The UK police too soft?

Question

If a police officer hits or touches someone the officer gets disciplined. in the older days if you did somthing wrong and you were seen by the police you got told off and any talk back got a clip round the ears. this taught respect for authority,,.

Now there is no respect in a lot of people, espically teenagers, they're often out causing trouble, and often assult the police if they try to do anything.

Police need the authority to strike fear into these people, they need to be able to clip these people round the ear holes, be able to rough house them.

Go to spain, the police there all carry guns, and you don't see as much as the trouble there you do here.

I may sound like an old man here.. but I am only 27, yet I am afraid to walk down the local high street after 7pm, alone, incase anyone approaches me.

Please I would like to hear your comments, please post your experiences with police dealings.

Answer 1

Part of the problem is the Human Rights Act imposed by Brussels and the EU Parliament. It has effectively wrapped the police in so much legislation and red tape they are nowpowerless against the 'rights' of the criminals. There is also a chronic mis-spending of money on silly .
schemes such as the 101 hotline for non-serious crime- isn't all crime serious? There is a focus also on the rights of a minority over the majority, particularly where a non-Christian, homosexual, or non-British group is involved, or where Brussels red tape states a persons 'human rights' have been breached.
For example, a group of boys approached me once in my school, just as I had left the gates (so it wasn't a school problem- it was out of school time). They began with verbal abuse, and when I tried to walk away they began to chase after me, throwing bottles and eventually a brick.
A police officer had been posted in my school and next day I went to report the incident. I gave names and descriptions of three of the four boys, but was told that without any solid injury and the actual brick, there was little they could due because it would be a infringement of their privacy to do so, and if I was to approach them I would be arrested myself for harrassment, despite their constant harrassment of me which they and the school were aware of, and that I had reported several times before, both in-school bullying and harrassment as I went home on a night. Eventually all that happened was that the school was informed and they were 'warned'.
As for the issue of unruly teenagers, one of the problems as I see it is the collapse of traditional teachings and manners. I'm only 18 but have always been taught to respect other people and their feelings. The collapse, brought on by the Government, of the Church, the traditional respect for the law and also for education and teachers has created a hell which is of our own making.
Re-indroduction of more strict traditional methods in both education and the law is much needed to eradicate the hedonistic, atheist, materialistic culture we now live in. It has been argued the decline of Scripture teaching in school has correllated with the problems we now see.
The use of guns by the police is also a difficult issue. Personally I would not feel safer in a gun police state. The risk of error is high, seen in the Charles de Menezes case, and the psychological burden on armed officers in countries such as America is shown to often be too high- could you cope knowing you (accidently) killed an innocent citizen, regardless of you knowing it was an 'accident' (if such a term can be used)?
Also, many criminal gangs now have access to weaponry and guns, some being lethal machine and anti-tank guns. Shooting a criminal could easily lead to a martyr-type situations, with the glory of going down fighting being an inspiration to aspiring gang members. This is already seen in some African-American street gangs and other mafia type organised gangs. When a member of a gang is shot, they will simply be replaced.
As a sociallist, i then believe the solution to crime and teen delinquancy lies not in punishment of those offenders but in stopping the decline into crime in the first place. This includes benefits for families in poverty, better parenting and famillial information, good education that leads to a good and productive job, and support for married families (as many criminals claim broken homes as their spiral into crime). Spending by the present British government on drug prevention (another cause of crime) has increased, as has pregnancy support and support for single parents.
In future this must be coupled with a strengthened and life-relevant Church to provide spiritual and mental support as it once did and a general support for traditional non-materialist views and ettiquette.

Answer 2

Police officers do not always get in trouble for using force when a baton is used or c.s spray the officer must fill in a use of force form as long as he/she can justify there actions there should be no come back . Simply clipping round the ear would have no effect on 2days youth culture, respect needs to be instilled from day one from family and friends, instilling fear in people is not the right way to go about things officers need more power to deal with certain problems and as far as guns if all officers carried guns all criminals would carry guns and we would have an even bigger gun culture on our hands.

Answer 3

The only way police might regain respect is if officers on the beat were given some discretion with regards to arrest .
More often than not a friendly warning to someone caught breaking the law (ie, driving with a broken headlight) is enough to remedy the problem . The culprit goes home fixes his car and counts him self lucky .
As is the police arrest him in exactly the same manner as they might a murderer and persue him through the courts .
This causes neither respect or fear , it causes Contempt .

Answer 4

I totally agree with you. All of the power has been taken from the police. We used to be scared of them when I was growing up and didn't dare get on the wrong side of the law. But it's not just the police that have lost the power to discipline. So have parents and teachers. If I was naughty when I was young I got a slap on the back of the legs from my mum. This made me want to behave in school and on the streets so that I didn't get the slap on the back of the legs. Is it any wonder kids are the way they are when they know that no one can touch them!?

Answer 5

Yep they are far too soft. I would actually like to become a police officer, but I could not. The Police have now powers at all (I suppose its not their fault) so yobs etc can get away with what they like.
In Spain a few years ago I saw the local police kicking the sh1t out of some UK yobs!! There were no more trouble that night!

Answer 6

I am in total agreement with you. I was clipped around the ear by a policeman when I was a boy for cycling down a footpath. That taught me a lesson. Had I gone home and told my parents I would have received another two clips: one for getting caught and another for telling them about it. My, how times have changed.

Answer 7

i think the people in this country don't obey laws and the cops take the blunt of all the things going on they should get more though rules and have some powers to hit people but them the cops can also misuse the law once it get in their hands its a catch 22 situation here

Answer 8

Yeah I agree, The Police should be allowed to dispense 'discretionary justice' to anyone deemed worthy of said justice.
And bring back the belt in school while we're at it.

Answer 9

The whole judicial system is soft

Prison is a wake up call for a lot of people,
I spent 6 months on remand and it shook me up.

Answer 10

Yes, it is their own fault that they are hogtied, if all had threatened to resign when Tony signed up to the EU "HUMAN RIGHTS" rubbish, we would not be in this state. Socialists support criminals , they think crime is just redistribution of wealth as long as it is not theirs.