When I was a child in the 1950's the police were protectors of the public, they were fearless, they would walk up to an armed criminal and tell him not to be silly and to "put down that revolver there's a good lad"; they received medals for this and respect.

To be fair though if the criminal shot and killed the policeman he would face the hangman so there was quite a deterrent those days; standing over a hole with a drop below, bag over your head, rope around your neck, hoping your head isn't ripped off your shoulders or dangling from a rope and being slowly strangled because the hangman has made an error with the weight.

At the other end of the spectrum if a child was being a nuisance the policeman would clip him around the ear and tell him to behave; nothing was said, parents would tell their child "serves you right ".

The police walked the streets or cycled those days, they were local and knew who the likely villains were and who the vulnerable members of the community were and watched out for these.

These days, in my opinion, the police no longer protect the public they enforce the Government's unpopular and undemocratic laws such as at the Blackburn Rovers versus Manchester City football game recently when four football badge sellers were approached by Blackburn Police and ordered to stop selling England badges or any with a Cross of St.George on as they could be construed as inciting racial hatred or were `racist'.

A painter and decorator who taunted curry house staff with Nazi salutes has been jailed for more than two years. The judge told Christopher Phillips his gestures and language outside the Tara Mahal in Church Street, Ebbw Vale, were "disgraceful and insulting". Two years for a nazi salute, yet five boys have been sentenced to two years detention for killing a father who collapsed with a heart attack after being pelted with stones and rocks. Needless to say the victim was white.

Remember the scenes of police clubbing middle-aged demonstrators who opposed the Government's ban on hunting.

Someone waving a sword or chair leg about on the street will be faced with half a dozen kevlar armour protected policemen with the latest in automatic weapons, red dot or laser sights, scopes, night vision, state of the art weaponry. The first chance they get of a clear shot the police will riddle the target with bullets before anyone attempts to disarm the blade carrying criminal.

At the lower end of the scale the police will not even get out of their cars to tackle gangs of youths unless the gang is small and are outnumbered by the police. The police seem to prefer to bully harmless members of the public who have committed some minor indiscretion.

Such as when a 12-year-old boy apparently got into an argument with an elderly neighbour, the youngster retaliated by throwing a cocktail sausage, which hit the pensioner on the shoulder. Instead of giving him a severe ticking-off, two police officers arrested the terrified boy, put him in the back of a squad car and locked him up in a cell. He was then hauled before a court and charged with common assault.

Or the clergyman arrested because he remarked about a Muslim girl wanting to wear a veil at school in his Parish magazine.

Another story of police bullying a harmless member of the public is when an arthritic man of 81 was charged with assaulting two burly policemen. Frank Gibson, was driving home from church on Christmas Eve last year when he was stopped by the officers and told to get out of his car. The frail pensioner, who was barely able to walk as he was recovering from a foot operation, refused so the officers then grabbed an arm each and dragged him out. Mr Gibson, faced Medway Magistrates accused of pushing PC Thomas McGregor in the chest and twisting PC Steven Cole's thumb. The officers then called for back-up from two colleagues before arresting Mr Gibson and driving him to the police station in handcuffs.

Now police are even are allowed to use tazers on children, how cowardly is that, stab proof vests and yet still shoot 50,000 volts into a child.
Yet ironically parents cannot slap their children.

We also have examples where police couldn't care less about protecting the public; a father who phoned 999 when his son was knocked unconscious by a drunken thug was told to write to his MP rather than bother the police. Pete Bayliss called after his 22-year-old son Chris was taken to hospital with a broken nose and other injuries. But police said they were too busy to investigate the attack.

A man who complained about yobs terrorising his girlfriend got a letter back from a top policeman saying he should not call them "hoodie scum". Alastair Oram's partner had traffic cones hurled at her car by yobs who blocked off a road in a "no-go" area for locals. Mr Oram, 32, from Rotherham, wrote to police complaining: "Do we take it that Thurcroft is a no-go zone, run by mob rule into which the police are afraid to venture or was it too difficult for you to deal with? "What can only be described as a gang of around ten hoodie scum aged about 14 jumped out in front and behind her car with traffic cones and blocked her." To his shock, Superintendent Keith Lumley of South Yorkshire Police wrote back "You can't go branding youths 'hoodie scum' - that doesn't give off the right impression."

Here's another example, when bus driver Paul Gibbs was told two passengers were smoking crack cocaine, he thought he would do the community a favour. As he drove the number 47 bus past a police station, he pulled up outside while passengers ran in to alert officers. But, to their astonishment, police said they were too busy to investigate the crime and suggested they call 999 for assistance. Mr Gibbs, 48, waited for five minutes outside the station before reluctantly driving off when he realised no one would help.

The quality of police officers is poorer these days due to positive discrimination against better suited and more intelligent recruits because they happen to be white or are male. Political correctness deems more ethnic and female and homosexual recruits are chosen

An example of a poor quality ethnic police officer is Gavinder Gill, to cover up the fact that she had lost her mobile phone and had also lost her police warrant card she claimed she had been shoved to the ground and robbed of her handbag. The fake story meant her insurance company gave her a better model of phone worth £150. Gill, a constable who was on the Home Office's High Potential Scheme, which offers accelerated chances of promotion, sobbed after being convicted by a jury of obtaining property by deception.

How about these two policemen who tried to sell a valuable memento from the thanksgiving service for Princess Diana on eBay. The Order of Service was being offered on the internet auction site within eight hours of the service in London marking the tenth anniversary of Diana's death. The officers were given a "slap on the wrist" by their bosses.