[miracle2k]

I like that officers in the UK are unarmed. I'm sure there are other distinct differences in how the UK does policing from other countries that are worth pointing out that make a meaningful difference.

But every democratic country is operating on the principal that the police work on behalf of the people, and has mechanisms in place that are supposed to ensure that this is the case. The government works on behalf of and with the consent of the people too! When you get sent to prison for an insult on social media, it's all done in the name of (some of) your fellow citizens.

Much of this is about individual freedom vs the oppression of the collective. The operators who are tasked to enforce the collective's norms have personal decision making power, and power invariably corrupts.

> you have to be consciously right up in their faces to cause such an aberration.

What does this mean? That they are personally vindictive? That acting legally but in a way that is annoying to an officer should get me arrested?

[dfawcus]

They are not "unarmed", it is just that they do not generally carry firearms[1].

If we were to try walking around with batons, truncheons, handcuffs as they do, we'd be arrested for carrying offensive weapons.

[1] Some routinely carry Tasers, which are counted as "firearms" here.

[bemusedthrow75]

> But every democratic country is operating on the principal that the police work on behalf of the people, and has mechanisms in place that are supposed to ensure that this is the case.

Not really. The specific culture of “policing by consent” that is foundational to policing (one of the Peel principles) is still really strongly defended as a matter of policing identity here (as it is in Canada and to a lesser but still noticeable extent Australia). The US police kits itself out with secondhand military equipment from the armed forces. I suspect in some situations this makes them a more effective law enforcement machine but tooling up with military equipment suggests a significant break from Peel principles.

> What does this mean? That they are personally vindictive? That acting legally but in a way that is annoying to an officer should get me arrested?

It means that the situations where our police overreact are the situations where they are outnumbered and in confrontation (riots etc.). It means the opposite of them being personally vindictive (though some are and they are depressingly hard to fire)