Nick Thomas-Symonds said that his aim was to refurbish trust in Labour as the party that will keep neighbourhoods safe, adding that in the working-class communities he represents – in South Wales there are people who have preyed on defenceless people.
And if we think of the disturbing growth in domestic abuse through the lockdown, there are clearly perpetrators out there who are not fearing that rap on the door from law enforcement, but the fact is, these people need to be afraid.
We unquestionably need a lower violent crime rate and more police officers, and that’s what Nick Thomas-Symonds wants for this country over the next four years.
He wants tougher punishments for knife crimes, which are on the table, but he emphasised that prevention must additionally play a role, and he continued that he’s supported tougher punishments on different offences and that he was prepared to look at that for the deterrent effect.
But that we could also lose sight of prevention, and it was about a suitably resourced violent crime policy and those prevention services that had been undermined in the past 10 years.
Nick Thomas-Symonds showed concern at recent images of heavy-handed policing but declined to say whether forces were institutionally prejudiced, and he said that we mustn’t lose sight of the work the vast preponderance of our police officers do and that we must support them in it.
He said that stop and search should be intelligence-led and Section 60 laws, which enable police to search anyone within a specific area, should be used sparingly.
Sadiq Khan appears to have completely lost control of policing in London, with the crime increasing to five times the national average rate, and he should have his special budget taken off him and returned to the Home Office.
Of course, this kind of policing is never going to happen because the police are now like terrified kids, driving around in their patrol cars because they can’t be bothered to walk, and some of these politicians on both sides need a check-up from the neck up because this is the real world and it will only get more serious.
The Tories said they would bring back 25,000 police officers, where are they? And that number wouldn’t even take the levels back to when Labour was in control.
In addition, the essential front line services, you know, the ones that had a tremendous influence on stopping crime, particularly amongst teenagers, where are they? The precious Tories and their budget cuts and austerity have slaughtered them, but once again, never let facts get in the way of idolism.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 