How woke policing betrays ordinary people

Are the police interested in actually policing anymore? Last week, it was revealed that it now takes officers across the UK up to 28 hours to respond to a burglary. The waiting time for the police to respond to break-ins has reportedly doubled in two years. And all this is after the police declared in 2022 that they would start treating burglaries as a priority crime and attend all domestic burglaries.

Since then, it seems the majority of police forces have given up on fulfilling those promises. Meanwhile, many forces have found themselves policing more and more speech and recording ‘hate incidents’, stretching resources to breaking point. In Scotland, the introduction of the new Hate Crime Act will further divert time and money away from catching thieves and violent criminals. Indeed, within the first 24 hours of the law coming into effect, police were inundated with reports of supposed ‘hate crimes’ – each and every one of which they had previously vowed to investigate.

To most people, this shift in priorities is bizarre. But, by the twisted logic of our elites, it makes perfect sense.

Historically, the Conservative Party was closely associated with the protection of private property. For conservative thinkers, private property provides financial security as well as emotional security. Thus, burglaries were always viewed as a heinous violation of personhood.

But today concerns about private property are increasingly seen as an expression of ‘privilege’. These crimes are seen, consciously or unconsciously, as less important. Hence why shoplifting is on the verge of becoming socially acceptable, looting is viewed by some as an act of rebellion and TikTok terrors like Mizzy can barge into strangers’ homes with near impunity. Caring about violations against private property is now considered out of touch and gauche.

To make matters worse, many police forces really do seem to believe that countering ‘hate speech’ should be their top priority. This is driven by an almost pathological fear and loathing of the mass of citizens in society, who cops assume are only one mouse click away from committing violent acts against minorities. Police Scotland gave the game away on this recently when, during a training session for officers on the new Hate Crime Act, they drew up a hypothetical scenario about a gender-critical feminist called Jo (widely believed to be based on JK Rowling). In the exercise, Jo suddenly goes from posting about her concerns about gender ideology and its impact on women’s rights to saying that trans people ‘all belong in the gas chambers’.

The obvious implication here is that, without tough legislation to police ‘hate’, a genocidal movement could quickly flourish in Scotland. Cracking down on what people say and the opinions they hold is now far more important to our elites than the traditional areas of policing, such as tackling theft and violent crime.

The police need to start taking their jobs seriously again. Stop telling us what we can and cannot say online and focus instead on defending our safety and property. For if people can’t feel safe in their own homes, they can’t feel safe anywhere.

Neil Davenport is a writer based in London.