The Supreme Intellect of Sir Ian Blair
As has been recorded at length elsewhere, Ian Blair, my beloved master, recently gave a speech where he lauded his own intellect by damning himself with faint praise. He suggested that people were surprised that such an intellectual colossus as he should join the understairs ranks of the police service.
Ian Blair has consistently made comments and introduced policies that are at variance to the opinions of his underlings. He was responsible for Police and Community Support Officers for a start. He is also blatantly political, which is a shocking deviation from the traditions of the police in this country.
Aside for all that, the one comment that sticks in my mind is his suggestion that middle-class drug users should be targeted by the police.
My views on crime and the middle-classes are based on two tests: is anyone else hurt and do their actions cost more to the economy than they personally contribute. Now, I realise that drug use may hurt others several times removed from the purchaser, but to cut to basics - snorting a line of coke only really hurts your nostrils. Most middle-class drug users are in full-time employment and support their habits by legitimate means. They should not be a policing priority.
Interesting that this policy of Blair's never seems to have come to fruition...
posted by World Weary Detective @ 9:47 PM
6 comments
6 Comments:
I really hope that you are joking about drugs not hurting anyone.
So I suppose that if your surgeon is a crackhead it would be okay if he fiddled with your family's health.
The higher up the social ladder the more responsibilty a person has and hence bigger mistakes get made so I would not be giving a pass on the drug use to the middle class.
Would you trust a collegue with your life if you knew he was a user? Not bloody likely.
The money that is given to criminals by all social classes put officers in danger and puts the public in danger.
It is this sort of thinking and mixed message that a lot of children in school hear and emulate. In Canada the federal government wants to decriminalize small use of pot. Highschool kids interpreted this to mean that pot was legal and the crap is rampant in the schools. This is not the poor but the middle and upper class (our future) Please note the THC in today's pot is significantly higher than that of the 60's and 70's.
Middle class drug use is not a victim-less crime is a threat to safety and security.
The police, like every other public body, are funded by the tax payer. The public tell us what they want us to do, and we decide how to achieve said aims. We are set targets and objectives. The priorites of the public are street robbery, anti-social behaviour, burglary and terrorism. Drug supply, ie street dealers, is somewhat further down the list. Middle-class drug users do not appear at all. Therefore we will not use finite police resources to tackle this. A surgeon who is off his head on crack is no more or less dangerous than a heavily drunk surgeon. Both are extremely unlikely scenarios. Excessive drug use is easily identifed and leads to loss of employment. Cigarettes are legal and are also rampant in schools.
Many times the public relies on the police to identify and adress crime trends (it called trust- thats what they pay us to do). public consultation is part of good policing but at the end of the day the public expects us to protect them from themselves- yes it sounds patronizing but it the truth.
Property crimes are linked to drugs.
Terrorism is financed by drugs.
Antisocial behaviour- heavy drug use can cause/lead to mental illness or is the result of drugs.
Street robbery- to buy drugs.
Maybe the motivation in Britain is different than in Canada, but here its driven by drugs, the middle class are the victims of property offences due to the need to feed drug habits. The overall quality of life of all (except the rich) is affected by drugs and the people that use them.
There are many health care professionals who like alcoholics and functional addicts I would not want either working on me.
There is a big difference between cigs (yes will eventually kill you 20-40 years down the road but dope (uncontrolled/laced with other substances in a formative brain can lead to induced schizophrenia).
As I work out of a special unit that deals with the above it is not some queer little brainstorm on the part of Blair.
Now if we could just get the judges and lawyers on side and apparently some police officers. if you want your murder rate up just let drugs flow free.
You say: "the middle class are the victims of property offences due to the need to feed drug habits" The middle-class drug users do not commit crime to feed their own habits. That is my argument. They are one-way traffic.
Not only do the middle class users not cause any harm, they also out money into the hands of the (presumably) have nots selling the drugs.
Middle class drug users do cause harm. The drugs trade is one of the few free markets left in this world. (thankfully, i dont want to buy star bucks reefer) Their willingness to buy at higher prices mean the working class drug users have to pay more (steal more) to feed their habbit.
Just my 2p.
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