Quote Originally Posted by Dedworth View Post
As was said on Question Time last night by former senior officer B Paddick the Met is rudderless at the top at present and senior officers made the catastrophic error of treating the whole thing as a Public Order matter rather than hordes of rampaging criminals.

Since 1997 when Labour took office the Met's higher echelons have been riddled with politically correct, time serving apparatchiks who instead of maintaining law and order are solely concerned with statistics/targets, their image, human rights, health and safety along with where the next free lunch is coming from.

For the ordinary copper who wants to do his job, catch criminals and protect the public it must be a frustrating organisation to work for. I still think the job for life, early retirement and fat taxpayer funded pension aspects need reviewing
Brian Leonard Paddick (born 24 April 1958) is a British politician, and was the Liberal Democrat candidate for the London mayoral election, 2008, coming third behind Boris Johnson and Ken Livingstone. He was, until his retirement in May 2007, Deputy Assistant Commissioner in London's Metropolitan Police Service and the United Kingdom's most senior openly gay police office


I didn't know Paddick as a colleague but from listening to his views I really don't see him as a typical copper, even if may have been at some time in his service (and he did leave 'under a cloud' having said police should ignore people using canabis).

He is now a politician. (He came third behind Boris Johnson and Ken Livingstone, with 9.8% of first preference votes).

Forgive me for believing that what he says is more likely to be aimed at potential supporters than to be his true thoughts.