Tony Madge. If you look me up in Who's Who, you will find that I am , perhaps, not just " an armchair critic" as you call me so disparagingly. It is your sort of attitude which has caused such trouble , and in particular , has resulted in Juries being so sceptical , and cynical , about the police, with , as I have said, disastrous consequences . Perhaps, on mature reflection, you may think that an apology is in order for your intemperate post
Would be better if you told me who you were rather than direct me somewhere, after all I told you who I was and how I could quantify my comments on a basis of experience.
My attitude sir, well I could go on about the various things "my attitude" did with 28 years of service the many commendations for doing my job, the people I worked closely with inside the community, I served for many years on the beat then front line policing, fast response driver, how many times have you been threatened that your about to be put in a body bag, that your being followed home, your family are going to be...well I wont go into the gory details, I wont tell you about being just with one other officer in the middle of 2000 people "kicking off" that's when you realise how quick your reactions have to be...thank goodness for adrenaline
But I forgot to mention that the other bit of the job that people forget, its not all war and battles, no it's going to homes and telling people that their loved one has been killed in an accident, sometimes that loved one is 10 years old. I destroyed a family that night and that stayed with me for as long as the violent threats that sometimes get to your head and make sleep difficult. You see there are many jobs that the police do and never get reported. I don't doubt that the bad apples are there, just these days they are quickly removed and that is good for public trust. Sadly senior managers in the Police now are more concerned about ACE jobs (arse covering exercises) than serving the public, they make decisions that the boys and girls on the front line have to pay the price for.....
So you want an apology? The only thing I am sorry for is you your lack of knowledge on a subject that is close to many who have given service to their community who would find your comments misjudged etc, maybe your a high court judge? I do not know and I do not care all I would say is that the public need the police to keep our communities safer, the police need the public to support them to do this.....
I am not on Who's Who not even a clue as to what qualifies a person to be on it, in fact I am not really interested in that. I have enjoyed my work in the police and only in the last few years I saw so many changes that made me realise it was time to go. One last thing, I decided that my goal every day was to make a difference to at least one person on my "patch". That may have been something that to some was low level but to the person concerned very important. It may have been something far more higher profile, but I kept to that policy, sadly due to this awful Governments attitude to the public sector that job of "making a difference" got harder and harder to do... That was when I knew it was time to go..
So Sir that's me and why I made those comments, I do not know what your job is or was I am sure you did a very good job and in a professional manner that was a credit to you. I would hope that if I made disparaging remarks about your role you would tell me off for not researching my subject and also not to believe everything that goes into a newspaper...
