The sarcasm is on the shelf. The snark is switched to "off". This is good policing:
Some British bobbies have been reprimanded after they used their riot shields as makeshift sleds during the country’s cold snap.Still don't believe I'm being earnest in my praise? I am. Consider the American plainclothes officer who recently felt it necessary to pull out his gun in response to a snowball fight*, and tell me which kind of officer would make you feel safer in your neighborhood.
A passer-by filmed the bobbies goofing around on a snowy hill in Oxford and posted the clip on YouTube. It shows a policeman barreling downhill while another shouts, “Whatever happens, keep smiling!”
Rick Latham, who filmed the scene on Tuesday, said he was pleasantly surprised by the officers’ actions. He thought they were going to scold him for trying to slide down the hill in a kayak.
Violent crime rates are way down, and policework is no longer triage. Effective police must be part of the communities they serve, and it wouldn't hurt to be trusted, respected, and liked by their fellow citizens. (A good start would be to stop bragging about how much they enjoy beating people up.) There is something undeniably heartening about a policeman taking five minutes to have some fun with a member of his community, especially when the tool he uses is the same one designed to facilitate domestic warfare. It is strikingly reminiscent of Flower Power, even if it was entirely unintentional. Sure, this isn't Norman Rockwell's America. But it also isn't J Edgar Hoover's. Cheers to the Thames Valley Police.
Watch the bobsledding bobbies here.
*The snowball fight participants were punks itching for a fight, which is why I didn't blog in their defense.
Not to romanticize the 50’s but there were certain thing that we could take from that era that would translate into better relations between the police and the people they are paid to protect. How about we take the cops out of the cars and put them back on the streets. I think this would help, particularly in high crime, poor, urban areas. If the people in these areas started to look at the police as a part of the neighborhood and not an invader surely crime rates would go down, Right?
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