Jeffrey Lewis, back in 2007, released ’12 Crass Songs’, covers of a selection of songs by the iconic anarcho punk band from the late ’70’s and early eighties. I think he did a fine job and ensured Crass was more palatable for a new generation and helped to find a wider audience to listen to and be inspired by their lyrics. I think it’s time for another helping of Crass covers. We certainly need the direct energy and clarity of a few good lyrics bound together by some fine punky tunes. Feel free to play ‘I Ain’t Thick, It’s Just A Trick’ as you read on…
For some time now I’ve had this question appearing and fading and re-appearing throughout each and every ‘Groundhog Day’ and although it’s not a unique question (are any) and it’s not new (few are), it is pertinent to where we are today and indeed I believe it to be in need fo urgent consideration…
Where do you draw the line in the sand?
For me, as a business owner who regularly has police attending my events as clients, I feel that the time has come to start penciling out my line. The ink will come later. And so, I’ll start to draw…
The police, in my experience, offer up a pretty poor service to the average Jo. It is 100% true that crime is something that they are unable to prevent. They must therefore be primarily and solely a reactive institution. Your person and your possessions are not made safe by knowledge of the police. It is delusional to assume that the police are in some way guardians of good society and each individual citizens personal safety. Perhaps in a fictional 1950’s or 1960’s suburbia with a cheerful PC Plod walking his daily beat this was true, but that was fiction.
Crimes committed against me have been thankfully few, a few assaults, a few break-ins, house and car and van, stalking by an ex partner… All of these have been woefully dealt with and in some cases not dealt with at all. None have received, at least from my perspective, a satisfactory outcome.
Click on the image for the criminal non recording of crime by Greater Manchester Police.
And politically… I have stood in the mass pickets of the early 80’s (no longer allowed due to Thatcher’s anti trade union legislation) alongside miners and print workers. I have been dragged by the hair and very roughly handled by the police from one such picket line, in Warrington, a picket line of 3000 people hoping to close down the ‘Today’ newspaper of Eddie Shah. I have witnessed abuse on a grand scale, of the refusal to investigate lawbreakers ‘on the other side’. One incident of many saw me sat in a minibus and a shotgun was let loose over the roof of the van. Hunt saboteurs are not much liked by the local gentry but the local gentry get on well enough with the local police…
Click on the image for The Guardian’s article on the Miners Strike and the Battle for Orgreave.
I have asked the police to take action in response to the selling of alcohol to young people by the local rugby club, headed up by teachers and luminaries of the town, to no effect. I have been snatched from the street by a very keen officer who dragged me into his car whilst I was a couple of hundred yards from home. He asked me what was in my plastic bag and because of his attitude and there being no cause I refused to comply. Drunk and disorderly was the charge for that one. I’ve been verbally intimidated and threatened whilst manning my one man demonstration against Richard Perle at Hay on Wye Festival of Literature and indeed had a two person security detail looking over my every action there.
And now, the police are very happy to close down ‘Speakers Corner’, to arrest activists and entangled passers by over and over again. They abuse and intimidate and attack members of the public on a daily basis. They, outside of observance of their oath or of the 9 key functions of the police as laid down by their founder Sir Robert Peel, lead the charge in the oppression of the people in behalf of the elites through the enforcement of ‘illegal laws’. It’s happening now. The police are out of control. Are not fit for purpose. Are beyond repair.
Institutional racism. Ignoring and in so doing being party to the abuse of young women in cities across the UK. Falsely imprisoning and ‘fitting up‘ inocent people for the most horrific crimes that they did not commit. Murder.
Click on the image for info on BBC Sounds podcast expertly detailing the events and crimes of the South Wales Police force and the wrongful imprisonment of innocent citizens for the murder or for perjury in the the case of the killing of Lynette White in Cardiff.
And now the police are very happy to arrest a 92 year old demonstrator, a frail old bloke whose intentions can only have been for the good and who’s actions were intended to support the freedom of us all. The police are very happy to target young slight women at anti lockdown protests in order ‘wind up’ the men present and so initiate a wider confrontation. The police infiltrate activists groups, form relationships with and live a double life with individuals for years. The police refuse to mop up petty crime thus laying down the foundations for more serious crime in the years to come.
This is all of the police. These are the police you see in the park. This is what they do.
And so my line…
I do not want them joining me on walks. The police can go do one. They are not welcome.
However…
If the police officer that wishes to join my group can demonstrate that they are not like their colleagues, that they are trying to change the force from within, then I might have some time for them. But how would they prove this?
Re-Take Your Oath
Here is a reminder of duty that I am therefore making available for any officer to send to their Chief Inspector. It details their oath and so reminds them of their solemn commitment to the state and to the citizens of England and Wales. I further ask them to make public their discomfort of and refusal to participate in police actions that are not in compliance with their duty to the state and to the citizens of the England and Wales.
To The Chief Inspector
I am minded to remind myself and you of the Police Constables Oath…
“I do solemnly and sincerely declare and affirm that I will well and truly serve the Queen in the office of constable, with fairness, integrity, diligence and impartiality, upholding fundamental human rights and according equal respect to all people; and that I will, to the best of my power, cause the peace to be kept and preserved and prevent all offences against people and property; and that while I continue to hold the said office I will to the best of my skill and knowledge discharge all the duties thereof faithfully according to law.”
In acceptance of my oath I assert that I am not comfortable with some police actions, as witnessed and reported in every city of England and Wales, and I refuse to engage in similar actions where they contravene my training and responsibilities to the public as a police officer.
Yours Faithfully,
PC …………………………………….
Evidence of such an action is good enough for me and pass for any police officer to join me in any activity that I am engaged in. Perhaps a ‘Peoples Badge’ could be arranged for such officers to clearly display?
These are Sir Robert Peel’s foundation statements for policing in the UK and a few quick reponses detailing the obvious failure of 2021 policing in response to these aims.
The basic mission for which the police exist is to prevent crime and disorder
THE POLICE RARELY PREVENT CRIME. THEY ARE REACTIVE AND SOLVE THOSE CRIMES THAT THEY CHOOSE TO apply their resources to.
The ability of the police to perform their duties is dependent upon public approval of police actions
THIS IS A LIE. THE POLICE DO NOT POLICE BY CONSENT ANYMORE, IF EVER THEY DID. THEY ARE despised IN MANY COMMUNITIES AND BY MANY GROUPINGS WITHIN SOCIETY. Others hold the police in deep suspicion.
Police must secure the willing cooperation of the public in voluntary observance of the law to be able to secure and maintain the respect of the public
BUT THE POLICE ARE KNOWN BY MOST TO REGULARLY BREAK THE LAW THEMSELVES THUS DESTROYING ANY RESPECT THEY MIGHT be perceived to have had. Most people abide by thier own code and inate human centered rather than state directed law.
The degree of co-operation of the public that can be secured diminishes proportionately to the necessity of the use of physical force
STOP USING FORCE THEN AND LISTEN TO THE PUBLIC CONCERNS. That’s quite simple to remedy.
Police seek and preserve public favour not by catering to public opinion but by constantly demonstrating absolute impartial service to the law
HAHA – TAKING THE KNEE AT BLM RALLY’S AND DEMONSTRATIONS AND ARRESTING A 92 YEAR OLD MAN AT JULIAN ASSANGE’S BAIL HEARING… ENOUGH SAID…
Police use physical force to the extent necessary to secure observance of the law or to restore order only when the exercise of persuasion, advice and warning is found to be insufficient
THE BREAKING OF SOMEONES LEGS WITH A STEEL BATON? THE SUSPICIOUS DEATHS IN CUSTODY OF VERY MANY YOUNG MEN?
Police, at all times, should maintain a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and the public are the police; the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full- time attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence
THAT ONE WENT OFF IN THE BREEZE A GOOD LONG TIME AGO
Police should always direct their action strictly towards their functions and never appear to usurp the powers of the judiciary
THE WHY DO THE POLICE NOT KNOW THE LAW BUT SEEM TO MAKE UP LAW on the hoof AND PASS JUDGEMENT on MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC THAT THEY COME INTO CONTACT WITH? See Danny Shine‘s questioning of the police on this.
The test of police efficiency is the absence of crime and disorder, not the visible evidence of police action in dealing with it
I THINK THERE IS unquestionably a fair amount OF PETTY AND SERIOUS CRIME in our society, not least those crimes perpetrated by the elites, the corporations and of course by the police. THE POLICE ARE THEREFORE, BY THEIR OWN ADMISSION, NOT FIT FOR PURPOSE.