Metropolitan police officers are openly defying orders not to wear badges appropriated by the far right and linked to white supremacy.
In July, the force’s chief, Mark Rowley, banned officers from wearing the “thin blue line” badge saying that in the US an equivalent symbol had been used by “hard-right groups”.
However, images have emerged of Met officers wearing the symbol late last month as they policed a stand-off between LGBTQ+ rights supporters and a rightwing group over a drag act’s performance at the Honor Oak pub in Lewisham, south London.
Being a member of a fascist group should be a firing offence in the police, or at least reason for extreme scrutiny because there’s next to no chance the member is not an arsehole who is going to abuse their power and hurt people.
Police IS a fascist group.
You’re not wrong as they currently stand. They don’t need to be but we must always assume that ACAB and they must win our trust individually. The organisation as a whole overtly banning fascists and firing fascists for being fascists would help
Ah great. That’s all we need. A far right take over of the English filth. As if they weren’t bad enough already.
The far right taking over the far right? How is that going to work?
As the pay, support and education for officers diminishes, the police as a profession become less attractive to those who are intelligent/educated, who might carry a slightly authoritarian slant but ultimately view their role in the context of being beneficial to society/preventing crime etc.
Due to Tory cuts to forces, the numbers of those who are more thuggish, less educated, more racist, and generally shouldn’t be policing wider society due to unchecked and unchallenged beliefs increases.
I know people who hadn’t achieved their GCSEs saying that it didn’t matter as they’d become police.
Like I’m personally not the biggest fan of the police, but those who were educated enough to get better jobs but stayed in the force because they believed they were genuinely helping have left, only leaving mostly those who seek power/control over other people. Obviously this is a general sweeping statement, but like everything else under Tory rule it’s been hollowed out.
I don’t think ALL the cops are far right. But there are certainly enough fuckwit thugs behind the badge to make their social contract nul and void.
It’s the other half of the saying that they like to conveniently forget, one bad apple spoils the bunch. Sure there might be cops that generally show up do their job and go home without literally torturing people to death but if the first cop doesn’t do anything about it then they start to look just as bad
It even goes beyond not doing anything about it: any cop that does try to do something about it gets Serpico’d or worse.
Just hiring feral warthogs.
The thin blue line has always been a symbol of hard right fascists. It was never anything else.
In the USA maybe. In the UK it was a 90s sitcom
The core concept of the thin blue line keeping society from chaos is fascist even if they made it a sitcom.
Yes. The concept of a thin blue line is not a good way to put it.
While I believe the UK charity was originally associated with mental health of Police officers, it would probably be a good idea to distance itself from the far right American police symbol.
Or maybe we should stop playing American tunes and make up our own meanings for symbols.
Ironically, the term was apparently derived from a British one.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thin_blue_line
The phrase originated as an allusion to the British infantry regiment The Thin Red Line during the Crimean War in 1854, wherein the regiment of Scottish Highlanders—wearing red uniforms—famously held off a Russian cavalry charge.
Your not allowed to wear Fred Perry or Dr Martins either now
Metropolitan police officers are openly defying orders not to wear badges appropriated by the far right and linked to white supremacy.
They responded by saying the badges, that say ‘Metropolitan Police’, were there on the uniform when it was issued.
My answer to that would be “okay, then you’re only on a watchlist for now, and I’ll also be enrolling you in a mandatory training course to recognize symbols of domestic terrorism. Present yourself for inspection first thing tomorrow. If that badge is still there, you’re fired.”
Of course, this all takes place in a fantasy world where police can actually be fired for supporting fascism and white supremacy.
I think you missed the joke from the previous poster. They are alluding that the ‘offensive badge’ is the badge of the metropolitan police.
Whoops, duh on me. Oh well.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
However, images have emerged of Met officers wearing the symbol late last month as they policed a stand-off between LGBTQ+ rights supporters and a rightwing group over a drag act’s performance at the Honor Oak pub in Lewisham, south London.
Her reference to firearms police concerns the hundreds of Met officers who last month temporarily stepped back from duties after a colleague was charged with murdering Chris Kaba, 24, who was shot last September.
Rowley banned his officers wearing the insignia – a black and white Union flag with a thin horizontal blue line – before policing Pride celebrations amid concerns it could offend the LGBTQ+ community.
One officer wearing the badge at the protest was pictured beside rightwing activist Laurence Fox days after he made misogynistic remarks about the political journalist Ava Evans.
Blowe added that the fact some officers felt emboldened enough to ignore the Met commissioner suggests an ugly mentality was alive and well, despite Rowley’s attempts to change the culture of the force, which was described in a report earlier this year as institutionally homophobic, misogynistic and racist.
Nick Adderley, the Northamptonshire chief constable, said he would not allow a minority to “twist the meaning” of the patch, which is produced by the Care of Police Survivors charity and sold to raise money for the families of officers who died in the line of duty.
The original article contains 634 words, the summary contains 229 words. Saved 64%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
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The principle of it does go against the core ideas of how police in the UK are supposed to conduct themselves. Even if you take away the far right association.
The thin blue line suggests the police are a separate group, in-between you and some evil. This isn’t how police should think about their role.
Police officers should conduct their duties as members of the community for the benefit of everyone in the community.
Even the criminals they pursue. People who commit serious crime are often known to the police, early and constructive intervention avoids people becoming serious criminals. Crime is a slippery slope. Early intervention can turn a would be criminals life around. Police won’t see this as a possibility in their daily duties if the conceptualise their role as the thin blue line.
Policing by consent is how police forces in the UK were conceptualised initially. It’s how they should operate today. We shouldn’t import the policing practices if the USA. They are much less effective, and appear to cause harm.
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