The cops 'the conscience of the nation' - Pull the other one!

The world has been turned on its head these days the Cops are ‘the conscience of the nation’ years ago it used to be the Church. The Church is kind of irrelevant now except for running food banks so ‘Les Flic’ step in like in this piece (link):

http://www.iomtoday.co.im/article.cfm?id=42362&headline=Businesses%20sho...

People who steal from their employers to fund their addiction are ‘very naughty boys and girls’ without a doubt but what of the industry that stokes that addiction no mention of that.

Of course if our gaming business is successful then the economy booms (so the argument goes) and with the increased revenue increased taxes so paradoxically the punters who play the industry indirectly fund the police. All those shiny uniforms, cans of PAVA spray and endless latest models of new vehicles to ride around in with the siren blaring they are paid for in part by gambling.

It's always been the same back in the bad old days before as Kate Beecroft MHK colourfully put it the Sheriff came into town the finance sector was busy laundering money (I don’t know perhaps it still does). The booming economy saw a three-fold expansion in police numbers although tellingly for many years they only had one ‘financial crime officer’ and he had to borrow a photocopier and other bits and bobs. Back then the force adage was don’t bite the hand that feeds you even if it is the Camorra.

So I take police moralising with a pinch of salt not because I have sympathy for someone who steals £500,000 from his employer but because the type of folk who have made a living FOR DECADES from first the finance industry and now gambling are held up as pillars of the community. They have slithered into positions of influence with the government. However you won’t hear Gary's Grenadiers posturing about that on the Courthouse steps and the Manx media is to stupid and lazy to make the correlation.

I think I’ll just go and buy an ice-cream!

Bernard Moffatt