99.9999% of the police are straight as a die. I have worked with the police as a lawyer, councillor, community activist and MP for over 20 years and they are honest, hard working, do a job that is extremely difficult, and face down things that the rest of us would struggle with. They have my full support. My point is that they particualrly have my support when others are criticising them as a force as I suspect will happen today.
They have also coped with a significant reduction in police budgets, due to the tough financial times, extremely well. Crime is down. I spoke to my local inspector last week and local rural officers. They are doing a great job
However, it would be niave not to accept that now is not a good time for the police's general reputation, following the Andrew Mitchell saga.
On any interpretation some officers on duty at Number 10 that night / subsequently have behaved badly, and the 3 officers who went to his constituency office for a meeting may have subsequently given a version of events different to the tape recorded version that Mitchell made of the meeting.
Was there an agenda linked to the police reductions in budget, and pensions review? I do not know. Have people been dishonest or worse? I cannot tell.
There are lots of apologies being made to Andrew Mitchell at the moment, and rightly so. Even Chris Bryant, the Labour MP, tweeted “It seems Andrew Mitchell has been stitched up. I am sorry I believed the police and The Sun.”
The Labour Party has already taken down its Plebgate website where they ask: “Who do you trust – the Police or Andrew Mitchell?” This was one bandwagon the Leader of the Opposition was very unwise to jump on, but the harsh reality is that if a group of policemen say one thing and a politician says another who would you believe normally? Certainly if there was not video evidence at number 10, and a tape recorder in Mitchells office would we still be debating Mitchells innocence? I think not.
This incident at Number 10 and thereafter was not normal.
I confess that I believed the police at the time, and not Andrew Mitchell.
But again I do not want the story coming out of today or future days to be an attack on the police generally. The rank and file in Northumbria do a brilliant job and will I suspect look upon the actions of some of their fellow officers with surprise and emotions probably a lot worse than regret.
But the message is simple: bad apples do not spoil a barrel. The police locally and nationally are a lot bigger, better, honest and professional than this sorry episode, and the few bad apples.
