Power unto Themselves

Watch this clip of Notts police dealing with a drunk and disorderly last weekend. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hNmI5gUJHo

The Officer holding the Taser makes no attempt to assist his colleague in cuffing the man. He doesn't need to - he's got a Taser. The subsequent assault was so blatant it even inspired the crowd to protest in a collective WTF moment.

Just so you know, a Taser fires darts into a 'subject' and renders them 'incapacitated' by the 50,000V shock. Home Office Guidance says they should only be used, when there is, "a real possibility of someone being seriously injured or killed." So should not be deployed in place of routine arresting techniques on a drunk blokes, lieing on the ground, then.

Police always resent such guidance issued from the centre as, they argue, it limits their discretion (for 'discretion' read 'unaccountability'). Kent police have recently authorised their traffic cops to Taser but not as a last resort, in place of firearms, as the Home Sec 'instructed'. They advise their officers, "due to the shortness of any after effects, [Tasers]should be used before pepper spray and batons."

In spite of these unhappily loose arrangements, the HO have just extended the number of Tasers nationally to a massive 6,000. They did so without any consultation and baulk at the very idea.

Labour Ministers have, since '97, capitulated before the cops and granted them almost every additional power on request. The Government acts like a newly appointed Head Prefect willing to compromise every principle, in the hope of gaining the respect of authority.

In the the early 80s, Head of the Met, David McNee, was constantly lobbying Willie Whitelaw for more powers, particularly following the Brixton riots of 1981. Willie would smile benignly and say, "nice try." In effect, WW reduced police powers by withdrawing the discriminatory 'Sus' law. Whitelaw understood extending powers affects all of us as a nation in terms of our individuals freedoms; favourable tabloid headlines, about the latest crackdown, can only achieve merely transient political gains.

'Sus' may have gone but the police now have the Anti-Terrorism stop and search powers; these were used over 124,000 occassions in 2007/8. That figure amounted to a 300% increase on the previous year. Only 1,000 people were subsequently arrested and only 73 were suspected of terrorism offences. There are no figures on how many of those were then charged let alone convicted.

By next year we can expect Chris Grayling to be the custodian of police powers; although undeniably bright, he will, doubtless, be compelled by Prime Minister Cameron to continue the Dutch auction of tough-talking about crime. The paradox we are left with is crime falling year-on-year, yet the police with ever greater powers and a record prison population.