• towerful@programming.devEnglish
        12·
        19 days ago

        99% of the police, yeh.
        There are a few dodgy ones. And the system generally works to get rid of them. There are miscarriages of justice, and excessive use of force.

        But, generally speaking, UK Police police by diffusing situations instead of eliminating them.
        I’ve never had a bad encounter with the police. They’ve always been helpful, had some banter, or been polite but firm.
        But I’ve never been on the wrong side of them. And I’ve never encountered them in a situation where the population is in the right but the laws are against the population (like a protest that gets “managed”). And it probably helps that I’m native etc.

        I have no doubts that it’s different for other UK residents. So, I still judge news by the ACAB.
        Withdrawing from X reinforces my beliefs that UK Police police in a good way.
        If they move to Donny’s site, then I’m cooked.

        • my_hat_stinks@programming.devEnglish
          9·
          18 days ago

          Lucky you, you must have grown up very middle-class. The cops in the UK are just as shitty as they are elsewhere.

          As a kid I was walking a friend home when some cunt came up behind us and attacked me, busted my nose open then ran away. The cops must have waited at least a week to follow up, by which time they couldn’t do anything because I didn’t have a good enough way to identify the attacker.

          Some years later I’m delivering newspapers, there’s one particular street where I always get harassed in some way. It escalates until one day I’m literally jumped by three fully grown adults, absolute scum attacking a kid on the street. I call the cops as soon as possible afterwards and they actually show up, but as I’m sitting crying in the back of their car they strongly encourage me to drop it, some excuse about how they’ll all deny it so it’s not worth investigating. I’m young and naive so I listen to them, but I’ve regretted that ever since.

    • Echo Dot@feddit.ukEnglish
      9·
      19 days ago

      Nah, the right don’t like the police as they are the ones who arrest them when they get hammered on half a pint and do 75 in a 20 in a beat up Micra with an after market spoiler.