We're all in this together

So Blue Eyes has been banned from Inspector Gadget's blog. Can't say I'm surprised, given the usual style of comments there. Blue committed the mortal, unforgiveable sin of criticising a policeman! Worse, he suggested that their pension scheme should bear some resemblance to that available to others! For this, he is apparently a troll and a banker (which is worse, I wonder?), and if he persists in arguing that police pensions should be like everyone else's then he shouldn't expect officers to turn up if he gets burgled.

Now, that last comment provoked the same reaction on my part as it did for Blue. Told in the comments that

my colleagues and I keep you safe at night. we [sic] investigate when you’ve been robbed, me [sic] maintain your way of life, we ensure the bad guys are always chased, so yes, you can pay our pension after a [sic] we retire.

I couldn't help but point out that:

I can honestly say that we do appreciate that. We really do. When you actually do it. However, what tends to happen is that when we call, it’s “not a priority”, or “no-one is available”, and when we have to sort it out ourselves because you’re not there, it suddenly is a priority to arrest one of us.

Blue Eyes even has a solid example (mine only come from family & friends...):

I tried to get my local Safer Neighbourhoods team to intervene with the people in the flat below me who smoke cannabis most evenings. As far as I can work out they simply don't work evenings or nights. The argument for the good pay and pensions is that it is an anti-social work pattern, but apparently not if you are on my local team!

That comment from Special Dibble is not the only example. PC Lightyear thinks that:

the emergency services are different due to the role they perform- you want the ambulance service to be cut back when you’re waiting to be cut out of a wrecked car? Or the fire brigade when you’re trapped in a burning building, or the old bill when youre [sic] house is being burgled.

This is the usual Police argument.  "We're special", they say.  "You need us, you'll miss us if we're gone".  True enough, we would indeed miss them.  In what way (exactly) does it make the Police special, though?  How long would the average Policeman cope if the water companies stopped supplying him with potable water?  Or if the supermarkets stopped supplying him with essentials such as bread, milk, (donuts...?) and so on?

And what about me?  I'm a patent attorney.  They don't need me, surely?  Except, maybe they do.  A good proportion of my work is for a company that leads the world in radiotherapy treatment; I secure them the protection they need for their inventions, allowing them to justify the research and development work that they do.  That development work has, over just a few decades, made radiotherapy treatment far safer, and far more effective.  Just as I want the Old Bill to turn up when my house is being burgled, I suspect Special Dibble will want my client to have found it worthwhile making that investment when he (or someone close to him) is diagnosed with a tumour.

The simple fact is, we all depend on each other.  Such is the nature of a market economy. The Police, however, seem to think they are in some way blessed.  Sorry to break the news boys and girls, but you're not.  That doesn't mean you're not appreciated (when you actually do your job), it just means you can drop the holier than thou attitude when you're dealing with the law-abiding public.

Just as I am a servant to my clients, so the Police are servants to all of us.