Yay Met!!

[angus_mcnitt]

The Metropolitan Police has issued guidance to its officers to remind them that using a camera in public is not in itself a terrorist offence.It warms my heart every time I read something like this. As a semi-photographer, I get annoyed at how many cops try to push photographers around by misquoting or flat out misusing anti-Terror and privacy

Comments

[angus_mcnitt]

I think it is also a reflection of the whole "Fear of Terror" that was instilled as a business after 9/11. They pushed law enforcement into new areas they were not trained for, or if they were trained they were miss-trained.

I'm sorry, but you can be a cop, or a solider, not both. Military learned that lesson the hard way after WWII. A lot of the anti-terror classes present the cops to a soldier's world view. And most Anti-Terror classes are taught by the wrong instructors. You spent 10 years in the SEALs fighting Al'Quada, great. However, the skills you used have nothing in common with a random NYPD officer who is walking a beat in the Bronx. Now, more realistic trainers are entering the market, and the quick-buck are moving on.

I think this is a as part of the Met's reevaluation of it's counter terror role and training goals. I also find a little black humour in the fact that the Met had been dealing with the anti-terror roll for years prior to 9/11. 9/11, which took place in another country, happens and they suddenly have to scrap everything and start over, mirroring the US.

[helen99]

> you can be a cop, or a soldier, not both

True. During Katrina and the RNC the riot squads didn't answer to the local department and wouldn't identify themselves when making arrests. Probably Iraq-trained mercenaries trained to kill enemies, but the enemies were the people they were patrolling. I hope you're right and they're moving on.

[wetdryvac]

While few, I have personally seen some very good people being very good exceptions to this. What makes them able to bridge the gap is this ability to make clear, both to themselves and to those they serve/protect OR fight that the either/or condition tends to be there for a reason. Also, each of the good ones happened to not be beat, and also had, within the force, a very strong area of specialty. Demoltions to bomb squad, for example - and interrogator to interrogator. Pprior, I'll add, to the whole torture issue coming to the fore - outside of, "Torture doesn't work and here's why."

*shrugs*

Some of them taught me what it took to be human in a time when I wasn't, and so despite the rarity of soldier to cop to soldier working, I note the exceptions.