Given the massive fall in living standards that the UK has suffered, no one could be surprised that crimes like shoplifting have risen. The Labour Party government, however, seem to believe that many Britons are inherently criminal in nature, and they were all just waiting for the police to thin out so they could line their pockets with stolen cheese and cans of Lynx Africa:
Shoplifting & street crime are soaring yet there are far fewer neighbourhood police on streets – legacy of 14 Tory years.
Labour will rebuild neighbourhood policing with new powers to crackdown on antisocial behaviour in our town centres & communities. https://t.co/5YLjg6uBOZ
— Yvette Cooper (@YvetteCooperMP) July 28, 2024
While promoting coppers as the solution to austerity is always going to go down poorly with those who understand the problems this country faces, Labour has somehow picked a worse time than usual to make the argument. After all, this was the week we all saw violent and anti-social behaviour being perpetrated by none other than the police themselves:
Amazing how Police rush out instant justifications/smears, mould narratives that years later turn out untrue- a young man tasered to the ground, with his mother leaning over him, kicked in the head & stamped on by one of Manchester’s finest @gmpolice fortunately he did not die,… pic.twitter.com/hp9Z6v1vTy
— Aamer Anwar✊🏾🏳️🌈#BlackLivesMatter (@AamerAnwar) July 25, 2024
Labour: the state of this police state
Street crime is surging across the country, with a 40% increase in theft against the person in the last year alone. That’s being driven by crimes like mobile phone theft, which are often now committed in broad daylight because offenders have stopped believing there will be any consequences for their crimes. And antisocial behaviour is rampant in many town centres and communities.
Yet shockingly the number of neighbourhood police on our streets has plummeted. Shamefully more than half of the public now say they never see a bobby on the beat.
Is it that shocking? Even if you’re unfailingly pro-police, you’ve got to acknowledge that everyone has a mobile phone, and the police have automobiles.
One of our writers broke up a domestic assault the other week and the police where there in minutes; would it have been quicker if they were waiting on some out-of-shape plod to sprint over from several streets away?
Cooper continued:
Action against antisocial behaviour has crumbled too. For example, the on-the-spot fines that the last Labour government introduced to help tackle antisocial behaviour have collapsed into disuse – just 7,000 issued in 2023 compared to 207,000 in Tony Blair’s last year in power, with 26 police forces issuing no notices at all.
Yes, because obviously making people poorer will make them less likely to steal.
Not to worry, though, because serious crimes like planning to draw attention to the looming climate catastrophe will still see a person proceeding straight to jail:
5 years in prison for discussing an environmental protest on Zoom, for trying to do something about climate change, which will devastate all of us.
I wonder if Labour will do anything about our speedy slide into totalitarianism, or, you know, not?https://t.co/vFPsJ89qZS
— Rebecca Tamás (@RebTamas) July 19, 2024
Labour’s focus on the symptoms of disparity rather than the disparity itself has not gone unnoticed:
Shoplifting is soaring because people can’t afford baby milk or fish you fucking idiot have you tried paying people more instead of locking them up you Poundland Theresa May https://t.co/x5uNkjlRqk
— Congolesa Rice (@judeinlondon) July 28, 2024
Or you could end the profiteering on food water and energy. Pay a real living wage and rebuild our public services. Remove student loans and control the private rental market. Remove the cause of these crimes! https://t.co/RRIEmTr5iN
— Darren Turner (@DarrenTurnerCP) July 28, 2024
Yvette is doing a CRACKDOWN on people stealing baby milk to save Tesco Express profits https://t.co/Ivw0dRDUg1
— 🇧🇧🏳️🌈 / 🆓🇵🇸 m a r c u s (@marcusjdl) July 28, 2024
Who filths the filth?
People are pointing out that some of these cops aren’t the best people to put our trust in:
The news this week has included police officers caught on camera stamping on someone’s head and pushing an old lady and a Met officer admitting to stealing from a dead person’s body.
The police state is the problem. That you would choose to prioritise this right now is telling. https://t.co/drhigSAFoD
— Windrush Lives (@WindrushLives) July 28, 2024
Bear in mind this was just the past week. Here are some other police scandals and statistics from recent years:
More police, more problems?
Now, we’re not saying every police officer in the UK is a corrupt, head-kicking rapist.
We are saying that bloating the ranks of this scandalous institution will not fix the structural inequality which is causing Britain to collapse in on itself.
The police are no substitute for a prosperous society of equals, and Labour knows that.
Their plan isn’t to reverse the collapse, you see; their plan is to reassure those benefitting from managed decline that the Great British rip-off will continue to enjoy state protection.
Featured image via Sky News (YouTube)
