While the details of these stories are too depressing, nasty or downright dumb to go into here, they do all speak to a refrain often heard from the within the service - that it doesn't matter how often we get things right, the times things go wrong are so over-hyped we've got no chance. It's no wonder the public hate us.
To which two obvious replies are: (a) you did (collectively or independently) actually do these things, do really expect people to ignore them; and (b) be that as it may, the public don't hate you. Some do, but many don't. Indeed, that the police remain one of the more trusted and popular public services/professions is, seen from this angle, something of a mystery.
There are many possible reasons why the police continue to be so (relatively) popular, despite 40 years of stories similar to those above. Perhaps people are just too sensible to extrapolate from a few bad apples to the whole tree. Perhaps not enough experience the truly negative side of organized British policing to have their faith shaken. If it happens to other people, the impact is just much less.
But I think the idea of faith perhaps gets closer to what's going on. For large sections of society the British police continue to represent many 'good things that have been lost' - and they will continue to cling to this through thick and thin. Equally, many people have a deep-seated need for order and stability, and the police continue, for all their faults, to represent this to them.
This is a topic which really interests me, and to which I'll no doubt return. For one thing, I think it helps explain why stories such as the above seem to have so little medium-term influence on what people think about the police.
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