Is It Possible To Have A Straight, Unbiased And Honest Police Force In A Dishonest System?

Caoimhin O’Muraile ☭ Capitalism with its so-called ‘free market’ economy misleadingly termed ‘liberal democracy’ system of government is a dishonest system incorporating legalised theft.

Every day working-class people are legally robbed by the employers of the lions share of profits on goods and services they have themselves produced. To quote the economist John Maynard Keynes; “capitalism is not intelligent, it is not beautiful, it is not just, it is not virtuous and it does not deliver the goods”.

Keynes was not a Marxist by any stretch of the imagination but a liberal. so such a statement against this wonderful system should be at least considered by those who consider themselves moderate! The society capitalism spawns cannot be expected to be in any way honest. Afterall, the means of communication to the masses are all capitalist owned, newspapers, television news bulletins and social media, the latter being the greatest form of entrapment! They cannot be expected to promote the truth and any one of their employees who attempts to be honest can expect the sack. As Arthur Scargill once said back in the early eighties to a bunch of reporters:

why don’t you lot just for once tell the truth, I know you’ll probably get the sack for it but you will feel a whole lot better.

The people who are charged with maintaining the law and order of the capitalist class are the Police or An Garda Siochana, Gendarmes depending in which country you reside in. for simplicities sake we’ll stick to the ‘Police’ in its generic sense. Does such a crooked system inevitably turn the various police forces into corrupt organisations?

Capitalism has two strands, the legal and governing strand and the illegal variant. Both are money making robber barons and share much ideology with each other. There are areas where the legal and illegal strands become very blurred indeed so where do the Police stand? Back in the 1960s London it has been reported, albeit in brief, in documentaries such as Panorama and the former World in Action that a number of senior officers in the Metropolitan and City of London Police Forces were in the pay of criminals. Former senior officers from the Metropolitan Police were reportedly in the pay of either the Krays or the Richardson gangs. The Krays ran London’s East End while the even more ruthless Richarson gang ran South London. Some senior officers took their pensions having ‘put their papers in’ as a result of investigation resulting in no charges. How convenient! These gangsters accumulated wealth through exploitation, extortion and fear, fear of the bullet and death. Legal capitalism amasses huge fortunes through exploitation and fear of the sack often resulting in poverty and death! See the connection?

During the 1960s the Krays:

branched out, opening a gambling club called ‘Esmeraldas Barn’ in Knightsbridge. Establishing themselves as successful club owners they even recruited a Peer (member of the parliamentary House of Lords) to sit on their board and give their enterprise the appearance of respectability (Goodfellas of London The Rise and Fall of the Notorious Kray Twins - Ian Harvey).

Could this ‘Peer’ have been Lord Lucan, a compulsive gambler and Merchant Banker who disappeared in 1974? See the connection between the aristocracy, legalised capitalism or what appeared to be and the police who had to grant the licence or at least not oppose it? Senior policemen reportedly frequented the club as did many politicians from across the House of Commons.

The City of London Police fare little better than do the Metropolitan Police.

The police was host to a ‘firm within a firm’. Police were secretly recorded boasting to criminals, ‘We’ve got more villains than you… The biggest gangsters in Soho are the police … Everybody deserves a drink. The Firm had ‘people in every borough. Money was handed to junior constables in lifts to keep them quiet. The City Police seemed the worst, with regular bank robberies, and even a murder, never leading to arrest or imprisonment. Political oversight was Zero” ('Away from TVs Line of Duty the police have a long, tawdry history of corruption' - The Guardian; Simon Jenkins).

Between 12th and 14th August 1969, the ‘Battle of the Bogside’ in Derry took place. The well documented corrupt Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) lost all control. Rather than concede defeat the government at the behest of the already acknowledged less than credible Unionist local government sent in the British Army to prop up the police or, perhaps more to the point to prop up British rule in Ireland. At this stage of proceedings British capitalism had a vested interest in maintaining their rule in the six-counties, a divided workforce, low wages and huge profits for the exchequer to say nothing of the need to maintain a military presence. The expense of keeping these ‘rabble rousers’ in check was worth it, or so they thought.

Moving on to the British Coal Miners Strike of 1984-85. The local forces in mining areas got on well with the local NUM pickets and even played football with them (not dissimilar to the Christmas truce in 1914 First World War). This was more than the fascist, in my opinion, Prime Minister of the day, Margaret Thatcher could bear. She saw the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and particular Arthur Scargill as a front to British capitalism and had done since the fall of the Heath government in 1974. She sidelined the local police and sent in the Metropolitan force, already mentioned. Not all these policemen were what they seemed and many miners and their supporters noticed no numbers on their lapels, as is a legal requirement, supposedly. They could run faster than any copper I have ever seen (and that is quite a few) and many miners believed these men to be members of the British army’s Parachute Regiment or equivalent. These fellas were more used to running fifty miles a day in full battle dress, not manning picket lines. The local police had little time for the Met as they knew these miners and the NUM were often policing mining areas themselves, that was a way of life Thatcher could not tolerate. In any trade dispute the police are never neutral, despite the lies the tout to the contrary, they are always on the side of the employer, the wealthier the exploiter of labour, the more support they will receive from the police. The only time the forces of law and order will assist the working-class in such a trade dispute is to help scabs cross picket lines!!

In the 26 counties the Gardai are pretty much the same. They will do the rich man’s bidding every time. For example, when property, privately owned as is most in the 26 county state, is laying empty and groups like the ‘Revolutionary Housing League’ occupy such buildings on behalf of the homeless, the Gardai are quick to eject them using force on behalf of the rich owners. I thought, obviously naively, Michael Davit and the ‘Land League’ of the late 19th century was formed to stop such practices. The only difference between today and then is one of ownership. Back then it was absent English landowners who employed agents to evict using red coated British troops to through people out. This and, after the ‘Incumbered Estate Acts’ 1849 which made many Irish former tenants into property owners, was very little difference from today! The ‘Land League’ was supposed to stop such evictions of the poor, however I am deviating from the main point.

In Britian there are two different interpretations of the law which we are not all equal before. Anybody who believes this fable often pedalled by supporters of the system should, if they genuinely believe this rubbish, see somebody about it because they evidently have a problem! There is one interpretation for the ruling classes, aristocracy and bourgeoisie, and another for the working-class. This is epitomised in the fictitious television series Heartbeat set in the North Yorkshire Moors during the 1960s. Forget the silly stories but look at the treatment afforded to the ‘Lord of the Manor’ compared with the same law applied to the villagers! The series is supposed to be fiction but such a set of rules did and do exist be under no illusions about that. Capitalism, like feudalism before it, depends on everybody knowing their place, as in the miner’s strike, and the police make sure everybody does know their place, except the ruling classes who can do as they please generally with immunity. Occasionally they will sacrifice one of their own, usually at the lower end of the elite, just to keep this gravy train rolling and make the system appear honest and open.

Not everybody who joins the police, any police in any country, start off as corrupt villains. Most join because they think they are going to serve the community and make a difference to society, they genuinely believe this. However, having completed their training at Hendon or, in the 26 counties, Templemore, they soon realise the way to get on is to bend the rules a little. This leads to bending the rules a lot and then breaking them and promotion will follow quickly. For those who start off in the force and refuse to bend to this corruption they usually start off life as a beat constable, or Garda, and retire the same. There are some decent honest people in these various forces but they are nearly always overlooked for promotion. Those who show a willingness to be as corrupt as necessary, in line with the society they police, usually retire at least an Inspector if not above. Capitalism dictates those who police and defend it are as bent as those who run it!!

Caoimhin O’Muraile is Independent Socialist Republican and Marxist.