Thursday, May 20, 2004

Outrage D'Jour


You know why you can never find a cop when you need one ? Because they're all in the office reading through the TV guide with highlighter pens.

Channel 4 has pulled a documentary about social workers in Bradford from its schedule after police warned it could increase racial tension.

Unlike the reporting of Stephen Lawrence, Abu Ghraib and everything in Israel, then.

About that press freedom: there's no suggestion that the footage is bogus, intrusive, or puts any lives at risk - it simply reports what happens. Channel 4 has agreed to suppress a story simply becauase the Liberal establishment would rather hush it up. C4 were always the L3 channel of choice anyway, but can we have a little less foot stamping next time the Army refuses to do all but let C4 give it a prostate exam ?

But it gets worse. How's this for an insight into modern policing ?

West Yorkshire Police feared it would increase community tension in Bradford ahead of local and European elections.

That's our public servants, that is. Openly admitting that they took their decision with refernce to entirly political considerations. Need it be said that 'community tensions' is clearly a euphamism for an increased BNP vote ? Or to put it another way, what kind of unrest is it that pays attention to polling days ?

As ever, I question whether this kind of blatant perversion of democracy will actually help the BNP more than it harms them. The BNP appeals to people who think the systems out to get them, now here's the system indulging in outrageous politicing. But, aside from that, the L3 are trying the BNP shuffle on us again: the scam that says the BNP are so awful, why, we're quite justified in throwing overboard the principles of democracy. The self-same people who can't mention Gitmo without taking out an onion, turn a blind eye to the majesty of the Law being prostituted for short-term political gain.

At the very least, if the Filth are no reinventing themselves as L3 spin doctors, they can hardly complain when they end up as well-respected as Alistair Campbell. That's why it matters. The Law in general, and the Police in particular, can only function when they have the support of the public. By acting as the paramilitary wing of the BBC they renounce any claim to the support of a large section of the public. Who can take their claims seriously now that it has been revealed that they'll float bogus threats of disorder merely to prevent the wrong people getting in ?

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