Assaulting police should be socially unacceptable

ASSAULTING a police officer should be seen as socially unacceptable, the Secretary of Essex Police Federation has said.

Phil Suarez also said the Government should change legislation to ensure that attacking emergency service workers becomes an aggravated offence.

He made the comments after five officers were assaulted in Clacton in the space of five days – including one officer who was seriously injured after being slashed in the face with garden shears.

Phil said: “Clacton is very close to my heart because I’ve spent a huge amount of my career there so my heart always has a flutter whenever I hear or read about any colleagues that have been injured. We’re obviously wishing them well.

“The #ProtectTheProtectors campaign is about ensuring that those in our society that feel it’s okay to assault police officers or any other public sector worked, that they’re actually dealt with fully, and the law is strengthened around all this, particularly in sentencing.

“It should become an aggravated offence to assault a police officer or anybody else [in the emergency services]. I’m sure the NHS staff are probably experiencing a high level of violence as well.

“I think it just needs to become socially unacceptable to assault a police officer or anybody else that’s trying to serve their community and their local public.

“We’ve gone the same way with, quite rightly, homophobia, and anything racist or with an element of that, in most offenses it does become an aggravated offense, and sentencing reflects that and it becomes a lot more serious.

“So I think we would like to see some to key changes in legislation that actually are really going to make people stop and think twice before they routinely, just because they happen to be drunk or whatever the reason, think it’s acceptable to assault a police officer.

“It’s very, very shocking and we need to make sure it stops.”