Don't *uck The Police

“People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.” – George Orwell

No matter what evidence is presented to them, politicians seem to wilfully ignore facts and stick doggedly to policy positions. Or worse, they suggest that any evidence that refutes their position(s) is flawed or anomalous. I have had a challenging personal history with the police, with some memories of prejudice and beatings. But I've also been surprised to be a recipient of genuinely caring, thoughtful committed police who believe in the principal of justice so I recognise and respect the impossible job that THOSE police have to do; not just their actual job, but to repair the reputation of their more hateful colleagues as well. And to do the job in a place like London, with it's sheer size, population, incongruous communities (before you criticise me take a wrong turn in Whitechapel, Bermondsey, Brixton etc depending on your colour) and constantly elevated level of terrorist threats must be stressful and challenging at the best of times. But with constantly diminishing resources it's nigh on impossible. The problem with policing is that it asks for the most noble and decent type of man or woman but offers nothing to attract these types of men and women; so we work with what we get.

Ray Charles could see that if you reduce the amount of money not just to the police force but to ALL of the preventative and support services that address crime prevention thee were bound to be deleterious consequences. Probation services are outsourced to private companies with loss making contracts, leading to people being replaced by machines and a subsequent spike in reoffending rates; more than half of offenders in England and Wales go on to commit another crime within a year of release, costing the government more than £10bn a year. And don't forget the companies have a flawed IT system provided by the Justice ministry, for which it has already had to pay £23m in compensation. Youth Offending Teams (YOTs) that provide essential early intervention and support services to young people at risk of gang involvement and other crime are being slashed by councils (who are under pressure from the Government to provide services whilst not increasing council tax) every year. Let's not forget the actual prisons themselves. Low pay and morale amongst prison officers abounds, the prison population is increasing exponentially, drug abuse is so rife that some prisoners are actually leaving prison as addicts having entered without drug dependencies and as we've seen from riots in Pentonville, Bedford, manchester and others the violence to officers and staff is increasing and resulting in death. And of course the voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sector that usually steps in to the breach cannot identify the funding and resources necessary to meet an increasing demand for their services.

Objectively, anyone can see that the situation is at best a mess. The consequences and causes of the riots of 2011 have still not been effectively addressed, although our politicians would have you believe that imprisonng idiots who were swept up in a mob mentality and stole bottled water from Lidl was appropriate restorative justice. Successive governments and their policies have sought to demonstrate that they are 'tough on crime' and focussed the majority of the resources on punishment without any real concern for rehabilitation. Draconian sentencing which criminalised low-level offending didn't (and doesn't) help and neither do our slavishly right-wing popular press. As far back as the 1990's when Michael Howard, former Tory leader and man who sleeps in a coffin all day, said (as Home Secretary) at the Tory party conference, "Prison works", explicating criminal rehabilitation and justice reform has been secondary to locking up our citizens to look tough. But the really sickening thing is the complete inability for any Home Secretary - or government - to honestly articulate the facts. And the facts are that there is not enough effective strategy, coordination of services, effective policy and certainly not resources available within the criminal justice system. And until the febrile atmosphere that facilitates the internecine squabbling amongst our ruling class abates long enough for the politicians to actually recognise that they are not serving their constituents best interests we are doomed.

I think the Mayor, Sadiq Khan sees this. He's a politician who knows the streets and understands the multi-cultural mosaic that is London. But he can't do it alone. It's going to require all of us as citizens to actually make a dent in criminal justice reform. For those of you that think this is a problem that doesn't affect you, trust me, it affects you far more than you think. The next time you're sipping your craft beer in Brixton commenting on 'how the areas changed' with the rest of the trustafarians (the definition of irony), eating out in Hackney with the hipsters, remember that there are others who have lived in these areas for years, understandably resentful of the fact that they can't even access the 'improvements' on their doorstep - and they don't see that changing soon. Take a wrong turn and you'll meet them and there won't be any police there to save you because there just aren't any police on the street anymore. So we all need to take some social responsibility and develop a political interest. I know that like me, there are many who are suspicious of the police and automatically distrusting. But if we want to address the violence afflicting our children in particular we need to work with them whenever possible. We need to demand better of each other as citizens. And we absolutely need to demand more from our politicians - and be prepared to pay in taxes to ensure we get it.