Quote:
Originally Posted by Lord Nikon
Apart from the soccer match coverage, what would a police strike MEAN? less speed traps? That's the only place you tend to see police these days...
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*Sigh*
Another one into the media trap. Do you honestly think the Police all just sit about each and every day behind a speed gun waiting to catch the poor innocent motorist? Perhaps you'd like to guess how many traffic tickets the average cop issues annually?
The fact is the Police have got a huge amount of extra work piled onto them (especially in England and Wales, Scotland is OK but slowly the paperwork fairies are gaining strength) and not a huge amount of extra resources to deal with it.
Do you have any idea how long a 'simple' case takes a cop to deal with when all the form filling and duplication of work is taken into account?
Cops these days have a far greater workload and deal with things that even a few years ago wouldn't have got near the Police, sadly these days a lot of people aren't capable of looking after themselves and the Police get tied up with petty disputes and squabbles.
The Police probably won't ever go on strike and I never though I'd even want them to have that option but seeing the arrogance and pettiness of this government in ripping up a deal thats worked perfectly well for 30 years without consultation and then ignoring the decision reached by an arbitration panel makes me think that possibly they should have this right after all.
This government is determined to destroy the current system of Policing in this country and it
will come back to haunt them.
People say the Police shouldn't be treated differently than other workers but I disagree. Very few other jobs place the restrictions on your personal life that being a Police officer does. In very few other jobs your conduct off-duty can get you fired just as easily as your conduct on-duty.
Very few other jobs expect you to deal with whatever happens without question or complaint, it's not uncommon to deal with horrific injuries or deaths and then straightaway have to be nice to some thieving junkie who chooses to steal and slowly kill themselves yet still demands the world when caught.
Apologies if this comes across as cranky and bad-tempered but seeing I've only had 3 hours sleep in the last 36 hours and thanks to nightshift and court I probably won't get much more until about 2 tomorrow afternoon.
To put up with that and still deal with whatever the job throws at you takes a lot.
The pay dispute isn't about the money. For most cops it's a couple of pounds a week.
It's about the trust between the government and the Police and right now there isn't any.