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This latest wheeze by our idiotic Tory government hasn't gone down too well. First of all, a shrewd comment below from top British copper: < http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/14/bill-bratton-police-track-record > 'Having been thwarted in his attempts to clear the path for Bratton to apply for the commissionership of the Met, the prime minister has recruited him to advise on gangs. This again has irked British police chiefs who feel it denigrates their successes. A senior officer said British police had regularly gone to the US to plunder tactics to tackle gangs, and had been so successful that the US was now sending their officers over here to learn about Britain's successes. 'That fact explains Sir Hugh Orde's frustration at Cameron bringing Bratton over. Orde, president of the Association of Chief Police Officers, told the Independent on Sunday: "I am not sure I want to learn about gangs from an area of America that has 400 of them. It seems to me, if you've got 400 gangs, then you're not being very effective. If you look at the style of policing in the states, and their levels of violence, they are fundamentally different from here."' Other people have queried Britain's politicians' obsession with looking to the USA: 'Why does David Cameron automatically turn to the US for advice on policing. The US has a larger proportion of its population in prison, higher levels of mental illness, greater rates of teenage pregnancy, a lower level of child wellbeing, and higher levels of poverty and social exclusion than most other developed countries. Why not get advice from socially more cohesive countries such as Japan, Sweden or Germany?' Paul F ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
