The news tonight was dominated by three stories:
the dangerous foolishness of Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick in revealing anti-terror raids,
the lethal recklessness of PC John Dougal who killed a girl doing 94 miles an hour in a 30 zone in pursuit of an out-of-date record in a numberplate database, and
the decision by an unnamed officer to turn himself in having probably caused the death of Ian Tomlinson during last week's G20.
Although it's just coincidence, it's hard to resist the idea of a police force out of control, high on power and convinced it's above the law. Like any other public servant, the police are supposed to be on the side of the public, especially innocent bystanders. This seems to have been forgotten pretty widely - although I know plenty of good police will be just as distraught about these cases, just as disappointed in the organisation they work for.
Imagine the ruckus in the right-wing press if three social work catastrophes had come together on the same day. The calls for a Royal Commission or similar would be raucous. And, as
one libertarian blog asked today, on the subject of Ian Tomlinson:
"What if the situation was reversed? What if a protestor had run up to a policeman minding his own business, knocked him to the ground and the policeman had later died?
"I think we all know that such a protestor would unquestionably (and rightly) be subjected to the full force of the law. We also know that not only the person involved but his or her organisation and probably the G20 protestors as a whole would be villified."
Unarguable.
Whatever the police should be doing, it's not this: trying to bribe environmentalists with secret bank accounts (clue: it usually won't work, we're pretty committed), threaten their job prospects, suggest they'll be sent to brutal violent prisons and generally intimidate them.
