A Rhetorical Question for Inspector Gadget.
And if there’s no point in arresting “Wayne“, for failing to attend his community service, why bother flagging down “Colin” for speeding?
Oh. Right. Colin has something to lose and can therefore be forced to co-operate with the criminal justice system in pursuit of the sanction detection target.
True, it’s the criminal justice system’s fault, not the beat bobby. In that I agree with Gadget. But the police can lead, by patrolling, and arresting (for this does indeed have a deterrent value, whether or not there’s an custodial sanction at the end of it) or they can admit defeat in the face of the underclass and a pathetically dysfunctional criminal justice system. The underclass, who have long since worked out that co-operation is a mug’s game, will still respond to force judiciously (and legally) applied. Eventually either the police will work out who they serve – the respectable working people who pay their taxes (and parking & speeding fines), and act accordingly, or there will be a revolution when even the middle classes cease to co-operate with the law.
So. The police can either do their job, and get out from behind their warm, safe desks or walking in large groups around safe areas where there might be pretty tourists, and get in to the grotty estates and start putting it about a bit. Aggressive patrolling in the shitty areas on foot will work – it’s what we mean by “bobbies on the beat”, and it’s fiercely resisted by the police because they would have to deal with uncooperative scrotes or even members of the public, instead of watching their arses grow in a flash motor. Car chases, you see are more fun for the police than foot races.
Inspector Gadget has admitted defeat. I sincerely hope there are some police out there with balls, because gadget clearly blames the people he serves “the few remaining law-abiding citizens” of ruraltown should be offended, and if outed, Gadget should be quietly retired for this contempt for the people who pay his wages, and generous pension.
What ever happened to NightJack? He, at least hadn’t forgotten the Peelian principles. Oh yes. The police machine (probably) shopped him to the media. His ideas might have led to the police doing some police work, and that would never do. Far better to harass the middle classes while sitting in the car. Gadget has also clearly drank the NuLab “Police should enforce the law” Kool-Aid. They’ve become merely the provisional wing of the Jobsworth movement, and they’ve earned our contempt – almost as much as your contempt for us, Gadget.