So, it's now week two of the government enforced national lockdown, we've been given guidelines to live by, and the police have been given enforcement powers to use on those flouting the guidelines. Now, lets get this out from the start, what the government has done is 100% correct, I think very few will argue against that, however there's a situation, or rather a theme occurring with some police forces which makes me very uncomfortable.
Take the two tweets below as an example, it seems that some police forces are taking the governments guidelines and using it as an excuse to book people for the sake of it. Booking someone for driving alone in their car? How on earth can this be a thing? the whole point of this exercise is to ensure social distancing, but out of the four examples in those two tweets, only one of those booked was infringing on that point. Smarter policing needs to happen here, staying in doors all day every day is extremely tough for some people, going out for a drive can't be considered an issue. Further, take the example of going out as a household to buy "non-essential" items, considering only essential stores are allowed to stay open, and the items in question are probably going to help them cope with staying in doors all day, how is it possible for the police officers to make this distinction? The answer is they can't, and the governments guide lines are so very vague on this anyway. For example, food is defined as an essential item, obviously it is, but food encompasses a lot of things, am I gonna be booked by a bobby for buying something that I can clearly do with out, like skittles, because the police force has deemed it non essential, despite the fact it's clearly food?
So my position is that there's clearly an ambiguity here, that's fine given the situation, and given the fact it's not law, just guidelines. However it's not fine when the police are being absolute busy bodies about it, and are frankly abusing the power they've been afforded. This whole thing is tough on everyone, and the only way we'll get through it is with a keen sense of cooperation and community, that feeling is completely destroyed when the police take the absolute biscuit like they have here, basically booking people because they've got fuck all else to do, or because they enjoy the ability to do so.
Luckily for me my police, Essex Police, have taken a much more mature and appropriate position of discouraging through dialogue, and only booking as a last resort, however this lock down is already a massive (but necessary for a short time) attack on civil liberties in this country, and if the police continue attacking so pedantically, people are going to push back and put the whole thing in jeopardy, and to be honest, it's hard to blame them.
tdlr; the police need to focus on ensuring social distancing, not booking people cos they're bored.
Take the two tweets below as an example, it seems that some police forces are taking the governments guidelines and using it as an excuse to book people for the sake of it. Booking someone for driving alone in their car? How on earth can this be a thing? the whole point of this exercise is to ensure social distancing, but out of the four examples in those two tweets, only one of those booked was infringing on that point. Smarter policing needs to happen here, staying in doors all day every day is extremely tough for some people, going out for a drive can't be considered an issue. Further, take the example of going out as a household to buy "non-essential" items, considering only essential stores are allowed to stay open, and the items in question are probably going to help them cope with staying in doors all day, how is it possible for the police officers to make this distinction? The answer is they can't, and the governments guide lines are so very vague on this anyway. For example, food is defined as an essential item, obviously it is, but food encompasses a lot of things, am I gonna be booked by a bobby for buying something that I can clearly do with out, like skittles, because the police force has deemed it non essential, despite the fact it's clearly food?
So my position is that there's clearly an ambiguity here, that's fine given the situation, and given the fact it's not law, just guidelines. However it's not fine when the police are being absolute busy bodies about it, and are frankly abusing the power they've been afforded. This whole thing is tough on everyone, and the only way we'll get through it is with a keen sense of cooperation and community, that feeling is completely destroyed when the police take the absolute biscuit like they have here, basically booking people because they've got fuck all else to do, or because they enjoy the ability to do so.
Luckily for me my police, Essex Police, have taken a much more mature and appropriate position of discouraging through dialogue, and only booking as a last resort, however this lock down is already a massive (but necessary for a short time) attack on civil liberties in this country, and if the police continue attacking so pedantically, people are going to push back and put the whole thing in jeopardy, and to be honest, it's hard to blame them.
tdlr; the police need to focus on ensuring social distancing, not booking people cos they're bored.
