Do policemen and women watch crime programmes on TV? I ask since it is increasingly clear that violent interactions between the police and the public are becoming more common. Could the reason be the that the police themselves have a distorted view of reality created by the many fictional crime programs show on TV? In such programmes the polite knock on the door is long gone. In its place is a high octane “raid” with doors kicked down and lots of intimidatory shouting. This makes very exciting TV. It is a scenario where the suspect is a dangerous criminal who must be immediately subdued. But the key word is “suspect”. So it was for Mr Andrew Boateng, 43, who said that he was cycling along the River Lea in Tottenham, north London, with his son Hugo aged 13 when a plain clothes officer appeared out of nowhere and grabbed Hugo. Fearing he was being mugged, Hugo said he jumped into a thorny bush but was wrestled to the ground and threatened with a Taser. ‘He was crazy angry and shouting,’ Hugo told The Observer. ‘I got scared because I thought he might be mugging me or trying to give me corona so I ran, but there was nowhere to go but in the bushes.’ With both father and son handcuffed it took some time before they were able to convince the police that in fact they were on a charity bike ride.
I think from this we can forget the legal maxim of innocent until proved guilty. The fact that Mr Boatang and his son are black is probably the reason they were tackled in such a violent way. So where is the atmosphere of confrontation as the standard method of interaction coming from?
The police are constantly confronted by the worst that society can offer. It is no wonder that this has a profound effect on their world view. Or is it perhaps that they watch too much television.
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