The news over the last week has been filled with stories of policemen being killed. The latest one was apparently shot in his (marked police) car, and his body dragged out and left in the gutter. The Superintendent who was commenting seemed extremely disturbed by this blatant lack of respect for law and order. He actually started to say that the officer was left in the street like an ordinary… I suppose the next word might have been citizen but he thought better of it.

While I can understand the distress of the police force, they need to acknowledge the part they have played in the disintegration of respect for them. While I have no doubt that there are decent honest police in the force, the overwhelming perception of the public is of a generally corrupt system. And sadly enough, a lot of the seeming corruption stems from mere laziness on the part of the force members.

Laziness? Yeah, that’s what I call it when police ignore stuff they see going on but know is wrong because they can’t bother. It starts with the little things that police know there are laws against, like littering, continues up the spectrum with the road code violations and then unfortunately spreads into the more extreme crimes.

I think the police need to accept that change needs to happen from within their ranks because it is difficult to expect citizens to respect the law and the law-keepers when those same enforcers show little respect for the laws.