{"id":153253,"date":"2020-11-30T14:38:00","date_gmt":"2020-11-30T14:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/?p=153253"},"modified":"2020-11-30T15:26:13","modified_gmt":"2020-11-30T15:26:13","slug":"police-officers-been-left-damned-if-they-do-damned-if-they-dont-during-coronavirus-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/?p=153253","title":{"rendered":"Police officers have been left damned if they do, damned if they don’t during Coronavirus crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"

HAVING to police the public during the ongoing coronavirus crisis has sadly had the side-effect of p<\/span>utting police officers against the public they serve, Essex Police Federation has said.<\/span><\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

Laura Heggie, Federation Chair, said officers have often been dammed if they do, dammed if they don\u2019t during the crisis as have tried to engage, explain, encourage and \u2013 if necessary \u2013 enforce.<\/span><\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

Laura said: \u201cWe are there to enforce the laws and sometimes people don\u2019t want to hear that because people want to do what they want to do. But as we\u2019ve already seen, the result of that during this pandemic is people dying. So the rules are there for a reason and they have to be enforced.<\/span><\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are sadly seen sometimes as the bad guys and girls, but I certainly know that within Essex, officers have been approaching this very much from the educational point of view rather than the enforcement.<\/span><\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

\u201cYes, we\u2019ve been telling people what the restrictions are and making sure that they\u2019re aware, and if they\u2019re breaching them asking them to stop. We are very much stuck in the middle, but we\u2019ve got a job to do.\u201d<\/span><\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

Broadcaster\u00a0<\/span>Piers Morgan<\/span>\u00a0rushed to police officers\u2019 defence earlier this month, saying that they have been put in an \u201cincredibly difficult position where they\u2019re told to enforce it – they get the blame. If they don\u2019t enforce it they get the blame. Whatever they do they get the blame.\u201d<\/span><\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

He was speaking after John Apter, Police Federation of England and Wales Chair, warned that officers are being scapegoated: \u201cPolice officers are being portrayed by some as the villains during this pandemic. That\u2019s insulting and so unfair. We are damned if we do and dammed if we don\u2019t.<\/span><\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

“Criticised by some for enforcing too much, others say it\u2019s not enough. Phone cameras put in their faces when they try to speak with people. Assaults on police have increased during the pandemic. Weaponising the virus by spitting and coughing at police officers is sadly the norm. We know this isn\u2019t easy on anybody, we are doing our best in the most difficult of circumstances. Like our colleagues in the NHS and other parts of the public sector my colleagues are exhausted, the pressure on them is relentless.<\/span><\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

“Police officers are human beings doing an extraordinary job. We are not trying to spoil people\u2019s fun or ruin Christmas, we\u2019re trying to stop this deadly virus taking more lives. The vast majority of the public understand this and support us. We are not the enemy.”<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HAVING to police the public during the ongoing coronavirus crisis has sadly had the side-effect of putting police officers against the public they serve, Essex Police Federation has said. Laura\u2026 read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":146876,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153253"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=153253"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153253\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":155621,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153253\/revisions\/155621"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/146876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=153253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=153253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=153253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}