Please find below letter from PFEW Chair Steve Williams sent to the Main on Sunday following yesterday’s opinion piece by Peter Hitchens – dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2420890/PETER-HITCHENS-Get-rid-guns-cars-Tasers-just-end-real-policemen.html Dear Editor, Peter Hitchens’ comment ‘Get rid of the guns, cars and Tasers and we might just end up with real policemen’ (Mail on Sunday, 15 September) was at best embarrassingly ignorant and at worst unfathomably insulting and offensive. There is a reason why Mr Hitchens rarely encounters an officer on ‘foot patrol’ these days, and if he was able to step out from his own bubble he would realise it is not because they are ‘staying indoors or racing about in cars’. Perhaps Mr Hitchens would care to spend a night with officers on patrol in a busy town or city centre, and see how the men and women he is so happy to deride are being stretched beyond their limits, forced to carry out not only their own work but that of other emergency services. Perhaps Mr Hitchens should take note of the National Police Bravery Awards; the one day of the year when the countless acts of heroism by police officers which take place day-in, day-out, 24-7, are recognised and celebrated. And perhaps Mr Hitchens would like to attend National Police Memorial Day on 29 September and look into the eyes of the families and ex-colleagues of the many brave officers who have been killed while on duty, protecting the public, and suggest that police officers have their stab vests taken away. Yours faithfully Steve Williams, Chairman, Police Federation of England and Wales
Posted on: Tue, 17 Sep 2013 09:55:50 +0000