We went to visit the Police Station today with a few other home edding families.
What fun we had! The children enjoyed it and it took me right back to when I used to work; for money rather than love that is! It's taken all these years for the smell of the cells to truly leave my airways and now it's back in there. I stood at the custody desk, had a peek in the interview room and generally soaked up the unique ambiance that I miss so much - I think NOT!
The officers did a 'stranger danger' chat. It was the usual stuff about shouting for help, not taking sweets, getting into cars etc. Afterwards they asked for questions. My deep thinking baby raised his hand and asked, 'where do the strangers take children?' Judging by the look on the officer's face I don't think he'd been asked that one many times. Made my blood and I suspect that of other mothers in the room, run cold. The officer handled it well, thankfully.
It's strange really how attitudes and opinions change. When I worked I had a generally dim view of the police, despite the fact that Craig was a Special Constable! I don't know if that's because I was a defence solicitor or whether the view was a just response to the attitudes of many within the forces at that time. More recently my attitude has softened. I'm not sure if that's because I'm older and more philosophical now - after all everyone has a job to do. Or is it that standards have improved?
I read this book a short while ago. Like all things of this nature, you can't take it as gospel. It's the opinion of one person working within one force. However, it did make interesting reading and has helped me to see how, increasingly so, the police are doing an incredibly difficult job, facing greater hazards than ever whilst also being tied up in more red tape than ever. It's not good, not good at all. Having said that I'm not entirely sure what can be done to bring about positive change.
With the visit over it was time to hit the park and much fun was had till us poor mother's began to freeze to the spot. Oh, how the wheel's turning, it's certainly moving into winter now.
2 comments:
I wouldn't like to be a police person today. If there ever was a job that made you think " Why do I bother" I think that would be it.
Just this last weekend we have cars broken into and the policeman that came today said they've got a good idea who it is but the courts won't do a lot anyway!!
Yes, I do feel for them more now than ever. I was always quite pro the rights of the accused and convicts, but now I think things are out of balance the other way round. Sometimes I listen to myself and think, 'oh no, you've gone all Daily Mail' but I think that's just a natural response to the way society has become so polarized. There are so many people out there who sit and philosophize with not the faintest idea of what it's really like at street level.
It's so easy to defend the right of Joe Bloggs to take drugs when you don't see the innocent kids he's lured and turned into addicts.
Just like it's easy to defend the right of the individual to carry a knife when you haven't seen misguided youthes do a lengthy prison stretch for a foolish action, looked at the autopsy pictures of the victim, or stood behind the family at the funeral and witnessed their gut wrenching grief.
Oh, I could go on and on! Sometimes I think I'm pleased to be out of the legal system, but is it really the system that's failing? Personally I think it's the people who won't see and acknowledge what life is really like now. There's people like that in the judiciary and all walks of life - and I think they all play a part in screwing any opportunity we have of making a positive difference. We can't move forward till we collectively accept where we are now in my opinion. Oh, that's enough of my opinions - can't you tell 'law and order' is still something that riles me? :-)
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