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Buk: ah. Okay, sorry if that came off snide. I suppose I ought to contribute something more than just a throwaway piece of cynicism...
The truth is, I don't know when I'd call the police, because I haven't been put into a situation in which I'd need to consider calling them since my views on them have been substantially altered (ie, in the past year and a half or more). Like sfd, this has been partly through seeing them at demos (I don't want to bore the people who've heard it before with my 'I-was-in-Oxford-Circus-on-Mayday-for-the-likes-of-you' memoirs, but will do if asked - anyway, my own experience is completely insignificant when contrasted what any of us could see, even on mainstream TV, even of the relatively restrained British police's behaviour). There's nothing like seeing a large group of state-sanctioned, heavily armed individuals looking at you like you're utter fucking scum and thinking "hang on a minute - I'm not doing anything 'wrong', am I? I'm not a 'criminal'? but these people could do whatever they liked to me, couldn't they, and who would stop them, and who would care?", to give you a new perspective on the relationship between the public and the police...
To answer one of Buk's questions, I think that "state-defined justice" is a contradiction in terms, certainly as long as we're talking about the definition of 'state' that's applicable to all of us, and probably even in abstract, idealistic terms.
And the question of 'trust' is a bit of a misleading one. I trust the police to do their best to fulfill their primary functions. The primary functions of any nation's police force are to act as a piece of state aparatus, to maintain state instituions and to protect property from the majority, as Chomsky put it, or to stop people what don't have things from taking 'em from those what do, to quote (badly) a character in Conrad's The Secret Agent. This is done primarily through the threat of violence.
I expect this to go down well with the "some of my best friends are in the Met" contingent...
But my point is, it's very easy for me to come out with the kind of political theory above, and I do think that it's valid and true: however, what my own personal response would and will be should my flat ever get burgled, or should I get mugged on the way home, etc, has not been tested. And it will probably still be to call the cops. Next question: is it possible to take the dimmest view possible of the police as an instituion and yet still want to fall back on that institution when it suits you? Hmmm...
[ 07-01-2002: Message edited by: Flyboy ] |
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