totally out of place in todays PC, diversity obsessed police! - The Sweeney (2013) Discussion

Why sadly?

reply

Becuase cops of the 70's were effective that's why.
Go to youtube and search "how to deal with the police" and then come back and say "why sadly?"
Cops today can't even get a name out of their subjects let alone a confession.

reply

[–] mercurialdnb 12 years ago

You're basing this on what, the fact that they went around beating people up? Does that make them better than today? Hmmm I wonder how many crimes went unsolved back then? They really don't compare with today's police who have 3 times more of a population to deal with, smarter criminals with more sophisticated tactics & weaponry. I am also willing to bet that with the technology today's police have they catch a higher ratio of criminals compared to back then. Sometimes you have to look past the 'oh cool, they blow things up/they have car chases/they shout & rough people up'.

So anyway... why sadly?

reply

[–] gb901 12 years ago

Because sadly todays police are PC automatons obsessed with targets, political correctness and diversity. I should know, I was one!

reply

[–] HelveticaFont 12 years ago

I should know, I was one!

Game, set and match.

There's also the idea that some of the older generation were a bit slap-dash in their approach but they haven't got the same respect anymore.

reply

[–] gb901 12 years ago

Indeed, previous generations grew up with respect for the police, as well as for teachers etc as they were figures of authority! Its been eroded by todays wishy washy legislation and every one wittering on about their "rights"! There is seldom personal responsibility today and people held account for their actions as excuses or the system are blamed instead.

reply

[–] HelveticaFont 12 years ago

Certain aspects of law enforcement, policing, teaching and education have undoubtedly gotten better but the problems is that the clout or the trust just isn't there to follow it through.

reply

[–] gb901 12 years ago

Policing in this country is now less about law enforcement and more about politics, with senior officers more interested in implementing the latest initiative by their political paymasters! Police Officers no longer enforce (which has become a frowned upon) the law but are increasingly the arbiters of political correctness!

reply

[–] Bourbonite 12 years ago

Boo Hoo!!! Go get the rope and do us all a favour then Sherlock.

reply

[–] jerzy1 12 years ago

That's a great idea. We can start by hanging all the judges (closet kiddie-fiddlers the lot of them) and then we can then get started on stringing up all the politicians (thieving corrupt bastards)

reply

[–] jaben12345 12 years ago

Lets not look at the seventies through rose tinted glasses - most of the high profile miscarriages of justice - Guilford Four , Stefan Kiszko happened during the seventies and also two of the most high profile investigations - The Yorkshire Ripper and The Black Panther contained screw up after screw up,child abuse investigations did not happen because the victims were ignored and had to suffer resulting in the fact that the molesters were often not brought to justice until years later etc. It should also be pointed out that pace was brought in by a right wing law and order obsessed Conservative goverment who were reacting to legitimate concerns about the activity of police.

reply

[–] Prismark10 12 years ago

'Because sadly todays police are PC automatons obsessed with targets, political correctness and diversity. I should know, I was one!'

Good job you are not one anymore. Is this something you really should be stating on a public forum?

Are you trying to say, I wish we could go back to the days when we could fit up those darkies and give them a good whacking!

Its that man again!!

reply

[–] 12 years ago

[deleted]

[–] 12 years ago

[deleted]

[–] siargao 10 years ago

Look - to tell you the truth, speaking candidly, I'm with you mercurialdnb.

Everything from more than about twenty years ago was done so poorly and wrongly and inappropriately and unacceptably.

I've often wondered in recent years why I haven't simply slit my throat for want of freeing up the space for a smarter, more modern, pretty and productive young thing - well I have nothing of value to offer society because it's sooooo history ... Hmmm, sadly.

Life now is much more awesome and amazing and very betterer. Old people really do make the place look untidy and - well - old.

The only worthwhile thing the ancient people from before had to offer the smart young things of today was - ummmm - the wheel. They all should have been put down the moment they handed over the design drawings.

reply

[–] xxhelterskelterxx 11 years ago

Becuase cops of the 70's were effective that's why.

Based on what? A Daily Mail opinion piece?

reply

[–] anaconda89 12 years ago

I'm not happy with aspects of the criminal justice system either but Ray Winstone had to be the most unlikeable hero I have seen in a film for years, so if his character was a measure of the 70's plice force then I consider it progress.

reply

[–] TwittingOnTrender 11 years ago

My career in the police straddled both the "good old" Life On Mars Seventies and today's namby pamby, touchy feely version of policing.

Both approaches have their merits, both have their drawbacks.

In the first decade and a half of my service I was involved in plenty of physical confrontations. I dished it out and I took it too - the difference was that the recipients of my instant justice didn't complain about it, but took it as a hazard of their chosen life - as did I when I was on the receiving end.

When I look back at the hard-drinking detectives of the Seventies and early Eighties, I realise they really were quite useless. They got by on inflating figures by getting a tame suspect to admit to hundreds of burglaries (say) in exchange for a packet of cigs or a kind word to the judge. Sign a few forms, job done, spend the rest of the day in the pub.

Today's detectives are far more professional and have to work to prove that someone is guilty of a crime. There's no unspoken agreement about "you give me a knock, I'll give you a knock". Every dirty look or careless comment is recorded on mobile phones and there goes your career.

Whilst the police force I retired from is more professional and probably (as our friend above says) more effective because of intelligence (as in information), technology and sheer dilligence, it is also an organisation terrified of causing offence, desperate to be liked - I always make the comparison to the two airforce officers at the end of Catch-22 imploring Yossarian to "like us!"

There's a myth that the police investigating the police will always seek to cover up and lie for each other. Nothing could be further from the truth - the senior officers investigating rank and file LOVE to catch one of them in a moment of weakness, make an example of them and thereby acquire another feather for their cap. They are interested in one thing and one thing only - the next rank up.

Regan wouldn't last five minutes in today's police force. I think that's a good thing - the attitude that "good old fashioned coppering" and the golden age of The Sweeney is the anser to everything is wrong-headed. I don't think the police should be as craven and eager to please as they are, but I DO think they should be professional and honest.

No Guru, No Method, No Teacher.

reply

[–] Bourne1886 11 years ago

You make some very valid points about policing and the service. It has changed so much in the last twenty odd years, but generally speaking one thing I know is that I was never afraid to do my job. If I upset someone and caused offence so be it. As long as i had the power to arrest they were coming in,come hell or high water. If you become afraid to do your job, then it's time to stand down.

Criminals are criminals plain and simple and I hate em. I never treated them with respect,because they never deserved my respect not after the offences they were nicked for. Human rights for the criminals is a joke. Why should they have any? If an officer gives a scroat a dig so be it,doesn't bother me. Like you say years ago instant justice was a hazard of their chosen careers and years ago it was accepted by both sides.

Criminals don't play by the rules and never have done but we have too. They never used to complain but they do now,which makes policing even harder in today's PC society. They have all the power and the poor victims continue to suffer. I became jaded and got to the point where i gave up caring. The new generation of PC's are a different breed and i wouldn't work with them! Its not because they don't know the law or aren't professional but because they are tick box, pencil pushing, number crunchers who wouldn't back you up in a crisis through fear of not being PC. Plus they'd stab you in the back to go up the ladder! It's a sad state of affairs. I'm glad i'm out of it, now I've retired.

reply

[–] Prismark10 8 years ago

'The new generation of PC's are a different breed and i wouldn't work with them!'

Nor they would work with you.

After all, it has been shown time and time again that some police in the 1950s, 60s and 70s were bent, incompetent, broke the rules and fitted people up.

After the recent Hillsborough verdict, there is not much cop with police in the 1980s and that post PACE.

They is an old saying the police like to state: If you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear.

So why are the police afraid of rules that allow them to do the job properly and balancing the rights of the public?

It's that man again!!

reply