Sergeant Smellie found out yesterday that he is not to face any further investigation into alleged assault of a protester at last years G20 protests, Sgt Smellie was accused of common assault after a hand swipe and baton hit on Nicola Fisher last April. Earlier in the year he was cleared by Westminster magistrates of any legal wrong doing and the IPCC have followed that ruling.
Now as I have said earlier I do come from a Police family with several relatives and friends who are serving/former officers so I will declare that my natural sympathies are probably skewed towards the Police’s side. However I was listening to the Radio this morning (Nick Ferrari on LBC 97.3) and he was having a phone in on the topic which I found to be very interesting, The first speaker I unfortunately can not remember her name but she was talking around the issue of whether or not Sgt Smellie did the right thing, and should he have struck out with his baton or tried to disarm her, she was of the opinion that because the aggressor was a woman she should not have been struck but instead should have been disarmed.
This is a mad suggestion, when you are part of what is extensible a shield wall, the last thing that you should do is break the formation, any attempt by Sgt Smellie to move forward into the crowd to disarm/arrest the aggressor would most likely have ended with the Sergeant being off his feet inside a hostile environment, the only possible cause of action therefore for the officers around him would have been to push the crowd back until he was again in a secure position, Obviously it is just conjecture but I would suggest that this would result in many more baton strikes than the 1 it took Sgt Smellie to control the situation.
After several more phone calls which all supported the position the Officer took, there was another caller who accused all the callers who supported him of being in favour of domestic violence, I have to admit this annoyed me somewhat as I support the actions he took but can not see how you can compare the two. Firstly the lady in question Nicola Fisher was the aggressor in the situation, I would say that whilst I believe that all violence should be avoided at all costs, if you are under attack you should always have the ability to fight back, regardless of the sex etc... of your attacker. Secondly Ms Fisher put herself into a combat situation; if you enter a situation that is likely to cause a physical altercation you must surely forfeit your right to plead femininity. This gets to the heart of equality; if women are to serve, for example, in combat situations then they have to expect to be shot at. Surely if we are to have equality then if a female starts a fight they must be held equally at fault for the consequences. Now before I start getting accused of supporting domestic violence, which is entirely different. For me if my wife attacked me with a weapon, I would defend myself, but I would not class it as domestic violence as I would do the bear minimum I needed to get myself out of the house, and I would not go back. To try and join the fate of someone who provokes a policeman into issuing a baton strike and a woman who is routinely beaten, often due to imagined slights by an abusive partner (Of cause not to forget that it also happens the other way round.) quite ridiculous.
Anyway, that digression aside, I do support Sgt Smellie and hope that he can get his career back on track, over the last few years we have seen a constant removal of police powers and an increase of mob rule where the police have been too scared to engage in situations in case they are accused of police brutality, However as a law abiding citizen, I would rather have a Police Force to keep me safe, than a Police Service to make me feel like part of the community. And to be honest the way things were going, I was starting to doubt the Polices ability to protect me and my family; I just hope that the coalition can undo this part of Labour’s legacy as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment