Cop & LLB graduate | Views here are my own | Book I’m currently reading above | Blog link below | DMs open | The hill to die on is in defence of free speech
Oct 23, 2019 • 14 tweets • 3 min read
This is a very thorny subject, so I’ll tread carefully, but I believe this is a valid point and a worthwhile consideration.
It pertains to the presupposition that a police (or other public sector) workforce should be demographically representative of its force area.
(Thread.)
The next step following from this premise now holds that affirmative action (or positive discrimination, or the same action by any other name) is justified in bringing such a workforce into a closer mapping of its demographic area.
Aug 29, 2018 • 20 tweets • 5 min read
@VictimsComm Baroness Newlove is wrong in this debate for a number of reasons, both in principle and in practice.
There should never be a policy prohibiting officers from believing or disbelieving anything, least of all in allegations of sex crimes.
The article begins with an error as frequently made as it is shameful.
The conflation between “victims” and complainants leads to all sorts of absurdities, not least that the former’s premature usage loads any subsequent questions with an ungrounded presupposition.
Aug 7, 2018 • 22 tweets • 4 min read
An apology has been demanded from Boris Johnson for having mocked a religious custom, namely the wearing of the full-face veil in Islam.
It is obvious that those demanding the apology must believe that the mocking of this religious custom is wrong.
This is ridiculous.
When considering a thing said, or a thing done, and whether it is wrong, we must embark on a course of moral induction.
This is how we decide why something is wrong, and if it is at all.
It isn't sufficient to merely declare that the thing said or done is "offensive".
Jul 27, 2018 • 21 tweets • 4 min read
Some thoughts on this “degrading” and “embarrassing” encounter, and #stopandsearch more generally... bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-…
Police have been condemned again for “racial profiling” following this interruption of a drill video. Armed officers engaged the group with air support, and again, the variable of culture has been overlooked by some who can’t see past race.
Jun 25, 2018 • 18 tweets • 3 min read
The more time I spend thinking about it, the more confident I become in positing that a worthwhile and consistent code of morality can be reduced to principles of rights (or freedoms), and corresponding responsibilities to refrain from infringing the rights of others.
This is no original notion. It was put best by John Stuart Mill in ‘On Liberty’ thus:
“the only freedom which deserves the name, is that of pursuing our own good in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it.”
Mar 30, 2018 • 11 tweets • 2 min read
My childhood would make it difficult for anyone to tell a joke about alcoholism that I would laugh at. Such a joke might even offend me.
But what kind of authoritarian narcissist would I have be to dictate to you that you couldn’t tell it to anyone?
Offence, like humour, is inherently subjective. There are as many ideas and jokes out there to be offensive as there are people to be offended by them.
It is nothing but ridiculous, therefore, to impose objective rules about comedy and offence based upon such a premise.
