The police have become too politicised to function

Of the many admirable demands made by supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement, such as dismantling capitalism and making white people pay for centuries of vile oppression, none commended themselves to me more than the demand that we should defund the police. This is a hugely attractive proposition, I thought, as I watched the chief constable of Kent, Alan Pughsley, ‘take the knee’ in solidarity with people who want him abolished.

I felt much the same upon hearing the words of Superintendent Andrew ‘Andy’ Bennett of Avon and Somerset Police, who watched as BLM protestors threw a statue of Edward Colston into the river. ‘Andy’ instructed his men to do nothing at all — because, as he explained, guarding the statue may have led to problems, and the last thing the police want is problems. Later, when asked what would happen to the people identified on camera for this act of public vandalism, he said: ‘We might ask some people to voluntarily attend a police station. But we haven’t got that far.’ No, indeed — don’t put yourself out, Andy, whatever you do. Defund now, then.

The police do not do what we want them to do, and have not done so for a very long time. By ‘we’, I mean the vast mass of people who pay their wages through our taxes. We would quite like the police to catch people who break into our homes and steal things, for example. Currently, in England and Wales, 97 per cent of burglaries go unsolved, the success rate having halved since 2013. In other words, if you are burgled, it is next to useless ringing the filth — although if you’re really lucky I suppose they might offer you counselling. Better to assuage your anger than solve the crime.

In response to the appalling stats, the Metropolitan Police commented that burglary presented ‘particular challenges’ in finding culprits.