"Their job is a nightmare. "
Quite often because they choose to make it so - I still have a vivid picure of them waving their pay packets at striking miners who had been out of work for many months - not for a pay rise, but to defend their jobs from Countess Thatcherella's axe.
- not to mention this particular hero:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/southyorkshire/content/articles/2009/03/02/lesley_boulton_orgreave_photo_feature.shtml
One more tale.
In the early 80s a group of Travellers, protesting at the fact that most of the London borough's were ignoring their legal obligation to provide sites, moved onto Mitcham Common in SW London.
I was working with a man at the time who (after several pints) boasted that his brother in law (who lived adjacent to the Common) was planning, with a few neighbours, to firebomb the site (2 caravans, both containing large families).
I reported the matter to our local police, but knowing their reputation as far as Travellers were concerned, I also contacted a Gypsy Council member and told him what was planned.
The Gypsy Council members mounted a protective guard on the Common but, as I expected, the police did nothing about the planned attack (which was called off shortly afterwards anyway, possibly because I had made it known to the would-be arsonist that they were sussed by both the Travellers and the police).
Three weeks later I recieved a visit from our local boys in blue who wanted to know why we had been associating with "Gyppos".
Apparently my knowing these people was more important than protecting the men, women and children on the Common.
Jim Carroll