Anti-terror cops or the new kit for teachers in our lawless schools?
THERE are many falsehoods in modern Britain. One is the alleged ‘fall’ in crime figures, this week yet again exposed as a deliberate fiddle. Another is the claimed ‘improvement’ in state comprehensive schools, where in truth classroom behaviour is often appalling and learning almost impossible as a result.
When this open secret was revealed a few years ago by undercover TV cameras, the authorities responded by disciplining the brave teacher who had helped expose it. Of course they did. What else would you expect?
But now the growing chaos has led to calls for teachers to be equipped with body-cameras. Why stop there? Why not kit them out in the face-masks, goggles, helmets, bother boots, combat gear and heavy artillery sported last week by ‘police’ officers in Downing Street during a visit by the Israeli premier. If teachers dressed like this, and could also get away with shooting or electrocuting the occasional pupil (as the police get away with shooting and Tasering the odd innocent person), exam results and general performance would soar.
I suspect there’d also be many fewer false accusations of sexual harassment, and a sharp drop in bullying.
Am I joking? I’m not really sure. The authorities will do almost anything to protect themselves, which is why the police guarding politicians dress up like Judge Dredd and drape themselves with weapons.
But any normal person seeking to live an orderly, honest life – a private citizen besieged by louts in her home, a teacher struggling to control a feral classroom, a shopkeeper plagued by incessant theft – faces arrest and punishment if he or she snaps and lashes out.
Surely it is only despotisms where the police protect the powerful, and turn a cold and brutal shoulder to the people?