Brevity is the soul of wit
Anyone who has ever watched an American cop drama, whether TV or film (so that's everyone, I imagine) will have noted the nifty mottos of the various police forces - 'To Protect and Serve' for the LAPD and so forth.
Now we have an equivalent, and it is not *quite* as punchy, the Police Pledge running as it does to 689 words. I will spare readers a full version, but it is available here.
The opening sentence reeks of having been written by committee: "The police service in England and Wales will support law abiding citizens and pursue criminals relentlessly to keep you and your neighbourhoods safe from harm".
And it goes downhill from there, believe me.
I think the ten word prime directives from, cough, Robocop would take some outdoing: "Serve the public trust, protect the innocent, uphold the law".
Now we have an equivalent, and it is not *quite* as punchy, the Police Pledge running as it does to 689 words. I will spare readers a full version, but it is available here.
The opening sentence reeks of having been written by committee: "The police service in England and Wales will support law abiding citizens and pursue criminals relentlessly to keep you and your neighbourhoods safe from harm".
And it goes downhill from there, believe me.
I think the ten word prime directives from, cough, Robocop would take some outdoing: "Serve the public trust, protect the innocent, uphold the law".
Labels: Law and order
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on Wednesday, March 04, 2009 at 10:12 am.
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And there was I, in my naivety, thinking that "Working Together for a Safer London" was quite wordy and flimsy enough already...
More means worse, doesn't it?
Institutionalised cowardice.
T - Bravo.
Croydon "plod" are useless. Their "rapid response" is run by civilians who override actual officers recommendations.
Very recently I was told that illegal "entrants" to a property we are doing up before moving into had left. When we entered to secure the property we found that they were in fact still there. We got two conflicting accounts, firstly that officers had searched the property which was empty, secondly, after we had found out that that was incorrect, that officers had spoken to occupants who were squatting
As a result we entered into what might have been a threatening confrontational situation despite being assured that it was safe.
Indeed, we were originally told that if we found that there was anyone still there to call 999 but when we did so were told by the civilian at Lambeth that they would not respond.
They were not interested in the breaking and entry, the criminal damage, the theft of post, the "abstracting" of electricity and said it was all a "civil" matter. They actually put the phone down on me.
You cannot believe a word they say.
They no longer serve you but themselves.
Serving the law abiding citizen? When? We are now the victims of both the pariahs and the police.
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