The police are having an identity crisis

What are the police for? The answer used to be obvious – to solve crimes and catch criminals. But now, I’d seriously have to think about it; going on the evidence of recent years, I’d probably conclude that they’re being paid to have a laugh, signal virtue and, of course, dance. Plod’s attempts at ‘getting down’ at the Notting Hill Carnival are legendarily embarrassing; last month, Lincolnshire police proudly shared a video of them doing the Macarena at Pride on the force’s official Twitter account. When people look back for an image to sum up the disintegration of our society, one of our own ‘Nero fiddling while Rome burns’ moments will surely be ‘the police dancing the Macarena at Pride while rape becomes essentially decriminalised.’

I remarked on the sinister side of the police here a few months back, noting their startling misogyny which includes everything from using images of stalked, attacked and murdered women as their own private pornography stash to the brotherly solidarity they showed to the grooming gangs, ignoring the terrified children who summed up the courage to report their rape and torture, sometimes to the point of arresting the girls themselves for ‘disorderly behaviour’.