You’re being a little too optimistic, there. It might not be the same toxic culture, but ACAB.
The UK force has its problems, but it functions fairly well. It also has a lot of people in it who honestly want to do a good job.
The problem is the rules and mandates coming down from the government. (And the political upper management level of the police)
They seem to put an inordinate amount of effort into suppressing free speech, prioritizing it over going after actual fucking crimes.
Agreed on that. Though in the scale of the UK there aren’t that many cases. The ones there are however, are (deliberately) high profile. It has a chilling effect on the population, without needing to use it much.
They also hamstring the bobbies via the budget assignments. I know a lot of forces would love to get rid of some of the more overtly racist/sexist/other-ist officers. Their budget limits wages however, which limits the selection of replacements. They end up having to try and weed out the ringleaders (to fire or retire) and split the followers up.
The long and the short, most of the police are working class and do the job to try and make our country better. Some are even trying to counter the bullshit rolling down from on high.
Geth@lemmy.dbzer0.com 17 hours ago
I have been stopped while doing something illegal that was a minor infraction, but still caught red handed, could have easily been fined, but was let go with a verbal promise to do better and the whole interaction was very civil. Also a few months ago the police recovered stolen items and managed to detective their way to me to return them as well as caught the bastards that did it. The whole process was honestly impressive and the cops I dealt with were just awesome. My interaction with police throughout my life has been at worst neutral but mostly positive. In Europe ACAB is bullshit as far as I’m concerned and anyone who uses it here is memeing after the Americans where it sounds like it’s 100% applicable.
anguo@piefed.ca 16 hours ago
‘Europe’ is a generalisation though. I’m sure this might ring true in Scandinavia and some other northern countries, but might also be a completely different story in Greece, Italy, etc.
I mean, yes, saying ACAB is a blatant generalisation too.