The material in this blog does not reflect official policy or the opinion of any police force but it does however represent my personal opinion on whatever is posted here.
"The new police recruits. Call them slobs. Call them jerks. Call them gross. Just don't call them when you're in trouble." - Police ACademy, 1984
"To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment" - Ralph Waldo Emerson
"You only have to do a very few things right in your life so long as you don't do too many things wrong" - Warren Buffett
Hallowe'n
Wednesday, 31 October 2007
This is the one time of the year when I wish I could be wonderwoman. I don't like Halloween...The whole dressing up in fancy clothes and masks just creates an opportunity for the worst characters to come out. Last year, in the area I used to work, we had a steaming with about 7 to 10 youths in masks. There were 16 victims. 16 innocent people minding their own business were robbed of their property and some injured. It wound me up, not just because I had to work until stupid o'clock in the morning, but because these people where innocently carrying on with their lives. It's one of those cases where I think the whole spirit has been lost. Some time ago it may have been a fun night but nowadays you get sc*ms, for the want of a better word, like this who don't have a care in the world as to who they may be harming. Oh, does it make me angry. Honestly, there's a few types out there that I just despise with a passion but what I worry the most is that I won't learn to control it! I'm normally a very calm and controlled person, a girl if you like, but if it p****s me off then you don't want to be anywhere near me.
A Chief Constable and head of road policing at ACPO has received a notice of intended prosecution for speeding months after calling for less visible speed cameras in order to catch drivers who speed. Now that is what I call sending out the wrong message and setting very, very bad examples! I will comment no further on this one.
I've been told what shifts I'll be working for the next three weeks and it turns out they're not so bad at all. I start on Tuesday and will be on a late shift during the whole of the week. Apparently we don't do nights when we're in PDU, don't ask me why, but if I'm lucky to get this one specific sergeant he will give me two shifts on nights, which I'm really hoping I get! We also get one Saturday doing football duties which I'm terribly excited about. htat is not all...it gets a whole lot better because of something else that I will mention if it gets confirmed, at the moment it's hearsay but we'll see...So all in all I'm looking at having some really exciting three weeks ahead of me!!!!!
It was grey and damp outside and I was getting easily distracted today. I knew I shouldn't have sat by the window but I couldn't help myself. Laptop in front of me, books all around and my notes spread on the table. In the quietness of the library I got lost in my own thoughts and often found myself looking out of the window at a grey, drizzly London. It's at times like this that I begin to question what I'm doing with my life. I didn't think going to the library would be a good idea actually. I hate quiet places, partly because I can't keep quiet for long but mostly because I get really lonely and homesick when it goes all quiet like this. I'm having one of those moments when I just wish I had someone to give me a big bear hug and hold me tight for a moment or two...
When I got home I got ready to go out half heartedly but ended up changing back into my comfiest pjs and jumped in bed with my Blackstones books. Somehow I just can't face the world today...My housemates are sharing jokes that it's lucky I'm not working tonight because in the foul mood I'm in they'd worry about the people out there and my friends are already merry and texting me. It's only half eleven which means I'm gonna have to turn my phone off if I wanna get any sleep tonight.
On another note, I read it this morning on the way to Uni.
Why is he free?
JAMES Santrey is a violent thug who tried to butcher a terrified police officer.
The decision to let him walk free with a suspended sentence is another breathtaking affront to justice by one of the many liberal lunatics masquerading as judges.
Santrey tried to stab PC Dameon Shaw at least six times with a kitchen knife. It was a miracle he wasn’t wounded or worse.
But the judge, Charles George, said Santrey had a “good heart”, wished him luck and sent him on his way.
Let’s get this straight: Anyone who tries to knife a PC deserves a long stretch inside, not the blessing of a lily-livered judge.
Without that deterrent, what earthly chance do our cops have?
Very good question. What chance do we have? We risk our lives to save other people's and that is not even taken into consideration. This man could have blood in his hands in a few months time...
I have just over a week until I go out in full uniform for the first time and boy, am I looking forward to it. I'll complete my 5th week at Uni tomorrow and after 5 whole weeks of being a student, cheap drinks and all, it becomes a bit tiring when in reality I'm getting paid to be a police officer. I'm enjoying this alright, I absolutely LOVE the learning stage of it all. I feel like a little kid when I actually understand what they're talking about and when I'm not out drinking I'm in studying. I have an assignment to hand in on Monday which I'm just adding the finishing touches to (perfumed paper and all the girly stuff :-D) and then during my PDU stage I'll have another one to hand in but I'm aiming to get it done before I go so that I can make the most of my days out without having the thought of having to write a 20 page essay hanging over my head. On the other end of the scale I am feeling absolutely s**t scared about it all. I don't know enough to be out in the big wide world and judging by my incapacitant training yesterday, when I couldn't get anyone hit in the eyes with the CapTor spray, I think I could do with a few more sessions when it comes to officer protection training!
I'm also very much looking forward to the end of our Traffic Module tomorrow!!! I've got to be honest, me and cars don't get on well at all, unless I'm driving it and it's carrying my shopping so I have felt like a complete muppet in class but I have been trying really hard to concentrate.
We had our CapTor training yesterday and I don't think I've laughed so much in a very long time! We spent the afternoon squirting water in each others eyes, or so we tried but I think we rarely got it where we were aiming. That is the worrying thing with CapTor, unlike CS which you can spray around the face and it will still work, CapTor will only work if you aim and hit the eyes. I think I might start playing darts to improve my aim :-D...
Just to finish it off, one of those feel good videos that makes me smile everytime I watch it. These guys have been around for a while and I was hoping to see them in New York when I go but I don't think they'll be playing then :-(.
As you can tell I have changed the blog a little bit. I decided to have a bit of me time today when I did nothing relating to work, relationships or pleasing other people. So I got up with a slight headache (I'll be having vodka and red bull tonight) and went to the caff just around the corner. They're lovely people and it amazes me how, despite the fact that I haven't been there in ages they still remember my usual choice of a veggie breakie. So there I was enjoying the sunshine, sat outside reading my paper, sipping my tea and waiting for me breakie. It was great although I admit I didn't read a lot because I love to do the old people watching routine. A family walking past, a couple getting on a car, a very old couple coming in...Made me think the fact that all these people were together and I was sat there, comfortable with my own company, smiling and enjoying the slightly warm sunshine!!!
Now let's move on to the talk of the weekend. How fantastic this is going to be with our boys giving their all in France and Hamilton doing the same back home. I must admit I'm more of a football girl but I have been getting really into rugby recently...
So I'll be off to the pub, get a nice place in front of the big screen and just out for the outcome...can't wait!!!
PS: Ignore the time shown for the posts...I need to sort it out because I certainly wouldn't be going to the pub at 07 whatever in the morning...I haven't got to that stage yet ;-) It's somewhere after 16:00hrs now... Farewell!
made me think long and hard today. It made me think about how easy it is to end someone's life and how it affects others. I feel for the family of Mr De Menezes, having met his cousins soon after the incident I could see how the ordeal had shattered their lives but I think that having read this today it made me realise that the people who are even more affected by it are the people at the other end of the scale. An innocent man lost his life because of a mistake, accident, whatever it was that happened on that day and now a bunch of officers have to live with that forever. It might or might not have been the first time they shot a person but I reckon that this time around, because of its seriousness, it will be hard to forget that day. I still remember it. I was late for work becauce the Northern line was closed but I knew it would be hard to get there in the first place because of the failed bombings the day before. I worked in the Crime Management Centre at the time, a call taker dealing with non emergency calls and as soon as I came into the office I was told that there had been a shooting at Stockwell. I thought nothing more of it and carried on with my day, eventually getting to a pub in Leicester Sq that night, only to get a call from my friend telling me of what had happened. I cried for hours and I had mixed feelings about it all. I worked for the police and knew of what they had to do but at the same time someone I knew had just been killed. I attended NSY on Sunday with a few friends and some of you may even have seen a picture of me in the papers and internet. I was angry, upset and disappointed that a system that I had so much faith in had, in a way, let me down. Two years down the line I can honestly say that the feelings are a lot more clear now. I don't blame anyone for what happened and I feel sorry for those officers involved in this. Not all of them because some will be able to put their heads down and carry on. It's the ones who can't sleep at night who I feel for, the ones who are breaking down in tears in a court room. The reality of it is that no one will ever know the exact circumstances of what happened in that control room and what the orders were so it's not fair to comment on it.
Ok, moving on to less grim stuff...I slept soundly for a total of 13 hours between 6pm last night and 7am this morning. Like a baby, sweetly asleep. That's a result of a weekend up North with a couple of friends. Oh the joys of having fun!
I feel like I owe an explanation, even if a brief one, about what happened this weekend. It seems like some of you may have read what I posted during the weekend. I got a bit of a slap to the wrist on Friday night from my ever so sensible friend. I don't dispute the fact that I probably deserved one but I don't like confrontations involving me and my friend, even if little ones like this, because she is normally right and the truth hurts, as they say. I have been naughty and up to no good recently and although it all started as a little bit of harmless fun my attitude has been disgusting and to be honest, a slap on the wrist hasn't made much difference. Generally speaking when I'm at work I am in my best behaviour, it's just when I come out of there and step back into my own world that things seem to collapse back to the old ways. This weekend I got pushed over the edge, I lost it completely and felt like I was falling apart. More than ever I feel like the description in my profile. I'm a mess, yet collected. I'm falling apart but am held together by the will to carry on. To make matters even worse I had been out drinking on Friday night prior to speaking with my friend so acting on impulse and without even considering what I was doing I just deleted the blog along with a lot of other stuff that I had on the net, hence the upsetting disappearance of my picture.
So that's that explained...
Tomorrow is a big day for us. We have our first assessment on cuffing and unarmed skills. So we have a whole afternoon of striking, blocking, nerve points, ground fighting, wrist and arm locks plus the ever so fun (and slightly painful) take downs. Although nervous I'm looking forward to it...they are normally fun, these classes. We just get to beat the c**p out of each other in a harmless way and come out of there full of bruises and feeling ever so sore. I normally get a nice massage when I get home so bring on tomorrow!!!
I've had a couple of problems this weekend which led to me accidentally deleting my blog. Don't worry, PSD are not on my case. Well, I hope not anyway. With a little bit of time and lots of patience I'll be able to get it back to what it was before, fingers crossed.
So University is going great. I feel like I'm learning lots and although our days are not overly long it is still very tiring, what with the amount of essay writing and reading we have to do in our own time. I'm really beginning to enjoy the whole thing and the more I learn the more I want to learn. We had a very busy week and then on Friday we put it all to practice to do a mock witness interview. It's all recorded so in three months time we can watch it and see how much we've improved. I was watching my dvd this morning and noticed how much I fiddle with my hair when I'm nervous. Or maybe I just do it all the time.
So time has been very short, and it will be even worse this week as I have an essay to hand and an assessment on the officer protection training stuff. Plus, I might be going up north for the weekend, provided I behave nicely throughout the week. Yey... :-D
Name: bawpc Home: London, United Kingdom About Me: I know how to let my hair down, I know when to be responsible, I drink, I party, I understand committment, I dread relationships, I dream and I cry when my dreams don't come true. I'm young, yet grown up, I'm scared yet brave, I'm pretty yet the little ugly duckling, I can love, I know how to hate, I'm passionate, compassionate, impatient, fiery. I share, I talk, I love (again), I like to be on my own, I like companionship. I'm complicated...because I'm only human. See my complete profile
