I would like to share with you the details of three particularly negative experiences concerning encounters with the Police.The encounters i write of happened within three weeks of each other and my partner and five year old son where present at one of them.I am not a criminal and certainly am not wanted by the law,it probably would not bother me as much if i was as i expect the Police to be an occupational hazard to the career criminal.
My first encounter happened on Sunday 4th April 2010.I had been to Rhyl,Wales early in the morning myself and a friend had booked ourselves on a boat to do a spot of sea fishing,we would not return until the early evening.On returning to my friends house we unloaded the car and had a cup of tea.I then said my goodbyes and started for home,i had been walking for about 10 minutes when a VW Golf came screeching to a halt on the road beside me and three large men quickly got out surrounded me and kinda jammed me between the car and them,by this time i was getting quite worried as i didn't have a clue who they where.Then one of the men said that they where the police,thinking back they did not show me any identification to prove who they were and they where abrupt and aggressive from the get go.I was asked where i had been and i told them i had been to Rhyl fishing,then to my complete amazement one of the police officers said "your a f...ing liar,wev'e just seen you come from a notorious drug dealers house".I was stuck for words at this point and once again told them i had been to Rhyl on a boat trip,fishing.Then the officer who had just swore at me asked me to take my jacket off,i did this and he went through my pockets.He then told me to take my pullover off,then my t shirt,i was stood in the street with my top half naked.The officer who seemed to be dishing out the lion share of the abuse then grabbed my arm and started to examine it as if to look for signs of drug abuse.I was very distressed by this time and started to ask them why they had stopped me in the first place.Again they told me they had just seen me leaving a notorious drug dealers house.This offended me as it meant that they were implying that i was a drug user and my friend was a dealer,which is totally ridiculous,i told them this and if they didn't believe me then go and knock on my friends door where i had just come from to confirm what i was saying was the truth.They ignored what i said and asked me for some personal details so they could check to see if i was who i said i was and if i was wanted or not,of course the check came back not wanted and i was told to put my t shirt,pullover and jacket back on,they then told me to be on my way.I put them back on whilst asking again why they had stopped me,i was then met with more foul language and aggressive behaviour."Your a cocky little bastard aren't you?",was remarked which again i found very offensive as i was only asking them what anyone else would ask them.I walked off but as i did i got the make, model and registration,i was that shook up by the affair that i could not have possibly been done right.The following came and i was still very upset by what had happened so i called in work to get the morning off so i could go into the police station to complain.The next day i went to the local police station to complain at the way i had been treated by these three police officers.The person i spoke to was the Sargent in charge of the plain clothes officers,on the face of it he seemed to be sympathetic as i told him exactly what had happened and how i felt about the encounter.He told me he would get in touch with me to let me know how he would be dealing with the situation,he also asked if i would like to make an official complaint and i said i did not want to.A silly thing to do really as i have not heard from him to this day and that would not be the last time that i had a bad experience with officers from his station.
The second encounter with another police officer was to happen 11 days later.I left my home at about 1.30pm,it was only to go across the street to get a paper,some milk and some chewing gum,the whole journey should have took no more than 5 minutes.I went to the shop and got my paper,chewing gum and milk crossed the road to my home and no sooner had i crossed,a police car pulled up at the side of me,this time it was a marked car with a uniformed officer and he was on his own.He wound down the window on his passenger side and asked were i was going,i told him i was going home,he asked where i had been and i told him i had been to the shop across the road,in fact i pointed to the shop where i had just come from.He then got out of the car and came round to where i was on the pavement,as soon as he got within reaching distance he made a grab for my throat,he started shouting "open your mouth,open your mouth" i opened my mouth and my chewing gum fell out onto the floor when he saw what it was he released me.I was furious and asked him why he could not have just asked me what was in my mouth in the first place and he said you that he thought i was concealing something in my mouth.He then asked me a few personal details radioed them through to see if i was wanted,they came back not wanted and he said i was free to leave.Again shook up by the experience i went home.
My third negative experience was five days after the second encounter and i had my five year old son and my partner with me,it was two of the plain clothes officers who had stopped me the first time,they were abrupt and aggressive again and the fact that i had my family with me did not matter to them in the slightest.They asked me and my partner where we had been,we had been picking our son up from school,and i was annoyed we had been stopped and started to get irate with them as i could not understand why they had stopped us and when i asked why they had stopped us i was given the answer "you complained about us,so we are going to cause you as much inconvenience as we can."My partner then asked them why they would be so childish and they got in their car grinning and drove off.We went straight to the police station to complain again but was told there was no one there who could speak to us about the matter at the moment so we left our details and where assured that someone would be in touch.No one has got in touch with us yet.
So those are my negative experiences with the police,I'm finding it very hard to get my head around especially as I've never been in trouble with the police in my life or used drugs for that matter which they seem to be implying on the first two occasions the third was just out and out bullying.As for me complaining were as that got me?i should have known that nothing would have come of it,i should imagine they close ranks as fast as a criminal organisation like the mafia would.I would be interested to know if this kind of behaviour is common place or is this an isolated case.Anyway this kind of behaviour by the police is unacceptable and i now find myself making my video recorder on my phone ready just in case i find myself on the end of more police intimidation/harassment and if i do ever manage to get them behaving in a way that amounts to misconduct i will not hesitate to upload it and show it to the world.Police officers who behave like the ones that i have encountered do not deserve the position of trust they have been given,the bullying of the public is a serious no,no and instead of the closing of ranks to protect colleagues who behave inappropriately must certainly amount to misconduct and those guilty of that should be dealt with in the appropriate way,whether that is a severe reprimand or dismissal.As i stated earlier i would probably not mind as much about what the police's behaviour was like if i was a criminal but i am not and i am not prepared to be treated like a known criminal buy police officers who think they can go around bullying people.
I would just like to add that i am not by any means anti authority or do i have any ill feelings towards the police service as a whole,they do a sterling job and are absolutely needed and that is why those officers who are behaving inappropriately need to be weeded out and ejected from the force pending criminal proceedings.The way i was treated left me so upset and shaken that it had to be wrong.
If you have had any bad experiences with the police you would like to tell me about then please leave your comment to this post and if you would like to talk further about what can be done about bad police officers then leave your email address and i will get in touch with you as soon as i read your comment.
Remember do not be frightend of the police they are not allowed to bully people it is against the law and they are subject to that law just like you or i,but here is some food for thought the police are fond of using video cameras to gather evidence,video footage with audio is submissable as evidence if you have footage of the police breaking the law or bullying then use that footage to bring these people to justice.The worst kind of criminal is the one who wears a police uniform.
