"Brian Paddick: Britain's most controversial police chief"

[Fruitloop]

The police have two roles:

1) because society is increasingly atomised and dysfunctional under capitalism, community control of anti-social behaviour no longer functions as it previously did. The police provide a professionalised stand-in for the absent systems of socialisation, and one that is being extended further into every area of life as late capitalism follows its alienating trajectory

2) they are the paid enforcers of state power. This role is also being extended from last-ditch defence of elite interests to enforcement of primarily bureaucratic and concerns - debt, fines, licensing etc.

 

[chegrimandi]

I'm sure he can do a lot of wrong, but it was refreshing having a cop in my area who I thought was actually listening to the community.

do you think he made any tangible difference or had any tangible benefits to the working classes his force policed repressively? Or was he as I suspect a sop to liberal values - a nice guy in all likelihood but pretty much an irrelevance - or has he a lasting legacy? Genuine question.

 

[Balbi]

Ah but countering that, and not answering your question per se.

Do you think people are generally more critical of the police high ups as a result of what Paddick proved they all were capable of should they decide to take that course?

 

[editor]

do you think he made any tangible difference or had any tangible benefits to the working classes his force policed repressively?

I can only speak for myself, but I'd say he made a positive difference around Brixton and, of course, he changed the laws towards possession of small amounts of cannabis.

Paddick's legacy was that Brixton's liberal approach to cannabis possession was adopted nationally in January 2004 when David Blunkett, then Home Secretary, downgraded the drug from class B to class C. Police ceased to treat possession of cannabis as an arrestable offence in most situations.

 

[editor]

You're on the wrong site for this kind of pointless nonsense.

 

[Balbi]

You're on the wrong site for this kind of pointless nonsense.

I laughed - twiglet/twilight. I remember those adverts.

 

[knopf]

You're on the wrong site for this kind of pointless nonsense.

So no visual gags on "twilight zone"?

 

[chegrimandi]

I can only speak for myself, but I'd say he made a positive difference around Brixton and, of course, he changed the laws towards possession of small amounts of cannabis.

fair enough - then as you live there and I don't I'd have to respect your opinion on that.

Has that meant a difference to kids around the streets of Brixton then?

 

[knopf]

I laughed - twiglet/twilight. I remember those adverts.

Ta. At least someone appreciates my comic genius. *sob*

 

[Balbi]

Ta. At least someone appreciates my comic genius. *sob*

"genius" <-- steady now

 

[editor]

Has that meant a difference to kids around the streets of Brixton then?

Before Paddick took charge it really felt that the place was falling apart at the seams: dealers were taking the piss and walking through Coldharbour Lane was like a visit to a middle eastern drug bazaar.

What positive differences he made - and the fact that he earned the support of a sizeable chunk of the community speaks volumes of his efforts - have largely been eroded away with ever-changing policing policies since.

 

[Kid_Eternity]

Ta. At least someone appreciates my comic genius. *sob*

I thought it was a veiled reference to Spaced...

 

[Balbi]

I thought it was a veiled reference to Spaced...

A+, hadn't even spotted that.

"and you punched an artist in the face"

"shit, i shouldn't eat twiglets"

"why not?"

"they make me violent"

 

[knopf]

I thought it was a veiled reference to Spaced...

Errrrr..... yes. Yes it was. And a very clever one too.

 

[laptop]

We could live in a society where Mr.Paddick's attempt to listen to his community would be seen as normal, as opposed to weird or anarchistic (etc).

Innit.

And I'm convinced that it was his tendency to talk and listen to people outside the force - and to tell much more of the truth than is usual while doing so - that was the real irritant. The code phrase is "not being a team player." For example, telling a bunch of journalists (in response to questions about cameras being seized): "Unfortunately there are colleagues of mine who feel that to protect the reputation of the police... they have to cover things up... even if you secure evidence of police behaving inappropriately."

If I'm right, then the cannabis pragmatism and the anti-gay stuff were just handy sticks with which to beat him for this.

I'm tempted to say it's not hero-worship, it's surprise at finding a vaguely edible apple in a barrel of bad'uns. But the metaphor's going all wrong in my hands

 

[chegrimandi]

Before Paddick took charge it really felt that the place was falling apart at the seams: dealers were taking the piss and walking through Coldharbour Lane was like a visit to a middle eastern drug bazaar.

What positive differences he made - and the fact that he earned the support of a sizeable chunk of the community speaks volumes of his efforts - have largely been eroded away with ever-changing policing policies since.

so to solve the manifest problems of brixton he liberalised the laws on a soft drug. Hmmpphhhh - would that have made a huge difference?

he might have had a bit of a vested interest in that given that he liked a toke himself.

what were his actions re: smack & crack?

 

[editor]

so to solve the manifest problems of brixton he liberalised the laws on a soft drug.

Err, he did far more than that and it's all well documented here and elsewhere.

Have you not read the Indie piece I linked to?

 

[chegrimandi]

Have you not read the Indie piece I linked to?

oh I've already read that! It was on 'a much smaller website' much before the news broke here...

 

[MatthewCuffe]

Innit.

And I'm convinced that it was his tendency to talk and listen to people outside the force - and to tell much more of the truth than is usual while doing so - that was the real irritant. The code phrase is "not being a team player." For example,

Exactly. Unfortunate, since talking and listening to people inside and outside the institution you are involved in is precisely how to run a good team.

I have no doubt from reading a number of documents on the case (provided by the Editor) that Mr.Paddick was punished precisely because he was successful.

The notion that people in his community supporting him was idolatory or hero-worship is an indictment of how little we expect from each other; how little we trust each other; how little we listen to one another. When somebody is respected for genuine achievements, that becomes "hero-worship", and is rendered from a positive to a negative.

When success is failure, you know something has gone wrong in a society.

 

[Stobart Stopper]

, he changed the laws towards possession of small amounts of cannabis.

I don't think it was him, it was the Home Office.
And despite what people think Brian did not pioneer the Brixton "softly-softly on cannabis project", it was put to him as an idea from those at the top and he decided to take it up to see if it would work. That's what we heard anyway. He's just become the scapegoat for it as it obviously didn't work as well as it was supposed to. Mainly becasue the media wouldn't let it drop and portrayed Brixton as a place where you could openly deal, buy and smoke dope, when that wasn't really the case at all.

 

[MatthewCuffe]

Does 'gardening leave' mean literal gardening?

Is Mr.Paddick turning into another Renaissance man like Derek Jarman?

http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/exhibitions/artofthegarden/artistsgardens_jarman.htm

 

[Stobart Stopper]

Does 'gardening leave' mean literal gardening?

Is Mr.Paddick turning into another Renaissance man like Derek Jarman?

Someone needs to photoshop a pic of Alan Titchmarsh I reckon!

 

[MatthewCuffe]

I once ended up, very bored, in a supermarket in Todmorden (the town where Harold Shipman murdered his patients, and something of an inspiration for Royston Vasey) reading the first page of an Alan Titchmarsh novel.

And then something hit me: I had taken profoundly the wrong turning in my life, utterly, utterly, profoundly, totally wrong.

Our society has taken the wrong turn, and spiralled down and down.

We don't need people of Mr.Paddick's talent to go on 'gardening leave'.

We need them running the show.

 

[editor]

It was on 'a much smaller website' much before the news broke here...

Fascinating.

 

[chegrimandi]

Fascinating.

thought you'd be interested. I could probably get you a log in - but I can't make any promises. A bit of cash might help as a sweetner.

 

[audiotech]

...........

 

[editor]

thought you'd be interested. I could probably get you a log in - but I can't make any promises. A bit of cash might help as a sweetner.

Why would anyone pay cash to read the arse-dull outpourings of an ever-decreasing amount of urban75-obsessed ex-posters endlessly infighting about an inconsequential clique that seems to have more rules than active posters?

Don't bother answering that by the way.

 

[Stobart Stopper]

thought you'd be interested. I could probably get you a log in - but I can't make any promises. A bit of cash might help as a sweetner.

Who needs to pay? When there are at LEAST 10 registered log ins/passwords doing the rounds?

 

[Kid_Eternity]

Eh?

 

[Bajie]

It seems to me that Paddick's problem is that he is too honest, which is a rare quality in any public employee of the upper ranks. The usal way is arse licking, covering your own back and towing the line, no matter what the current line is.