think of them as scum, mostly because there is nothing for them to do in a lot of the local small towns so they really do do you over for jay walking and the like...not to mention traffic cops might as well be robots.

some of them aren't so bad, but most of them are arsehole ex-military geezers who couldn't hack a career out of it...they were much nicer up in Maine, except the state troopers...

Ray

What you can't see is the real protection ..

kel.n.issy

The state patrol scare me out here - for me I think it is the guns, I must admit though I tend to stick to the speed limit here for fear of being pulled than I ever would in UK - I would panic if I got stopped here

Ash UK/US

Hmmm... because there is not a whole lot of control with the power they have.

Dan725

Yes, I always think that too. If you are nicked grossly over the limit in the UK, you can expect a court date, big fine, ban. But you'll be allowed to take yourself home that day. Here, I'm really not sure what would happen. Guns drawn and a night or two in the cells I fear; impounded vehicle, etc.

I also think that here, there is way way too much discrepancy between the Police Forces. Some outfits in "Civilized" places, like Los Angeles, come across as very hi-tech, advanced and more in line with policing in the UK. Others, such as in the deepest darkest South, are staffed by Billy Bob and his inbred brothers. While differences between the forces exist in the UK, its nowhere near as marked as it is here.

Dan725

Sadly, I do think this is the key piece of your statement, and has gone by the by.