Former Assistant Commissioner Andy Hayman has told LBC’s Nick Ferrari that London Mayor Sadiq Khan “hasn’t got a clue” about how to run a police force, adding that the London Mayor had behaved ‘disgracefully.’
Mr Hayman worked alongside Dame Cressida for 18 months as one of her Assistant Commissioners.
Talking on LBC’s morning show, Mr Hayman said:
“The behaviour of the Mayor yesterday, over the last few says, has been absolutely disgraceful,” said Mr Hayman.
“He hasn’t got a clue what it’s like to run a police service, let alone the Met.
“And to have these suggestions that suddenly overnight they’re going to find someone who is going to be able to sort this out, that’s just in cloud cuckoo land.”
He accused Mr Khan of “playing politics”.
“You don’t start pillorying a senior appointment like that in public,” he said.
“That makes life very awkward.”
The resignation of Dame Cressida has reportedly started a row between Home Secretary Priti Patel and the Mayor.
The Daily Mail reported that Sadiq Khan did not warn Priti Patel or the Queen – who appoints the commissioner – of his intention to call Dame Cressida into a meeting that would lead to her resignation.
Mr Khan summoned Dame Cressida at 16:30 hours on Thursday after he decided her plan to reform the force was insufficient.
However, she handed in her resignation instead of attending as requested.
Speaking about Dame CressidKen Marsh, Chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation, said:
“The Metropolitan Police Federation – and The Metropolitan Police officers we represent – are saddened at the news Commissioner Cressida Dick is leaving her role.
“This is of course a challenging time for the Metropolitan Police Service.
“But policing and police officers are an easy target for critics who have never spent a day in our shoes or dealt with the daily challenges we face.
“Whilst the Federation did not always agree with Commissioner Cressida Dick, we think she was doing a good job in difficult circumstances. She genuinely cares about London, its citizens and – importantly from our perspective – her officers and their families.
“Her removal leaves a void in the leadership of London and UK policing at what is a critical time.
“Cressida Dick should have been given the opportunity and the necessary time to build back trust in the Metropolitan Police Service. She has been denied that. She should have been treated better.
“We will now – like all Londoners – await to see who politicians deem fit to lead the Metropolitan Police Service in 2022 and beyond. And to see who is willing to take up that challenge.”
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The police have, over the last few decades, become more and more politicised and as a result, have gradually moved further and further away from the communities they police. Go back 30 or so years and if a copper spoke to you, it was Sir or Madam. Now it is mate, chap, fella, pal or whatever. Respect has been dropping on both sides. Now cops are not interested in crimes of theft or the like, but heaven help you if you say something beastly on Facebook and upset someone. Then the door goes in.
This is not all the fault of the police. Sentences have been getting softer and softer, making crime easier and therefore much more profitable. Drug use is expanding, as are the gangs supplying drugs and nothing much is done in the way of punishment. Instead, the gangs get more and more violent.
Shop lifting now goes unpunished. Security guards who apprehend thieves end up losing their jobs and being sued for assault. The concept of a citizen arresting a wrong doer has pretty much been stamped out. The idea that every citizen has a duty to uphold the law has gone and must come back. Criminals should fear householders and shop owners. They should also fear the police, which is manifestly not the case.
Police officers refer to non warranted police employees as civilian staff. This is fundamentally incorrect. The only difference between an officer and anybody else is that an officer holds Her Majesty’s warrant which gives additional powers. Sir Robert Peel’s whole idea was that police officers were of the community and thus close to the people they were policing. This has now gone. Instead, Bramshill has ruled that all new officers must be graduates.
No longer are people with real life skills, such as ex military, able to join the constabulary. Instead, we will be getting woke graduates fresh from uni where they might well have made liberal use of a special room to cry in if someone was beastly and horrid to them. How they will cope with a pissed scaffolder jumping the taxi queue on a Saturday night is anybody’s guess.
The police are the visible tip of the judicial iceberg and therefore end up getting kicked for everything. The entire judicial system needs to be over hauled, starting with some proper sentencing. A Minimum Sentences Act would set in statute sentences for various crimes. The judges have shown themselves, over the decades, to be incapable of handing down appropriate sentences.
Bramshill must be closed as it has become totally woke and utterly divorced from reality. The idea of bringing in senior officers from other fields must also cease. It did not work when Lord Trenchard tried it just before the war and it is not working now. Officers should rise through the ranks.
Cressida Dick did indeed rise through the ranks, and for that she must be applauded. Unfortunately, on the way she was sucked into Common Purpose and the whole woke agenda and as a result, completely lost sight of what policing is all about.
When BLM was on the rampage wrecking the place, she did nothing. When a bunch of forces veterans turned up to protect our monuments from the vandals, they were confronted with three ranks of riot police. The rioters very sensibly kept their distance, knowing full well that trained and experience soldiers would give them a proper kicking if they tried any further destruction. The point was that the police should have been protecting these monuments and really stamping hard on the rioters. Instead, they went in as tough as you like against those holding a vigil for a murder victim.
In both cases, actions were taken on orders from above. It is those in senior positions that are the problem now and they are the ones that need to go.
Of course, for that we need a Home Secretary who is allowed to do the job, which Ms Patel is not, and a PM who is capable of leading, which Boris is not.