It must be pretty awful to be a police officer in Cambridge right now. Looking at their faces on the news, I cannot help but wonder how much more of a burden they are going to be expected to carry, not just now, but weeks and months down the line.
Cops don’t have the luxury to play games, like politicians and pundits. They are forced to confront treacherous social fault-lines every day on the job while less serious people sit by the sidelines and judge their efforts. At times like these, powerful people seem to be rooting for the police to fail, and the unfairness of this, and the pressures it adds to their work, will not be acknowledged.
The media, of course, sprinted down the road alongside Professor Gates and seemed surprised later when the story turned out differently from what they anticipated.
Cops deserve more respect than they received throughout this incident. The presumption of innocence should not be reserved for the criminal class.
Very well put! Excellent!
The danger, if straightforward, professional, sensible policemen get hassle for doing their job in a firm but fair way, the only people who will join the police will be politically correct types. Even Sergeant Crowley had done the diversity circuit.
In the UK, parts – but by no means all – of the police are riddled with political correctness. Fortunately we have a tabloid press that screams blue murder if a PC is too PC.