Why have our police lost their ありふれた sense?

A father of two is 運ぶ／漁獲高d from his bed by police at three o'clock in the morning, wrongly 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑うd of stealing a plasma television.

Simon Brasch is then 捨てるd in a 独房 for 11 hours because officers are too busy to を取り引きする him.

He is therefore unable to 示唆する to them that they have made a mistake. Which, as it transpires, they most egregiously have.

Four police cars 含む／封じ込めるing seven officers screech to a bowling green with サイレン／魅惑的なs wailing.

They have come to question 50 mostly 年輩の club members who are 静かに playing bowls, 恐らく after 辞退するing to 支払う／賃金 a 25 per cent rent 増加する 適用するd by the 地元の 会議.

Aberrations? In one sense, perhaps. Police do not behave like this all the time.

Yet these two 出来事/事件s from different parts of the country have been 報告（する）／憶測d within the past 24 hours.

Every week, いつかs every day, there are 類似の 報告（する）／憶測s of police 大いに overreacting to very minor 出来事/事件s.

Scroll 負かす／撃墜する for more

On the （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域: An old-fashioned 巡査, Dixon of ドッキングする／減らす／ドックに入れる Green

Occasionally they are 乱すing ones. Last week this paper wrote about the appalling 事例／患者 of Jamie Bauly, an 18-year-old young man who has 負かす／撃墜する's syndrome and a mental age of a five-year- old.

He had been 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金d by police in Scotland with 人種差別主義 and 強襲，強姦 after an altercation with a young Asian girl at his special needs school. Jamie, who cannot tie his own shoe laces, was so put through the mill by the police that he was terrified he would be sent to 刑務所，拘置所.

HAM-FISTED

I could 供給する innumerable other examples. There was the 事例／患者 of a Somerset pub landlady 調査／捜査するd by police for 刺激するing racial 憎悪 after she had encouraged children to throw darts at a Welsh 旗 during a St George's Day 祝賀.

Or remember how a couple of years ago 78 police officers arrived in 議会 Square in the middle of the night to 除去する the 孤独な antiwar 抗議する人 Brian Haw, and his cardboard 陳列する，発揮する.

One of my favourite stories 関心s a student in my home town of Oxford who was thrown in 刑務所，拘置所 after asking a 機動力のある policeman: "Do you know that your horse is gay".

He then 追加するd: "I hope you are comfortable riding a gay horse." A police 広報担当者 later said that his 発言／述べるs had been "不快な／攻撃 to the police and his horse".

And so on. I could fill a 調書をとる／予約する with such 出来事/事件s - perhaps one day I will. Whether they are funny or serious, they tend to 含む／封じ込める the same elements.

Police 答える／応じる to a minor 出来事/事件 in a ham-握りこぶしd and 激しい-手渡すd way, （軍隊を）展開する，配備するing many more 資源s than are necessary for them to do the 職業. Often they are taking on an 平易な 的 in the 原因（となる） of political correctness.

Most of us will have our own personal examples of the police overreacting. How often have we seen a police car weaving insanely through traffic at breakneck 速度(を上げる）s in 返答 to some very trivial 出来事/事件? And we all have our own experiences of officers behaving brusquely, even rudely, when we have done something very わずかに wrong - if it was wrong at all.

How, and why, has this happened? There was a time not so long ago when the police were recognised by most British 国民s for their approachability, reasonableness, moderation and good sense.

We were 感謝する that we lived in a country in which the police did not 耐える 武器, and were not 見解（をとる）d as 代表者／国会議員s of a distant, forbidding 明言する／公表する.

Unlike many of their contine ntal 隣人s, the British did not 恐れる 当局. We were not 用心深い of the police, and mostly felt that we were on the same 味方する.

Innocent people knew that their houses would not be 侵略するd in the 早期に hours of the morning, and they took it for 認めるd that a backward child would not be 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金d with a 罪，犯罪 that he could not conceivably understand.

The 変形 has taken no more than 20 or 30 years - and it seems to have gathered 軍隊 recently. Perhaps, in the police's defence, it could be said that they have become more 積極的な and detached as society has grown more violent.

Maybe some sort of 退却／保養地 has been 軍隊d on them. But this hardly explains their habit of 耐えるing 負かす／撃墜する on soft 的s with such disproportionate 軍隊.

BULLYING

It is easier, of course, to 脅迫してさせる a group of blameless bowls players than it is to chase real 犯罪のs. That must be part of the explanation. Then there is the 天罰（を下す） of political correctness, which 始める，決めるs up lots of soft 的s that can be easily 選ぶd off by over-熱心な police officers.

より小数の of these things would happen if the calibre of 上級の policemen, and in particular 長，指導者 constables, was higher. Doubtless some of them are intelligent and thoughtful people.

But it is one of the paradoxes of modern policing that as 上級の officers have 恐らく become better educated - with their degrees in sociology and criminology from いつかs not very distinguished universities - so they have become more detached from the communities they are supposed to serve.

They, rather than the policemen on the （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域, should まず第一に／本来 be held accountable. If ordinary policemen いつかs use a 大打撃を与える to 割れ目 a nut, it is 最終的に the 責任／義務 of their bosses, who have not 設立するd and communicated the 権利 優先s.

I 受託する that many policemen on the ground do a splendid 職業, and are 勇敢に立ち向かう and long-苦しむing and often polite, and I understand that in the end it is they who 保存する us from anarchy and lawlessness.

Not all officers seem to realise, though, that most 国民s are instinctively on their 味方する, and are their natural 同盟（する）s.

The police 軍隊 has become a self-enclosed cadre distrustful of, and often 不信d by, ordinary people.

It is いつかs afflicted by a 肉親，親類d of institutional stupidity that takes the form of いじめ（る）ing, and is also ますます 設立する in other 組織／臓器s of the 明言する／公表する.

地元の 会議s are いつかs just as 激しい-手渡すd - 証言，証人／目撃する the 公式の／役人s in Poole who recently 秘かに調査するd on a couple they 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑うd of trying to こそこそ動く their daughter into an 幼児 school, or the 会議 in Cumbria which took a man to 法廷，裁判所 for having overfilled his wheelie-貯蔵所 by four インチs, for which heinous 罪，犯罪 he was 罰金d £210.

OFFICIOUS

This is nothing いっそう少なく than a new form of 明言する／公表する 圧迫 that until やめる recently was foreign to this country, and something we associated with far いっそう少なく blessed realms. Does the 政府 care? No, it is covertly encouraging such behaviour.

It would be ludicrous to imagine that Jacqui Smith, the unimpressive Home 長官, has the remotest 願望（する） to 改革（する） the police, or that she would be 有能な of doing so even if she 手配中の，お尋ね者 to. Do the Tories have any better ideas?

欠如（する） of compassion, self-righteousness and a 肉親，親類d of dogged officiousness: these are ますます the hallmarks of the British 明言する／公表する as it touches our everyday lives.

Even a few years ago no one could have guessed that of all our 会・原則s the once 心にいだくd British police would ever put themselves at 半端物s with ordinary 法律-がまんするing 国民s, and that we would be so distrustful of them.