Criminal Figures

The Metropolitan Firearms and Headbangers' Club has been accused of imposing a "culture of fear" on its less privileged members, including arbitrary and unrealistic quotas for arrests and searches. Shootings and taserings are still optional, it appears; although that may change if the London Haystack and Bernard Hogan-Howitzer get their way over adding water-cannons to the arsenal. A report by the Police Federation says that officers feel "almost continually under threat of being blamed and subsequently punished for failing to hit targets"; the Met of course denies that anything of the sort is happening, although it has not yet got around to accusing the Police Federation of being a terrorist or of throwing bottles at the management while they try to save a life. Given the seriousness of the accusation (essentially, that the Met treats its foot-soldiers with the same contempt as the Government bestows upon teachers, the unemployed and other social pariahs), this surely represents progress.