I grew up in the 1960s and 70s, Sure gun crime was around but it was rare to hear of one being used.  Now in 2009 its common place to hear of gun crime, whether an armed robbery or hate crime or revenge crime or gang war.  I was taught in school and by my parents to stop and ask a policeman anything, the time, directions anything, I promise you I haven’t seen a police officer on the beat ie walking the streets since Ive lived in Yorkshire, only time i see a police officer is when they are driving past at 40mph!

We have something called “Community Officers” they are dressed like police walk the streets in pairs and have absolutely no powers at all.  They cannot arrest you detain you, issue tickets, however they can offer advice ie “Please stop hitting that man i think you’ve made your point” or “I don’t think you should steal that jewellery its clearly not yours!” I apologise for being flippant but that’s the truth of the matter, its a clear waste of tax payers money the whole scheme should be stopped, and real police officers recruited.

We are fighting crime in a way that belongs in the 1950s.  For instance I’m sure alot of my American cousins think London is constantly foggy pearly kings and queens are on every street corner and Londoners only eat jellied eels and pie and mash! I am a born and bread Londoner and Ive never even tried jellied eels, my point is the government must watch too many old black and white films rather than walk the streets.

Britain is not an island anymore we have the most diverse population in the world thanks to the EU passports and our extremely lax policy on immigration, I’m not racist and Im not pretending to be. The stark truth is the world is a smaller place now and far more dangerous than the 1950s.  If I were a police officer now i would want to be armed that’s the only way I would contemplate the job.  To my way of thinking the rest of the world arm their police why not Britain? if your staring down the barrel of a Russian made machine pistol sporting a can of chemical mace i don’t fancy your luck.  When the Berlin wall came down a year or so later Europe was flooded with ex Russian military firearms allied to a thriving industry in converting blank firing pistols into lethal weapons.

Put simply we are sending our over stretched police force into battle with a 1950s truncheon and a can of chemical mace, not good enough no way not even close to a fare fight.  When I’ve been on holiday to Spain I see their police carrying machine guns and that’s just around the hotels, I strongly feel we should drag our country kicking and screaming into the 21st century,  The police force should be armed at least as well as the criminals if not better.  I am not afraid of armed police because I don’t break the law.

The way things are in Britain its like putting Muhammed Ali in a boxing match with Jim Carey!