Monday 31 August 2009

Notting Hill - Day 1

It's not all fighting in the streets and eating jerk chicken you know.

Neither is it all getting deafened by the floats and sound systems, being crushed by the crowd, or being asked for directions to the tube station for the three thousand, four hundred and sixty second time.

No, in between patrolling and dealing with incidents, we have to keep up with a gruelling and punishing fitness regime:



It's not easy being a Policemanofficer you know. Level II public order suits do not lend themselves naturally to any kind of physical activity.

There will be more photos tomorrow from Monday's fun. In the meantime, if you're not sure what I'm talking about check out the Police Slang post. Then look under "Not Carnival Related."

29 comments:

Tom102 said...

I believe the next post may be interesting.

Look forward to it.

Stay safe.

Metcountymounty said...

sooooo glad I managed to take it off this year, I hate carnival. Last year when the L3's were getting glass rain and us and the TSG were specifically order NOT to go in and get them out (our bosses would have rather a few photographs and maybe a video of officers in normal uniform being pelted with glass and getting injured than a couple of kitted up PSU's opening an industrial sized can of kick ass on a few dozen pissed up teenagers) I know I wasn't the only one on duty listening to the carrier radio with an open mouth and my blood boiling.

Having done it for the last few years, I would happily go the 20 years never doing carnival again. In retrospect I'd honestly rather do a couple of 20 hour shifts in a proper public order situation with no food and rest like we had at the G20 than do one day of carnival.

Hogdayafternoon said...

Hi ATNS. This is a lazy cut and paste from a comment I left on Blue Eyes latest, but sort of fits here somehow and concurs with MCM:

Thanks for the link to You Tube Blue. I even saw my old boss (Cdr. Wilf Gibson)on the YouTube link. From your description I think I may have even enjoyed being with you, but I harbour bad memories of Notting Hill.

I’d never spoken to a black person before joining the Met, other than the occasional bus conductor when I was a youngster in Ilford. My exposure to disaffected black people,in fact any black people, was as PC Hogday at the ripe old age of n-n-n-nineteen. It was a shocking realisation that all was not well amongst the Carib’s and it seemed to me that most of the ones I met were full of hatred for me, yet I’d personally done nothing to them. Being `guilty by association` is unpleasant. My memories of Notting Hill are all unhappy, because they all revolved around answering `urgent assistance` calls, crossing the divisional boundary at high speed to help colleagues. My most vivid memory was of turnng into Ladbrook Grove (in an Area Car just like the one in the clip) and seeing weird sheets of orange light curling down from upper storey windows. People were emptying the embers from the ash cans of their coal fires onto police below and a BTP vehicle was being trashed (again, there was one in that video – but no sign of a train in need of hel) – medieval stuff. This wasn’t carnival time, it was `any` time. I always wondered what I, personally, did to deserve it.

My very narrow perspective of the times drew me to conclude that not all Caribbean people hated me, but I found that those I’d come into contact with from Jamaica seemed the most disaffected and that not only did they hate me `cos I was a cop and `cos I was white, but they seemed to hate each other as well. All corrupting influences on a naive nineteen year old, when there was no one to explain why. I thought it through rationally and thankfully it didn’t turn me into a racist, stereotyping bigot, but it so easily could have and it did come close on occasions, until I snapped myself out of it. Now I just hate everyone, regardless. Glad you enjoyed your Carnival.

Dandelion said...

Hogday, it seems strange that you do not understand that in just the same way that your behaviour while on duty is not personal, but merely doing your job, the public's response to that uniform is just that: a response to the uniform, and not personal at all. How could it be? If you choose to represent an organisation that is racist and corrupt, then those who have been on the receiving end of that are going to respond accordingly. Simples.

People who have always been treated fairly by police on the whole are not hostile. Behind every hostility you encounter is a police misconduct and probably a cover-up as well. The bad-cops do make life hard for the rest of you, because they undermine public trust and confidence in all of you. If you don't like it, campaign for independent accountability.

Metcountymounty said...

Sorry Dandelion but that's bollocks. I've worked on estates for years where kids are brought up from day one to hate the police and it's been going on for generations. When someone in the family gets nicked for burglary or cartheft repeatedly and gets put away it's not because we're corrupt, it's because they are thieving bastards. When they teach their kids to hate us it's got nothing to do with police corruption it's because they are growing up in insular groups who know no different. I'll never deny that some people were and still are racist in the police (incidentally only actually seen it from a black pcso's actually who got the sack afterwards) but to say that the reason everyone hates the police because we're racist or corrupt smacks of someone who's never actually been in some of these peoples homes, or met their families and associates. Most hate us because they are thieving criminal slags who got caught more than they wanted to and they and their families and friends hate us for it.

Dandelion said...

I am talking about the general public, not just estate-dwellers (some of whom are very nice and law-abiding).

Do you think Stephen Lawrence's friends and family, or Jean-Charles de Menezes', or Ian Tomlinson's, hate the police because they are thieving scum? Or Mikey Powell's? Sean Rigg's? I could go on.

And what about all the law-abiding citizens who have been shocked and disgusted by police behaviour in these and other cases?

I'm just saying that there are reasons for hating the police other than being a criminal, and these reasons are much more widespread than the criminal element you mention. Racially motivated stop-and-search, anyone?

Dandelion said...

Oh, and Metcountymounty, that is probably why your bosses are the bosses and you are not. They clearly made the right decision. If your blood's boiling, you've got the wrong mindset for being a police officer, and you're not going to be able to do your job properly. Please think about a different career where you can take out your aggression in a healthy way.

Metcountymounty said...

Stephen lawrence's friends were a bunch of police hating robbers long before he was killed. As for the rest I can't comment becuase I don't know them or know how they reacted when officers turned up to help a dying man, unlike Stephen lawrence's friend. The reason my (and everyone else that day) blood was boiling is they let unprotected officers get pelted repeatedly with glass bottles, most of whom had to get into doorways or even behind lamp posts for an iota of protection. We weren't allowed even to go in and put a shield over their head and run them out or protect them, they fucking left them there. It's is exactly because of people and views like yours that they didn't want to send properly protected and trained teams to get them out in case it looked too aggressive.

Bobbi said...

oh, fun!

Hogdayafternoon said...

ATNS: Sorry old chum, I may have confused some of your readers with my lengthy diatribe and the penultimate sentence. I don't really hate everybody regardless. That was a joke. I gave out more love in my police service than I received in return, but I really don't care about that. Altruism rocks.

The Blue Light Run said...

Dealing with low life, benefit cheating, anti social, drug abusing scum day in day out should leave me with a cynical outlook when it comes to exactly how much joe public hate plod. However, in reality most law abiding citizens who are the victims of crime propagated by said low life often tell me how much they appreciate what we do, how difficult the job must be etc. Some of them even go as far as stating they do not know we deal with such individuals without wanting to inflict some justice of our own. Of course, I just smile and tell them its more than my jobs worth.
This leads me to the conclusion that most law abiding decent citizens do not actually hate plod. They may not like them particularly, especially if they've been caught speeding and not catching real criminals, but hate is a very strong word. However the aforementioned low life 'Jeremy Kyle' nation hold no respect for the law, just as they hold no respect for their neighbours when burgling their homes or spraying their front gates with racist grafiti. Now this anti social behaviour comes from somewhere, and somebody has to be around to tidy up the mess, bring them to book, etc. As ATNS has stated, the low life hate police because they get caught too often, more than likely because they are such crap criminals in the first place.

Anonymous said...

Sector 2 then!

Hibbo said...

It is certainly true that 'hate' is a very strong word, and I would agree that most of us underclass don't hate the police, there are ever fewer people who still trust or respect the police.

I think the police have been far too short-sighted in their tactics of criminalising just about everyone as a way to clock up detections and raise revenue. Every time they stick on a decent member of public (such people do exist - honest) then that person loses their trust for the police, they go on to tell their friends and family, and so the faith in the police is further eroded.

Next time you are about to proudly arrest someone for some utterly pathetic 'crime', just ask yourself if it's really worth it.....

Kennyo said...

Hey Hows it going, I'm back in the Blog world, checking out your blog again, check mine out it's back, alittle different more on my life , rather then my job (Got my knuckles smacked)

All my follower are gone, so click to follow again... thats if u still like me...lol

http://apolicemanslife.com

Kenny

Old BE said...

Come back Area, the internets needs you!

Anonymous said...

Blueeyes is right. As Josef Goldbaum remarked from the Warsaw Ghetto:

"Just stick it out, Hymie - with rumours of free trains to Treblinka, who wants to pay for a ticket to Soldau, already?"

Dr Melvin T Gray said...

NOTICE TO POLICE OFFICER REPRESENTED ON THE INTERNET AS ‘INSPECTOR GADGET’

Your misconduct today, Sunday 27th September included the soliciting of violence against me and a variety of libelling statements broadcast across the Internet by yourself, together with libelling statements and threats you incited others to make on your behalf. You published this libel on your blog ‘Inspector Gadget’ with a view to discrediting and harming me.

On Monday 28th inst unprecedented steps in formal complaint procedure against police will be taken against a yet unknown identity by virtue of formal complaints lodged with a number of UK police forces. Related assistance will be sought from Press and MP’s to accelerate the process of your identification and the identification of commenters to the offending post, including a commenter ‘LURCHER’ to a substituted article at 2:48pm.

By way of entirely separate proceedings, those acting on my behalf will contact you directly.

You may wish to inform your publishers of this notice as soon as practicable.

Dr M T Gray
27th September

Old BE said...

Everyone knows that the plural of MP is MPs. There is no apostrophe.

Anonymous said...

Hmmmm, did somebody feed the troll? Never seen Melvin so animated. We should be worried, in this rant he is actually lucid, suggests he might even be thinking straight on this occasion.

MCM said...

Nightjerk, Nightjerk, where for art thou, Sweetie?

Dr Melvin T Gray said...

Excuse my rude interruption of your post the other day and allow me to acknowledge a stylish tolerance of it, ATNS.

If I may toss a morsel of second class Class to Blue - the apostrophe is optional.

Old BE said...

Well of course there are lots of "optional" things all over the place. There is no law against poor style, which is a shame.

As for stylish tolerance, I am trying to work out how offensive one would have to be to solicit a reaction from our gracious host. Nincompoop! Blackguard! Cad! Blog deserter!

Oh all right I'll sod off now.

TheBinarySurfer said...

Everything ok Area? Been a while, even for your increasingly infrequent antics!

Rachel said...

Come back ATNS! Don't give up on us! September ended and there was a little hole in my life that was missing the usual laughs, smiles and shocks. Don't make me feel that again, I need something to take my mind of the fact that the build up to Xmas has already begun.....

Anonymous said...

Any units available to assist with an Area Search?

Tom102 said...

Come back ATNS, all is forgiven.

Anonymous said...

*Misses Area* :( <-- deploys sad face for sympathy vote

Lola x

Roses said...

*sigh*

Don't you just love it when the trolls come out to play?

Not.

Are you okay honey?

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