Six Metropolitan Police officers have been suspended after they were accused of dunking suspects' heads in buckets of water. The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) confirmed it is investigating the conduct of Enfield-based officers during drugs raids in the borough in November last year. Just seen this on the news.....Have they been watching too much Ashes to Ashes....?!! Love that program...its so delightfully un-pc!!                                                                                                                                                                             

Oh dear what a shame, I guess they should of sat the perps down and given them a cup of tea and a biscuit and asked them nicely to tell them if they had been naughty.   Bring on Gene Hunt...*Fire up the Kettle* NOT!                                                                                                                                                                             

My brother-in-law's brother (if you can follow that), an ex-con, was arrested for something he steadfastly refused he hadn't done.   When it went before the Judge for the hearing, the Judge wanted to know why the Police didn't ever even look at the CCTV footage showing him leaving a nightclub at the time of the crime, why they chose someone who had known him for sometime to pick him out of a line up and why, before his solicitor arrived, he was rushed out of the interview room, put in an ambulance and taken to hospital with a bust eye and split head!!!   And then the Police wonder why no one respects them!                                                                                                                                                                             

and it's hardly like they had a life/time-critical issue like a bomb about to go off they needed to sort out!  It was just a drugs raid, probably a few kids selling weed                                                                                                                                                                             

My Uncle is now retired and glad he is...as in his words he would be ashamed to serve in the policeforce nowadays...what more can be said?                                                                                                                                                                              

Matt: "It was just a drugs raid"   So we let them carry on dealing and screwing people up then do we? Sore point mate, very sore point.                                                                                                                                                                             

I have to put my two pennies worth in as I have had long conversations about this with my other half, he has been in the force for over 20 years. The media recently have been very quick make bad press of anything that is wrong in the police service, and so they should. What we forget is that times have changed especially in attitude towards the police and part of that is down to the small minority of men who step over the line. These guys go out on the street day in day out, they are insulted spat at, threatened and literally do not know what is around the corner. The pay is crap the hours are terrible, they have a very very strict code of conduct so they are always treading on eggshells. So yes these guys did overstep the mark but I'm sure if you had to raid a house and you didn't know if what was behind the door was a shotgun, knife or explosive it may just push you over the edge.Though that is no excuse.   By the way my partner did 5 years in Northern Ireland in the 80's and he recons life for a policeman now is far more dangerous than most tours of duty.                                                                                                                                                                             

Hmmm... the media call anything from frisking a few kids in a club, to a co-ordinated effort across a city/region, following months of intelligence-gathering to take out the biggest known drug dealers/crack houses a "drugs raid".

The media also like to blow a story out of all proportion and LOVE it when Police, MPs, Bishops, Royalty or any other representation of "The State" screw up. Oodles of potential column inches and filling dead air time during 24 hour coverage!

The Police are up against the wall these days - there's more "human rights" legislation than you can shake a stick at - fall-out from the Stephen Lawrence & De Menezes enquiries also means the Met is still in a state of flux, adopting and adapting measures to prevent repetition of such incidents - they're slated for being too hard, slated for being too soft... They can't even call themselves a "Force" any longer. It's "Police Service".

As for the Community Support Officers? Ye gads! Who'd do that job? Little respect from your "proper" Police colleagues, naff all respect from Joe Public, very little in the way of powers and pretty much zilch in the way of protection. They're in the front line day in, day out, dealing with the good old fashioned "beat" stuff - facing little scrotes with knives, guns and goodness knows what else, yet they're not allowed to carry so much as a flipping asp! (Unless things have changed since their introduction - I know it was the case when they started up)

Yes, the Police have got to be pulled up when they step beyond the mark - nobody wants a return to "he fell down the steps to the cells, yer Honour" days, but - *hands up - guilty!* - I'm pretty sure I'd be likely to start dishing out slaps unnecessarily if I had to face what they do day in, day out.

                                                                                                                                                                             

GH - i'm almost always on the side of the police, having worked for GMP for the first 6 years of my working life.  I know (and have seen) the crap they go through every day.   However... my point, which is indeed valid (though you're entitled to your opinion), was that this isn't a terrorist about to blow up a city.  So yea they may be criminals doing wrong, but there's other methods of getting information out of people.  Waterboarding someone should be reserved entirely for when another person's life depends on getting an answer out of the suspect.  Not just cos they're criminals, as we already have appropriate (well sometimes) methods of dealing with them.  It's not a 'sore point' at all!                                                                                                                                                                             

When you said they'd been suspended, i thought we'd brought back hanging!!  These people weren't criminals. there just scuzzy little lowlifes with no respect for any one but themselves. a wash probably did em a bit of good.                                                                                                                                                                             

  I didn't mean a sore point in general (theres cream for that!)   I read earlier they dunked his head in a bucket of water, thats not waterboarding.....thats apple bobbing lol.                                                                                                                                                                             

I left a country that is lawless , a life could be worth a packet of ciggies , literally ! murder and rape is delegated to the inside pages of the national news , the commissioner of the police force who also was the director of Interpol and has tight connections with the local MOB is still on full pay with full benefits at the expense of the taxpayer , i and my close family had 2 narrow escapes in the 14 days before arriving in the UK ! corruption on a grand scale has become a way of life and trickles down to effect everyone , traffic laws are non existent , speed fines can be taken care of , the list goes on and on ...This morning i found a fine on the windscreen of my car for 70-00 ..less 50% if paid in time and i'm not complaining , at least i know someone is doing their job . Excuse my little rant on this site but i'm glad that i'm a british citizen and got out in time .

Yeah its a bugger trying to get out of Wales isn't it Excalibur lol                                                                                                                                                                             

You mean if i'm homesick i should go to Wales ? ha ha lol                                                                                                                                                                             

murder and rape is delegated to the inside pages of the national news

That's when you really know where you're living has got it bad
                                                                                                                                                                             

There's good and bad in them all. I've been pulled over by some real arrogant b*****ds but also by some that have been really ok. Still say when it comes to "peaceful protesters" they should do like the the European law do. As soon as it kicks off steam into them.                                                                                                                                                                             

I've been pulled over by some right odd ones... Including one that just kept shining his torch down at my legs... I could've understood it, had he been shining it down into the footwell - i.e. looking for hastily dropped substances or whatever... but no - it was definitely trained on my mini-skirt-clad legs as I answered his questions politely like a good little girl

It got to the point where I finally challenged him on it as I was getting really uncomfortable. The minute I challenged him, his whole attitude changed and he brushed me off as quickly as possible... I was so weirded out by the whole experience, that I was just grateful to get away, but I wish I'd had the presence of mind to take his number and report him. It's really not on, using your "power" to lech at women in short skirts! 

But my best is still the one where I was stopped because I was accelerating and I "looked like" I might be going to break the speed limit! I loved that one! So take care out there chaps and chapesses - every time you're accelerating, an Officer of the Law may just flag you down in case you might speed at any point in the future!
                                                                                                                                                                             

As ricdude says there are good and bad in all walks of life , weed out the bad and make examples of them in court , i'm sure life behind bars is no walk in the park for an ex-cop thats disgraced his profession , but in the same token take good care of the decent guys that work by the book ! IMAGINE for a few minutes life without law enforcers ...Wannabe , it could have been much worse if the torch holder was'nt a cop , but i guess you have an occasional chuckle over the incident ? Robbie burns said "a mans a man for all that" after all !lol

I do have a chuckle now & think oh well, he was just perving... but I was pretty shaken up at the time and had to pull over a short distance up the road for a good ol' boo, as I was simply incapable of driving. The experience really frightened me.

I was only in my early 20s and being a good little motorist... He'd followed me for over 5 miles and only stuck the blue lights on to pull me over when I indicated to turn into my town.

After I pulled him up on what he was doing, he refused to tell me why I'd been stopped or what he'd been doing. That in itself is wrong - they're SUPPOSED to have a valid reason for stopping you, even if it's just a "spot check" or whatever else they want to call it and they're supposed to communicate it to you.

The questioning was also inappropriate in my mind: questions like "Why are you out so late? Where have you been?" WTF? None of your bloody business! We're not on a curfew in the UK! It wasn't even midnight FFS! But of course, at the time, I was too scared to speak up and answered the questions like a schoolgirl pulled up in front of the Headmistress!

Of course, a few years later, after I got myself a Capri, I became well seasoned in the art of the tug, as I was pulled over every 7-10 days on average, so it became 2nd nature to deal with them!

If the torch bearer hadn't been a cop? Well, I simply wouldn't stop for anyone else - but if you don't stop for a marked police car and blue flashing lights, they tend to get their feathers slightly ruffled

Despite being able to look back and chuckle at the incident now, it's still wrong for a person to use their position of authority and perceived power to perve in my opinion!

  That reminds me of the time a friend of mine collected me, from a pub, in the evening in her car. Shortly after we set off there was an unmarked van up the ar*e of the car, I said to my friend 'oh pull into this garage and let the impatient idiot pass us' so she did, only the van followed us.   Jeez! I was bricking it. A man got out and walked towards the car, I noticed he was in a police uniform. Bldy idiot! frightened us both to death. Reason he followed us? cos my friend had forgotten to turn her bldy lights on!  And I was the one who had been drinking, not her lol