Re:Origins of the police
by jobposter1234 on Thursday December 25, 2014 @12:29AM
(#8795519)
I know nothing about this particular topic, but my first reaction was to find this statement highly suspect and at best full of exaggeration:
"The historical nucleus of the Metropolitan Police is the force organized by Henry Fielding, in the 1750s, when the Wild scandal was still on everyone's minds"
30 years is a long time. Is Iran-Contra still on everyone's minds when it comes to discussions over geopolitics? I suppose it's still a factor.
Iran-Contra was a damp squib. What happens if you replace it with e.g. "Nixon"?
Seriously? These days, the public consciousness routinely loses track of major issues within days or weeks. We're already forgetting the major lessons of the last decade (re: renewed war fervor and attacks on civil rights over ISIS). 40+ years ago is ancient history politically.
I don't think the timescale was the same in 18th century England, but we're still talking about a generation-level gap here--I don't think you could just automatically assume a connection without some evidence.
Re:Origins of the police
by tristanojbacon on Thursday December 25, 2014 @10:32PM
(#8797928)
Public consciousness routinely loses track of major issues within days or weeks, as a result of mass media and entertainment. Once the television and radio were invented, people's focus started shifting to the here and now, be it the news or their favourite programme on TV. One can't really say the same for the late 1700's!
That's my take on it, at least
That theory seems to be rather sketchy in practice.
Government police forces are policed by the government.
Private police forces are also policed by the government, but since they're different organizations, perhaps in reality it would be better.
As for the corruption bit, with private security forces we know the weakness from the historical example already. With public police, public oversight puts a limit on corruption, at least in theory. Certainly London saw an improvement with the government providing police service.