One Less cowboy

[yorkie_chris]

Originally Posted by Ed

I think that people should remember this. Generally speaking, when back is against a wall, people react in ways which might not be typical.

You would not be saying that if I had run some bugger over trying to avoid a £30 fine for a noisy exhaust

Perhaps we should look at it from a different perspective.

Nobody was killed
Nobody was injured
There was no violence
There was no knife
There were no drugs
There was no theft
Nobody's property was damaged
Nobody lost any money

...a totally victimless crime. Or have I missed something?

So why in prison? To teach him a lesson? No. To make an example? Yes. So, police officers, if you tell lies you go to jail even though it hurts nobody.

I don't hide from the fact that this man told lies. People ought to get out of their ivory towers and think 'when did I last tell an untruth/distort the truth/tell an incomplete truth/be less than scrupulously honest - simply because it suited me'? I would guess that it is perhaps more recent than you might like to think.

Now, what has all this little shenanigans really achieved? This is where I come unstuck, because I can't think what it has achieved. There is no positive benefit. Lost job. Lost pension. One more jail place where the bloke is no danger to others. Prison record. Probably unemployable so will be on benefits for evermore.

I think that the job of a Police Officer is rapidly becoming like a Social Worker. You're damned if you do, damned if you don't, and in the meantime you put a foot wrong and all hell breaks loose.

[yorkie_chris]

So what are you proposing? That the CPS have "looked the other way" at the case so as not to hinder this guys employability? That the offence have been ignored because he's a copper?
The cure sounds a lot worse than the disease.

Imagine the headlines "CPS in cover up scandal" "IPCC accused of bias" "Police above the law?"

I am not saying jail was best thing, but most of those downsides apply even if he was given a slap on the wrist like a fine or what have you.




TBH if someone is paid a good wage with good career prospects and pension (correct me if I'm wrong but it does not seem too bad), then I do not think honesty is too high of an expectation to make.

Originally Posted by Ed

I think that the job of a Police Officer is rapidly becoming like a Social Worker. You're damned if you do, damned if you don't, and in the meantime you put a foot wrong and all hell breaks loose.

What a dispicable comparison - the average police officer deserves respect, unlike the majority of social workers

...then most of the last Government should be impeached.

You set out some very good options, because this is precisely what would happen. What I say is that we should rise above the populist call for blood and recognise (a) the circumstances that I set out above (b) that therefore this did not deserve jail and (c) that a disciplinary would be a more appropriate sanction.

Originally Posted by Ed

...a totally victimless crime. Or have I missed something?

Possibly the point.

There is so such thing as victimless crime. When we turn the other cheek, hide our heads in the sand or look the other way to crime it's society that becomes the victim because every scrote out there thinks it's ok to do what they like... which is pretty much what's happened since criminals were given the amounts of 'rights' that they enjoy today, and since punishments handed down have become laughable in some respects.

All crime is punishable, which is why we have laws and punishments to suit those who break them. Obviously it's on the books that perverting the course of justice carries a possible custodial sentence, and in view of how harsh North Wales Police have been prosecuting other motorists and motorcyclists for so called 'victimless crimes' such as speeding/dangerous driving and getting jail sentences imposed on people whose only crime was to drive a bit too fast, then this copper going to jail seems perfectly justified to me.

As I said earlier "you reap what you sow"

Originally Posted by Lozzo

What a dispicable comparison - the average police officer deserves respect, unlike the majority of social workers

PMSL! Quality.

Originally Posted by Ed

...then most of the last Government should be impeached.

You set out some very good options, because this is precisely what would happen. What I say is that we should rise above the populist call for blood and recognise (a) the circumstances that I set out above (b) that therefore this did not deserve jail and (c) that a disciplinary would be a more appropriate sanction.

I see no-one calling for blood, I see people who are tired of crooked coppers agreeing that the sentence handed down was apposite.

Originally Posted by Lozzo

What a dispicable comparison - the average police officer deserves respect, unlike the majority of social workers

It isn't despicable at all.

Look at what happened at Orkney. Social workers were castigated for being over-zealous. Look what happened in Victoria Climbie - social workers were castigated for being too lax. When police officers are over-zealous, everyone complains - how many pages on here are complaints about being nicked when the perp felt it unfair. And when police officers do nothing, again they are criticised. My point is that the role of these public servants is very difficult and becoming more so, because public expectations are unrealistically high. Here it's a question of how to treat a lying police officer. Why differently from a lying teacher, a lying IT engineer, a lying whatever? Why can't people accept human fallibility, or are we saying that police officers are a breed apart?

When, Lozzo, when, Chris, did you last lie?

I am still searching for the harm factor in all this, and I have failed.

[yorkie_chris]

Originally Posted by Ed

As a brief, I'm supposed to uphold certain standards. So if I got done for anything other than a minor driving offence then I could be hauled before the Disciplinary Tribunal. If I was convicted of dishonesty of any sort - or any form of violence - whether related to work or not - I'd be struck off. If I was made bankrupt my practising certificate would be automatically suspended as I couldn't be trusted with client money. Similarly, failure to reconcile my client account not less frequently than once every 35 days is a hanging offence, and if there is a shortfall I'm personally liable to pay it. And if my business went bust then failing to pay suppliers is not simply a credit risk for them, it's bringing the profession into disrepute.

Here is you talking about a few quid.

And you are saying we should trust this silly c*** to honestly and justly carry out the law?

He lied about not having an MOT, this guarantees that every bloke sent down on his evidence is actually innocent while he has let murders go because they slipped him a tenner.

Originally Posted by Ed

...then most of the last Government should be impeached.

We know that...