I am minded to write this poem because of a small and discreet event I attended at Liverpool John Moores University, one evening some years ago.
The event was given by a chief constable of a nearby north of England police force.* The standout stat I remember he offered us was when he wanted to contextualise what differentiates the average experience of a police officer with the average experience of a democratic citizen — and perhaps, in so doing, making it easier for both sides to be less opposing and more conciliatory.
Most citizens, he said, experienced 10 to 11 “life events”: what he meant was serious incidents such as witnessing the horrible injuries of others, maybe their violent passing, one’s own experiences of near-death, and/or perhaps the death of a family member or close friend.
Then he asked the collected audience what they thought the stat was for the average police officer. Not even the attending officers themselves knew how to hazard a guess.
The figure was 400.
It sank in. He let it sink in slowly and quietly, too.
It will never be forgotten.
That is how much the average police officer suffers. And wherever they individually choose to remain servants of the citizenry, not enforcers of the same, is when we have the very best of our societies standing rightfully to attention in front of us.
Just this.
Have a safe day.
(And just that.)
* I also recall the fact that I was once very firmly informed by a community police officer in a suburb of Chester, UK, that whilst the public liked to see the British police as a service, the British police never see themselves as anything but a force.
“the 400: a poem about service”
i was told one evening
by a chief constable near where i lived
amongst an audience of people good and free
that 400 was the number
which for the rest of us was 10 or 11
being life events
that break our souls
and make us weep with heaps of tears
like babbling brooks
when nothing’s then right
and all is then took
and life is then no longer worth living at all
*
and this chief of big team
was the kindest of souls
and he knew how to roll with the times and the goals
but equally he was clear
what should be made more clear
and this was that police and citizenry both
needed to come closer
not as yoke of law
nor as harness of tough
but just as two parts which completed a whole
*
and so his view of policing
and of law enforcement proudly served
i’ve found in very few places since then
and how
but where i have seen this
is where i am now
which is sweden and stockholm
and where they really must take a bow
and here i have seen
that policing is a team
but where force doesn’t define
the many first few steps
and only kicks in when a blue line protects
the service which otherwise
inscribes the good deeds
*
of a law enforcement and policing philosophy
designed specifically
to deliver a broader humanity
via a society engineered and scoped
to improve what we do to each other
as human beings seen as such
rather than automatically
as monsters capable of horrendous touch
*
and so this is what really floats my boats
much much more than relationships
of a personal sort of love that deludes
because what i need
and what i want
is much much less than to quantify the affection
that baldly a person might feel for my person
and much much more to qualify the ways
we should be treating ourselves society-wide
hiding from nothing
and fearing absolutely no one
as we relearn to live
with the kindest heads and hearts
*
and so i say
and so i say i may
that love of people is a service not a force
and law enforcers who prefer to serve us fully
are worth their weight in gold all told
and so these are the places
where really i want to live and work
and have the deepest of friends and colleagues
never lovers or wife or anything more
because my focus from now on in
is the health of my civilisation
and the democracies i want us to repopulate
as every step we now must take
involves us just choosing … to do good
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