A former police chaplain who worked alongside front line officers for 15 years hit out this week at “guilt-ridden” liberal criminal justice policies which he says have led to the recent upsurge in gun and knife crime.
The Reverend Campbell Paget, an ex-Army officer, said he witnessed a gradual breakdown of morale within the force during his time based in both South London and Medway from the mid 80s to the late 90s as “politically correct” attitudes increasingly prevailed.
And he warned this week that the legacy of those guidelines could lead to frustration among ordinary people boiling over and some taking the law into their own hands.
The Rev Paget said: “What began to develop during my time as a chaplain was that the old-style police officer and his way of working began to be pushed to one side in favour of the latest Home Office initiatives – some of which came from fairyland – and a focus on how we [the police] are appearing.
“The good old policeman was seen very much as a dinosaur and any non-politically correct views expressed would result in a black mark.
“This led to a marked falling off in respect for those who were in charge and a feeling that there was no support for those on the ground.
“Many of the officers who were successful in this culture were far more concerned with their careers, their mortgages, their families than catching criminals.
“Of course those who wanted to go back to tougher policing became disillusioned – many left to go to work as security consultants.”
The Rev Paget was recruited into the police after serving as a captain in the Royal Green Jackets alongside Royal Ulster Constabulary officers in Northern Ireland.
His first posting was Streatham before he moved to Rochester. The role he took on enabled him to watch how the judiciary treated criminals.
“A lot of people who pass judgement over others seem to have a guilt complex about the opportunities they have had compared with those offered to the people they are sitting in judgement of. During the 80s, 90s and even now – when the pendulum seems to have swung back the other way – we are reaping the harvest of an extremely vocal group of people who were anti-establishment, anti-monarchy and anti almost every other aspect of the traditional structure of society.
“This soft approach to criminals and guilt-influenced liberal thinking is what has led to the current spate of serious crime.”
The Rev Paget said he understood how liberalism was important to the country as it came out of the straightjackets of the 1950s into the creative 1960s.
“A lot of the attitudes then showed up the prejudices which existed in society and that was a good thing. But when people start going too far that way – and liberalism itself becomes entrenched across the political thought process – that is when a problem starts.” He said a “political will” must now exist across all parties to arrest this situation.
He said: “We need to take very stringent measures to protect traditional values and the family in order to instil a sense of responsibility which is lacking in so many people today.”
Rev Paget, who is married with children, is now a parish priest and a school governor in West Kent.
He said: “Police need to be able to do their job in so-called ghetto areas where turf wars are starting to become more frequent and more innocent people will be caught in the crossfire.
“Unless we regain a moral fabric, decent people will start to take the law into their own hands. There exists a real danger of vigilantism which I could never support but I do understand.”
The Home Office declined to comment.
POSTED: 02/09/2007 09:00:00
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