What does the forum think of this?
tinyurl.com/cw6j26q
IMO he is absolutely right.
Bringing the debate wider, there seems to be a lot going on at the moment. I'm wondering whether there's a power struggle...with the IPCC with new powers, the new Police Crime Commissioners and the old guard Chief Constables all vying for their slot...with a coalition govt intent on cutting costs and putting the Old Bill in their place.
There seems to be a hell of a lot of 'misconduct in public office' investigations going on. Having been in that job for nearly 31 years...I 100% do not believe it to be rife with corruption, the opposite is true...it is more wracked with hand wringers who dare not make a decision for fear of getting something wrong.
Don't get me wrong...if someone puts their grubby mitt in the till...hang them and flog them. It's just that I think there's a witch hunt going on...and the ability for a cop to interact with a journo shouldn't be an absolute 'no'...
e.g. 1, something is being swept under a carpet and one way of dealing with it is to tip off a hack who can make questions, which will have the carpet sweepers suddenly have a change of heart and deal with it properly....
e.g. 2 you want publicity for a crime, you have fed the local paper the odd snippet (within the realms of what is proper)...and now you want the favour repaid for the benefit of your investigation and the local populace.
P.S. In the interests of openness, I know Frank Armstrong, we were PC's together many moons ago...and although we'd lost touch, he turned up at my leaving do and gave a decent impromptu speech (I wasn't planning to have one).
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>>There seems to be a hell of a lot of 'misconduct in public office' investigations going on. Having been in that job for nearly 31 years...I 100% do not believe it to be rife with corruption
If even 1% of police officers were dodgy, how many would that be in the UK?
Doesn't need to be 'rife' to be very significant.
Health boards must have similar issues with employees who have access to regional medical records, and occasionally they pop up as 'isolated' cases.
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135,000 total numbers according to this.
tinyurl.com/cxgzz25
There seems to be an increase in number of high profile cases.. and for the misconduct in public office angle.... not just the odd PC sharking in on a victim for a date or taking the car home for an errand.
Last edited by: Westpig on Mon 11 Mar 13 at 19:27
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>>not just the odd PC sharking in on a victim for a date
That in itself should end a career!
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I find myself in agreement with Westpig. I'd also add that from everything I've read of him Paddick had the right attitude.
There really should be a means of dealing with cash for information, which does seem to have been far too large an issue over the years, without demonising the sort of contact with journos at a local level which helps spread a message.
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Not much public support for the arrestee or the police in the comments!
I do agree though that there seems to be a witch hunt mentality around. And yet the really serious stuff doesn't seem to attract the same disapprobation. When is David Nicholson going to get a dawn raid?
Let's see what comes out. The proper criminals must be laughing themselves silly at the police arresting each other for gossiping.
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Simple.
Leveson by back door..
LOTS of highly placed people hate the press because they prevent them doing what they doo in private.
See MPs for a start.
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You know there's something very wrong when those who would normally be smashing Joe Public's front door in at 5am are having their own doors knocked on (slightly more civilised for the time being) at 7am.
Isn't this what happens in banana republics, those who know where the skeletons lie or get too close to rocking the power boat have to be dealt with?
Are those who would be silenced this way those who might not be content to keep silent whilst Big Brother quietly silences dissenters.
I fear we haven't seen even the tip of the iceberg yet.
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>> You know there's something very wrong when those who would normally be smashing Joe Public's
>> front door in at 5am are having their own doors knocked on (slightly more civilised
>> for the time being) at 7am.
>>
>> Isn't this what happens in banana republics, those who know where the skeletons lie or
>> get too close to rocking the power boat have to be dealt with?
>>
>> Are those who would be silenced this way those who might not be content to
>> keep silent whilst Big Brother quietly silences dissenters.
>>
>> I fear we haven't seen even the tip of the iceberg yet.
>>
That's my take on it gb..........and I really do not like where that is going.
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Some people call it a witch hunt, others might consider it long overdue housekeeping.
No doubt there are more scandals to come, whisteblowers are at the height of their powers right now when usually they are one against many.
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He is problaby a decent man but I can't see that many people feeling sorry for him being woken up early for a arrest.Maybe living a long time in Yorkshire the minesr strike is still fresh in my mind.The police allowed themselfes to be used by a dictorial govenment.
The old saying what comes round goes round.There is something unpleasant going on for years slowly but shorly we are losing the way we live..Camara's everywhere fearmongering by the populair press .If the police are unhappy about the situation make a stand.Other sections of the population had to do this not always succesfull.
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So, as they say, what's he got to worry about if he's innocent?
That's what the 4 big coppers said to my son after they knocked him off his bicycle and pinned him against the wall. His crime was that he had a laptop (his laptop) in his rucksack and he resembled someone who'd been burgling the neighbourhood.
Do as my son did, Mr Armstrong, and 'get over it'. Chill ........ and enjoy your pension.
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>> What does the forum think of this?
>>
>> tinyurl.com/cw6j26q
>>
>> IMO he is absolutely right.
It is not clear to me exactly how much Brian Paddick would know about this case.
He says:
"So what was the crime that warranted such an extreme response? The only thing we know for sure is that he spoke to journalists."
which suggests that he doesn't know much about the specifics of the investigation (with "we" being the public, rather than the police), but then he says:
"As yet, there is no evidence that any money changed hands or that Frank, a dedicated public servant who received the Queen’s Police Medal in the New Year’s Honours, did anything else wrong."
How can he be sure of any of that, unless he does know the specifics of the investigation?
Does he know there is no evidence, or does he mean that there has been no public announcement on what evidence there is?
I think he might be jumping to the defence of a friend/former colleague, without knowing all of the details.
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>> en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Paddick
Yes, I'm aware that he used to be a very senior police officer with a deep understanding of all areas, but it doesn't follow that he knows all of the specifics of this case.
From his article it would seem that he doesn't know the specifics, and is just speculating. As far as I can tell anyway.
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>>>Yes, I'm aware that he used to be a very senior police officer with a deep understanding of all areas, but it doesn't follow that he knows all of the specifics of this case.
From his article it would seem that he doesn't know the specifics, and is just speculating. As far as I can tell anyway.<<<
and then add in the fact that the article has been written by a journalist, - and worse still, a Mail journalist!
Last edited by: pmh on Tue 12 Mar 13 at 12:34
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>> From his article it would seem that he doesn't know the specifics, and is just
>> speculating. As far as I can tell anyway.
I suspect Roger is trying to get us to draw inferences from Paddick's homosexuality and/or his known approach to users of cannabis or his subsequent political stance.
Not going there myself. He's always struck me as a model for what senior officers should be doing. If I lived in London I'd probably have given him my first choice and certainly my second for Mayor. My opinion on Livingstone is variable!!
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Tue 12 Mar 13 at 12:36
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Of the three "inferences".
(1) No - not bothered.
(2) Yes, somewhat.
(3) Definitely !
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"I suspect Roger is trying to get us to draw inferences from Paddick's homosexuality and/or his known approach to users of cannabis or his subsequent political stance."
It's the fact that he's been on 'I'm a celebrity.....' that puts me right off the bloke. I infer that he's a narcissist who craves attention.
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>> It's the fact that he's been on 'I'm a celebrity.....' that puts me right off
>> the bloke. I infer that he's a narcissist who craves attention.
Or he was simply 'game for a laugh'?
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What is " I'm a celebrity" ?
Are the contestants (I assume it is some sort of game show?) celebs before or after going on the program?
Do I care?
Should I care?
Do they take off all their clothes and prance around and offer cash prizes to viewers?
If the answer is "no" I'm not interested...
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IACGMOOH is the one in Oz where they eat Kanga Balls and such like (I think).
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Look beyond the policing side of things, that's just an example...look deeper than that.
One ex-cop woken up at 0700 is virtually not worth talking about...it's what is going on behind the scenes that is worrying.
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The police blogger 'Inspector Gadget' has ceased posting and taken down content back to 2006.
www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/mar/13/police-blogger-quits-pressure-unofficial
More of same?
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>> The police blogger 'Inspector Gadget' has ceased posting and taken down content back to 2006.
>>
>>
>> www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/mar/13/police-blogger-quits-pressure-unofficial
This just isn't right, we are heading for the USSR.
'Inspector Gadget' told it as it was...and that's good. Even though he was in the counties and I was in our capital...I could tell, absolutely, that he was telling the truth, because in its own way, it matched my experiences.
Now we have lost that truth...what a backward step.... and if replicated in all the other professions, we won't get to hear what shenanigans go on.
He must have been warned off, because he can't have been completely anonymous, because to earn money from his books, he would have had to have registered a business interest with his employer or run the risk of seriously breaching the police discipline code.
So why has he signed off? My guess is someone senior has warned him off..either, 'stop now' as a lawful order from that Force...or...'better stop now, because you're likely to be investigated by IPCC' or similar.
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I read the Gadget blog for a long time and got the email updates.
For a while, and more so of late, the blog has gone well beyond simply describing events. There has been a lot of 'political' commentary and strong criticism of policy and the competence of pretty much everybody from his senior management team to the Home Secretary, probably to the detriment of the reputation of the police as a whole.
I didn't dispute much of it, and made comments in support, but I did wonder how he thought he could sustain what came across as very personal attacks and remain in the job.
Maybe he had himself decided he couldn't - he seemed bright enough to work it out.
I hope he hasn't burnt his boats, he underlined a lot of problems with the incompetent implementation of management by objectives that I deplore so much myself, and I think he was right and brave to do that - whoever and whatever he was/is.
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That's bad news. His books and tales were bang on the money and any Copper could relate to the issues. He took awareness of policing issues to the line but it would seem that his bloggers; the new breed many who seem to struggle with boundaries, have gone further and dragged him down to the point where the whip has been cracked.
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There's something 'unpleasant' going on - Lygonos
