Metropolitan police officers are openly defying orders not to wear badges appropriated by the far right and linked to white supremacy.
In July, the force’s chief, Mark Rowley, banned officers from wearing the “thin blue line” badge saying that in the US an equivalent symbol had been used by “hard-right groups”.
However, images have emerged of Met officers wearing the symbol late last month as they policed a stand-off between LGBTQ+ rights supporters and a rightwing group over a drag act’s performance at the Honor Oak pub in Lewisham, south London.
As the pay, support and education for officers diminishes, the police as a profession become less attractive to those who are intelligent/educated, who might carry a slightly authoritarian slant but ultimately view their role in the context of being beneficial to society/preventing crime etc.
Due to Tory cuts to forces, the numbers of those who are more thuggish, less educated, more racist, and generally shouldn’t be policing wider society due to unchecked and unchallenged beliefs increases.
I know people who hadn’t achieved their GCSEs saying that it didn’t matter as they’d become police.
Like I’m personally not the biggest fan of the police, but those who were educated enough to get better jobs but stayed in the force because they believed they were genuinely helping have left, only leaving mostly those who seek power/control over other people. Obviously this is a general sweeping statement, but like everything else under Tory rule it’s been hollowed out.