police Corruption:
Is This Still a Free Country?

Changes

This campaign site has had gaps in updates, and in the meantime the civil liberties activity has moved offline. Close cooperation with other protest groups and political parties has increased (particularly those in Bristol and Swindon), and all the main activism has merged into them.

During the last five years, apparent misconduct has disappeared, although we believe this to be an illusion as we age. Just because you're not getting attacked, doesn't mean someone else isn't, just as it is with povery, misfortune, racism, sexism, and other inequality.

This main page has had a big rewrite, and most of the information you need is within this new "essay". We've been around the block a few times and as online access has become more flexible and democratic, we believe it's time for other people to take up the brickbat.

Implications

Please do not send us detailed reports of specific cases. It is the job of the IOPC to process those. We do not seek to replace the police, if anything we'd rather abolish them. Some say that society cannot function without some kind of effective policing, but we seem to have managed well enough so far.

We seek to change government policy, and surprisingly this appears to have occured, and for such a concept of crime within the police to be readily acknowledged, and that's happened too. We also raise awareness of it among those who are routinely abused or give glowing & inaccurate praise because they think mister nice policeman that they encounter is like that all the time and can do no wrong.

Due to changes in the law, bail abuse is now illegal and there have been many procedural changes, as well as the introduction of body cams, which we support. This doesn't make things fixed or perfect, but it is a welcome improvement. Life doesn't stay still though, so improvements must continue for future developments.

Those of us involved, would like to say that the behaviour of any public organisation is more a result of human nature rather than how they are structured, and human behavour never changes. Organisations are a contradiction in themselves, pretending to behave like a single person, a level of coordination which is impossible. Therefore, talking directly to key/competant people within the structure, instead of relying on the structure to help anything, is the way forward. Public structures will always be less determined than indivduals, and they do not last as long. A determined indivudual will always win against an inflexible system, and I hope this principle will bring hope to anyone currently finding themselves oppressed.