A British commenter named “solid advice” posted some, well, solid advice for the EDL, and especially Kevin Carroll, on last night’s thread about the demo in Walthamstow:
“I,… of… do solemnly and sincerely declare and affirm that I will well and truly serve the Queen in the office of constable, with fairness, integrity, diligence and impartiality, upholding fundamental human rights…”
This above is an extract from the oath that all police officers in England and Wales (Scotland has a different one) must take when they become constables.
The reason why we have a constable system in England is precisely to circumvent the possibility of political policing.
The oath that constables take indicates that their primary loyalty is to the Queen, so that if they receive any orders from a superior that circumvent the contents of their solemn commitment, they are oath bound to ignore them. (Those who designed British policing were conscious of this danger and constructed things accordingly to prevent against it.)
This is one of the main reasons the public is supposed to give the police the respect they crave and have now lost.
The WPC in the video is entirely wrong. She thinks, like much of the police in the UK, that she gets to renege on one part of her oath (upholding fundamental rights — which comes first) in order to fulfil another (keeping the peace — which comes after).
But she doesn’t. She is supposed to uphold the former WHILST maintaining the latter. That is the job that she is paid to do by the public and which she has sworn to do. This task is not easy, but if she and her colleagues are not up to it they are in the wrong profession.
These police and their superiors are acting like the rights of the citizens are something that they possess. And that they get to remove and exchange, in order to achieve their objective of “maintaining public safety”. But the nasty truth is that they are taking the coward’s way out of using the excuse of “social cohesion” to disguise the fact that they are simply violating their oaths. Because they don’t have any government appointed performance targets for maintaining human rights!
There is an enormous danger at the heart of all this: if the English police constable’s oath, from which their authority is supposed to flow, is now being systematically flouted and ignored: why should citizens respect them and follow their instructions?
What is supposed to make the English policeman different, and not a paid thug in a uniform, is being fundamentally undermined by the politically-driven orders of senior officers. This will inevitably put rank and file officers in danger. Inevitably.
I write all this as background to the three following suggestions for the EDL, which will be of practical help in their awful predicament:
(1) Complaints!
As many official complaints should be made to the appropriate authorities concerning the inadequate police response on Saturday, but they should primarily stress two things. First, the extent of the actual injuries suffered. Second, the above argument paraphrased.
This would deliver the point home in a way the police will understand but not in a threatening or intimidating way. However, the powers that be will definitely get the message.
(2) Hit “them” where it really hurts
The real people responsible for this debacle are the politically driven senior officers, but understanding the way these people operate offers a valuable method of really and effectively getting to them. These creatures are entirely target- and statistically-driven.
What must be engaged in is a mass campaign of EDL attendees at Walthamstow phoning the police to report their injuries or the indignities they suffered at the hands of the counter-group as actual crimes. Insist on receiving crime numbers — this is vital; (you can say it’s for insurance or demanded by work because you will go off due to stress etc.) If it as all possible to say that you believe that what you have suffered has been racially motivated, say so, repeatedly, and demand that this be logged as such. (They will try all they can to put you off — don’t let them!)
This may sound ineffectual, but it is an extraordinarily powerful tool within the hands of a mass movement like the EDL. This call, and the right numbers, can be sent out very easily on the EDL division’s Facebook and forum pages. What these senior police officers guard most jealously of all are their crime figures: it’s what their bonuses and ranks depend on. A whole flood of reported crimes in this way delivers a solid bloody nose to these people, and will seriously make them think again before letting an event pass off once more like Walthamstow.
(3) Circumvent the system
But perhaps most effective and practical of all would be an open letter, signed in the name of Kev Carroll (of British Freedom and Bedfordshire PPC) and Tommy (as head of the EDL, but nevertheless written by the skilled hand of Paul Weston… directed not at the government or the Metropolitan Police, but rather, to the police officer’s union The Police Federation. (Addressed to both its Chairman, Paul McKeever, and its Joint Central Committee)
This is a way of making an appeal directly to rank and file officers, and stressing that the EDL has no problem with them, in fact as a prospective PPC candidate Kev is moved by fears and genuine concern for the ordinary officer on the ground, and that the actions of their superiors in requiring them to actively renege on their oaths is dangerously sapping their authority amongst the one constituency that has always been the most robust supporters of the police.
It would be worthwhile stressing the extent to which the communities that the EDL represents fully came out in support of the police during 2011’s catastrophic riots and looting up and down Britain (a fact fully known to the police); and also mentioning that the Metropolitan Police’s own internal studies have concluded that the EDL is not extremist.
Kev can argue that there is enormous sympathy from the EDL for the police, as they both find themselves the victims of violence at demonstrations that they are both fully committed to ensuring are peaceful, and that this violence always comes from the same two sources. And that he considers it shameful that constables are not being permitted to carry out their jobs unencumbered by political demands from above that are requiring them to renege on their oaths.
But that nevertheless it is crucial for our democracy that officers honour their sworn commitment to protect the human rights of the public AND their safety, and that the Federation should stress to its members that the solemn oaths that they take do not state that doing so is an either/or. The police are supposed to be in the business of arresting law-breakers, not the law-abiding, that this is the job that the public pays them to do, and that he trusts that the Federation are also of this view.
12 comments:
I doubt if any of this would work, the Fuzz would just ignore it all.
A much better way forward is to get
as many people out for large scale
marches EVERY weekend.10,000 would be enough to worry the Police, but
we have to be prepared to fight for our rights. If the Police want to detain marchers for hour after hour so that they can ID everyone, it must be made clear that this will not be co-operated with.No information AT ALL should be given to the Police unless a crime has occurred, and banners should be carried by many more marchers. If the Police say no to the banners then we have to resist.
This most certainly would work. I am familiar with these sort of numbers-driven careerists (although not bobbies) and driving their crime figures way, way up - with apparently no arrests - will hit those people where it hurts, right enough. You have to talk their language, if I can put it like that.
And yes- formal complaints. Take police officer numbers off their little shoulder pads, and put in specific complaints against individual police officers.
Make them pay for failing to do their jobs. Publicly "out" individual police officers by showing videos of crimes being committed right in front of them, & them ignoring it.
Name names if you can get them. Make life difficult for the rank and file by exposing individual people and letting the world see that Mr. Brown or Mr. Smith did not do their job and are not fit to wear a police uniform.
In short: don't let them get away with stunts like this. Use their own rules and procedures against them - and if poss. get film and photos and witnesses to have individual members of the UAF and the lovely Muslim gentlemen who were present "using insulting words" when someone who would be insulted by them was present. Section 5 complaints left, right and centre.
What's good for the goose, is good for the gander.
Oh and btw - the very next surgery held by the local MP should be swamped with queues of people complaining about the police behaviour, and the principles being broken as outlined in the above article.
They work for us, remember. And if they have questions for the senior police officers, they can't ignore that.
And of course the one big thing that can be done fairly immediately is voting Kev Carroll in as police commissioner for Bedfordshire.
If the Brits on here want to do more than moan and complain, and do something that will actually mean change - then that is a great place to start.
Hit the streets - word of mouth publicity about this sort of thing, to all and sundry. Make sure the people eligible to vote for the police commissioner in Bedfordshire know exactly what is happening to their police force. And tell them they can change things by voting for Kev Carroll.
Use this to show people why they have to care, and why they have to vote for someone who wants the police to do what we pay them to do.
The bottom line is that it is the job of the police to arrest people who are breaking the law - not their victims.
So if there were people throwing stones and bottles the bobbies should have steamed right in and done their jobs.
Does anyone seriously think those cowards chucking stones would have stood up to an actual police charge? They'd have brown britches in seconds & be heading up the road in the opposite direction.
The police just need to show that they're not going to put up with such behaviour. And the only way to do that is to ... not put up with such behaviour.
Because it's not just this incident. Those people who got off with their criminal behaviour this time round will feel empowered & will do it again.
How many people need to be hurt, or even killed, before the police remember what their job is?
What a police officer is actually supposed to do - has sworn an oath to do?
Agree with the first comment - letters to the police may be chucked straight into the trash, and never see the light of day. On the other hand, if a few people gathered with slogans such as "Stop police brutality", "Keep Britain a democracy", etc - and handed-out leaflets containing details of the worst of the EDL's treatment at the hands of the police, it may get the people out on the street to see them in a totally different manner. And, impossible as it may seem, campaign at universities.
It's Freshers week soon at a lot of UK universities, and a lot of first-year students with free time to burn. Not all of them drawn-in to the Trotskyite politics of the UAF & co. Yet... If they can be made aware of what's going on, surely they would be a sizeable asset - not just in protesting this police activity, but also (potentially) in countering the far-left at British universities?
Let's get the young in Britain involved. And, as their public face (at least), not the Tory Boy geeky types. But people who can relate to others. And, better still, lead and inspire them (unlike Cameron & co).
This is a wonderful list of suggestions. It uses the mechanisms of the British and security bureaucracy to do their work. It affirms, rather than opposes, the objectives of a good and just government.
And additional benefit of this approach is that the rank and file police are likely to be sympathetic to the EDL demonstrations.
I would offer an additional suggestion, which is to as much as possible, the demonstrators should make videos of the rock-throwing thugs in the act. Their faces and actions can be publicly posted, putting further pressure on the police administration to take some type of legal action. The individual police, even if clearly not taking action, should not be specifically targeted for filming. The point is that the decision was made at the top to not control the violence. Individual police should not be subject to public ridicule or adverse publicity just for obeying their superiors.
The EDL leadership does a stella job but my advice at the next protest would be to
1. carry a portable megaphone.
2. Not get caught up in direct confrontation with the Islamo-fascists.
3. Stop arguing with Police (even when they're right, this can be handled later through correct legal channels).
If they say "no banners" then you need to be prepared. Have tee shirts or jackets printed ahead of time with your messages.
We have to do that in the US sometimes, on account of the fact that sometimes the police don't allow us to carry signs. That is an infringement on our freedoms of speech and assembly, but we have to choose our battles.
Every marcher should have a sign. The cameras are everywhere and your message should get across even with no sound system. The few banners you had were so poorly done and unreadable, they did nothing. Agree with the messages on shirts. Short and to the point. That way the photos can't get posted in papers or online without your message getting out, unless they edit down to the face. Plus they make good sheilds against flying objects.
Quote:
“I,… of… do solemnly and sincerely declare and affirm that I will well and truly serve the Queen in the office of constable, with fairness, integrity, diligence and impartiality, upholding fundamental human rights…”
end
The oath represents a basic failure to comprehend the rule of law.
The law upholds "basic human rights."
The officer upholds the law with characteristics a, b, c, d ...
The oath is designed to secure honesty, and can do no more.
Do Britons distinguish between the rule of law, the content of law, and the manner in which it is enforced?
Do they understand that these things exist?
gothechosemercy may not have read the full oath which is as follows:
"I, ... of ... do solemnly and sincerely declare and affirm that I will well and truly serve the Queen in the office of constable, with fairness, integrity, diligence and impartiality, upholding fundamental human rights and according equal respect to all people; and that I will, to the best of my power, cause the peace to be kept and preserved and prevent all offences against people and property; and that while I continue to hold the said office I will to the best of my skill and knowledge discharge all the duties thereof faithfully according to law."
A retired Metropolitan Police officer, Frank P., has commented in parallel on the recent arrest of a couple in England for resisting with a shotgun the invasion of their home by several burglars, as follows:
"The behaviour of the police and the CPS, not to mention the magistrate who granted them an extension to detain the couple, was crass, heavy handed, incompetent, dilatory and liable to bring discredit on the force, not to mention the whole judicial system. Someone should apply for the notes and reports of the arresting officers, the Chief Constable and the CPS [Crown Prosecution Service]. The couple should sue for damages. If a man is not allowed to protect his property, his wife and himself against four thugs who break into his isolated property, in the night, then there is no hope for any law-abiding citizen of this country. It is an example of Stasi style behaviour that is now becoming the norm, rather than an occasional aberration. And the police wonder why the esteem in which the police of the UK were held in the UK is now at rock bottom. Disgusting!"
http://www.coffeehousewall.co.uk/the-coffee-house-wall-3rd9th-september/#comment-10323
The recommendation that application be made to see the notes of the officers involved is an additional piece of advice from which the EDL could benefit in following up the dereliction of duty by the police in Walthamstow last Saturday.
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