Disillusioned
When I was a young boy I don’t remember how old I was but I think I was still in junior school. My brother and I went up the road, passed the newly built Catholic Church where we had previously got into trouble lighting candles. This is going to sound like we were little troublemakers but bear with me.
We went into our local supermarket, I believe it was a branch of the Co-op, and stole a packet of biscuits, I sneaked them out in my coat pocket and we ate them on the way home, we were definitely not hungry that day, although we often were in those days. My mom was a single mother who had three children to provide for and her elderly mother lived with us too.
When I arrived home, my brother instantly told my mother that I had stolen a packet of biscuits.
She grabbed me by the ear and dragged me back up to the supermarket, where she asked for the manager, I was then forced into confessing my shoplifting theft. He told me off and my mother proceeded to pay for the packet of biscuits.
I never stole again.
I respected the police too, if anyone on our council estate did anything wrong, the local police officers would come to us and clip us around the ear, it never happened to me but several friends did have a smack about the head.
Last week I discovered that four police officers attended a domestic dispute in the town, a woman called the police because her drunken ex-military Pakistani husband was violently attacking her during a party in their home. One of her brothers stepped in and knocked the husband out with one punch.
They have a son who is disabled and, for that reason, the front door was locked, when four police officers arrived the wife was upstairs and she opened the window and asked the officers to wait, they didn’t, they immediately broke down the door and burst into the house.
Some guests tried to prevent them from entering because their children were terrified, one of the children’s fathers said something a little rude to the officers, saying that they were too fat to catch anyone. He was grabbed and dragged into the street and beaten badly, his teeth broken as his child lay terrified near the police violence.
The child’s grandma came over to assist her granddaughter pushing past a female police officer who was standing watching the violence, the female police officer told the grandma to stop as she was pushing her away.
The only police officer who had their body camera switched on was the female officer who was looking away from the violence, the two officers attacking the man had turned their cameras off.
The grandmother is now charged with obstructing the police, she was originally arrested for violent assault but the charges were lowered if she admitted guilt.
The husband of the woman who originally called the police hasn’t been charged with anything at all.
When I was a boy, stealing a packet of biscuits was considered a crime. Today a grandma trying to save her grandchild from a violent situation faces prosecution and the police officers who were violent are fine because there’s no evidence.
Yes, I am now disillusioned by the law today.