A former police officer has written this blog in response to the recent events which have played out in the UK.
It was published on his Facebook page, One Police UK:
‘I don’t think I have ever related any of my professional experiences, certainly in detail, on my personal Facebook page, but the ‘f**k the police’, ‘ACAB’ [All Coppers Are B*stards] and ‘unfund the police’ attacks on my ex-colleagues, including family members and close friends, has angered me no end.
Of course, rotten, corrupt police officers should be held to account, and let me assure you that nobody resents a corrupt police officer more than honest officers. It makes their job even more challenging. Most joined to help other people.
Let me give you an insight into just some of what I experienced.
I have been first on the scene of a rape. I won’t describe what myself and my colleague saw in detail because it is too harrowing. I was first on the scene of a domestic murder where a man had been stabbed by his wife, after years of physical and psychological abuse. None of this is remarkable.
I have come across a naked man in a phone box who had smeared his own **** all over the inside.
Clearly, he had mental health issues and was a danger to the public and to the NHS staff when we finally got him to hospital. My colleague, who was young in service was brilliant. This is not remarkable.
I have had to vary my route home from work because my life and that of my family has been threatened. Usually, such threats can be dismissed. Some cannot. This is not remarkable.
I have been the first on the scene of a great many sudden deaths, including suicide and badly decomposing bodies. Worse, I have had to deliver dozens of death messages to relatives who were not expecting it. I had to console an elderly lady for two hours while waiting for relatives to arrive. She was distraught. This is not remarkable.
I have witnessed a colleague taking a beating whilst I was fighting off others. His head was kicked several times like a football. I managed to get to him by beating my way using my torch as a weapon. My friend and colleague was so badly beaten he never returned to frontline duties. I had to endure a complaint made about me because one of these cowards sustained stitches in his head from my torch. This is not remarkable.
I have been involved in quite a few firearms operations, where the subjects were known or strongly suspected of carrying guns. One was a plain clothes op, and one of the subjects spoke to me and stroked my Police dog! One such massive operation involved special forces, as well as our own very professional firearms team. This is not remarkable.
I have been able to pull a hosepipe from the exhaust pipe of a car and prevent a suicide. Close call. This is not remarkable.
I took a bit of a beating while off-duty stopping some low lives stealing a van belonging to a self- employed builder. This is not remarkable.
I once had to arrest a drunken drug-fuelled mother late at night on Torquay harbourside. She had her seven-year-old daughter with her. This little girl was amazing. She basically looked after herself when her mum was drunk or hungover.
It was close to Christmas, and she didn’t have one toy in her dingy flat. Colleagues popped home and delivered some presents meant for their own kids to social workers who had arrived to take her into care. The girl’s dad? In prison for murder. This is not remarkable.
I have faced large scale disorder, where things have been hairy, to say the least. I have been involved in cot deaths. I have been to squalid houses where young children have been crawling through dog shit. To serious injury road traffic collisions, where motorists have been unconscious or crying out and moaning in agony. this is not remarkable
Spent a 16-week stint in the custody centre on ‘light duties’, dealing with, and having to be professional with all manner of low life including paedophiles and people who had abused elderly citizens. This is not remarkable.
I have received a Commendation for courage and professionalism and seen other officers do far more and not receive any.
I have known friends and colleagues who have tried unsuccessfully to remove occupants from a burning car. Some have been involved in a fatal shooting. One had his police dog shot. This is not remarkable.
I have helped put errant teenagers back on the straight and narrow. I have located vulnerable missing people. I have talked ‘jumpers’ down from the Tamar Bridge. Helped extricate a maintenance worker from a sewage tank, where his co-worker had asphyxiated because of the toxic fumes. This is not remarkable. I could swing the lamp for a great deal longer. This is not remarkable.
What IS remarkable is that nearly all my colleagues up and down the country do this and more, on a daily basis in the face of fierce criticism and dwindling resources and manpower.
What IS remarkable is the seeming lack of support from large swathes of the country, who would not cope if the police were disbanded. Trust me, I know this from experience, those who complain about the police are the first to call them, often for minor complaints.
What IS remarkable is the silent majority being quite so silent.
What IS remarkable is successive Governments stifling the police with political correctness. Poor leadership from some senior officers and politicians of all colours, has not helped.
Let’s get behind our police and give them the support they need. Give them the resources they need. That would be remarkable.’
– Edd Meakin (Retired Police Officer)
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