Anarcho-tyranny is rising
Policing is an acronym-rich occupation. Among the rank and file, the most popular is “TJF” — “The Job’s Fucked”. Senior officers have long viewed such cynicism as mere shop-floor griping. Policing, after all, has never enjoyed harmonious industrial relations. Frontline officers can’t strike, and support staff who can are currently staging a two-week walk out because they can’t work from home. But since the rape gang scandal, it’s become clear that the rot goes far deeper than bickering over conditions, let alone the hardy perennials of corruption or racism.
Talk to officers, and there really is an “end of days” feeling at stations up and down the land. If, to put it bluntly, we failed the victims at Rotherham and Telford and a hundred other places so catastrophically, how can we ever recover, either professionally or in our relationship with the public? The answer must begin with reform. No — not another report, but genuine change, a red-tape-cutting Trumpian revolution everywhere from the law to leadership, which together can expunge 30 years of failure, and finally build a service fit for the 21st century.
