A little respect

During my last set of shifts I’ve had two experiences where I’ve thought WTF I’m a police officer how dare you speak to me like that!

These weren’t shit bags these were supposedly ‘upstanding’ members of the community.
I can understand our regular customers having a go at us. Any chance we get we either arrest them/search them/ or knock their door in the middle of the night. But generally if you are ‘tidy’ with them they are ‘tidy’ with you. They know it’s a game sometimes they lose and we catch them but mostly they win and get away with it.

Saturday I was dealing with a motor cyclist I had just stopped on a busy high street, meanwhile there were two traffic wardens on the opposite side of the road booking cars. The traffic wardens have a problem with the car they are booking and call me over to assist. While I’m then helping the traffic wardens a middle aged, middle class male comes out of his shop and begins to rant in a loud irate tone at the two female wardens and myself. He’s going ‘YOU LOT ARE A BUNCH OF PARASITES, YOU ARE NEVER AROUND IN THE WEEK, ONLY ON WEEKENDS ON OVERTIME!!’ which shows what he knows. He would not calm down, the street was packed there we onlookers with their children and everything. He came so close to coming in on a section 5. But I just could not believe this was coming from a supposedly ‘upstanding’ member of society.

Then Tuesday night I’m on route to an immediate with a black female colleague when we are passing through the student area of the sector and we see a white male wearing a green shirt collapsed on the floor. We stop pull over and I approach the male who is obviously a student and out of his head on drink. I shake his shoulders and he comes round the first thing he does is say ‘FUCK OFF’ he continues swearing and saying why you bothering me. He gets to his feet, I try to get some details from him he refuses his details. Still continuing to swear and asking why we are bothering him we explain we are concerned for his safety he replies to my colleague ‘why do you care I’m white, you don’t give a fuck about me’. Again he was so close to coming in on a section 5, however we resumed to our immediate.

A few minutes later another immediate came out just around the corner from where we left this male; possible burglary in progress a male in a green shirt has just smashed the front window and gone inside. Me and my colleague know exactly who it is and divert. When we get there sure enough there he is inside, crashed out on the floor. We presume the obvious, that its his gaff and he’s lost his key. I climb through the window and let in my colleagues. I again manage to rouse him and he becomes abusive again I again ask his name this time to ascertain if he really is resident there. Again he refuses, but this time I mean it so I tell him he’s under arrest for section 110 of socap. We all struggle while I try to put the cuffs on eventually we win and throw him on the bed. All of a sudden he changes, he blurts out his name and details. He continues his dad is a judge and he’s studying law and begs us to not lock him up. Lucky for him we confirm he lives there and release him. (the damage is now between him and his landlord to sort out, I guess he won’t be seeing his bond back)

Again I just can’t get over how these supposedly ‘good’ law abiding people can treat us like we are shit. What is going on in society do people really have that little respect for us?