Remember Dixon of Dock Green His friendly smile, ‘Evening All’ and the modest salute at end of show?
George, the kind and gentle old man, would not last 30 seconds in today’s police department. His style of policing was replaced by black-and white tellies.
Just as well. PC Dixon wouldn’t know the difference between a Taser and a turnip.
Imagine him and his Dock Green colleagues struggling to deal with the Mail’s vileness this week.
It was a masterpiece of investigative journalism. An undercover reporter bravely risked his safety to expose the evil of drug barons who target small children.
Their goal was to make them addicts for high-strength cannabis, disguised as harmless treats. To take their young lives away in exchange for huge profits.
One so-called “baron” boasted of kidnapping and cutting off two fingers from one of his clients.
Drug Baron Selamet, also known as ‘The Devil’ and a notorious dealer who uses Instagram in order to sell cannabis, is shown here.
Even more disturbing is the fact that this vile business is being promoted by Facebook, which also owns Instagram. The dealers use Instagram to lure children into buying their toxic’sweets.
Some’sweets’ can be as potent as 50 joints. It can have a devastating effect on the brains of young children. Some of these Instagram accounts that advertise the drugs have up to 30,000 followers.
It is a sophisticated operation that is run by ruthless criminals who operate in a foreign world to PC Dixon.
However, even for people like me, who are regularly exposed to the new cyberspace world, it can be truly frightening.
With the Dixon’s old-fashioned coppers, however, we can all share our faith in this wonderful construct: The rule of Law. It is the ultimate achievement of our government.
Thomas Hobbes, the greatest political philosopher, captured its essence by saying it was essential to prevent anarchy of ‘the battle of all against all’.
It was 500 years ago. Today, we have democratically elected parliaments that pass laws to regulate our behavior. Police enforce them and punish those who don’t.
The purpose could be summarized as follows: To protect sheep from the wolves.
It is a noble goal indeed. We are so satisfied that it is accomplishing its task.
Let’s take the Mail investigation as an example. Several obvious questions spring to mind.
Why wasn’t the police responsible for capturing these vicious thugs and their accomplices?
After being stopped by police on the roadside, Selamet Mehmetaj was released from his handcuffs and allowed to leave. It is not clear when or why he was stopped.
Why is it so difficult for a newspaper, which has very few resources compared to police forces, to spot the problem and find at least one villain and incriminate him in front a concealed camera? I urge you to watch the video if you haven’t. It will make your blood boil.
If this weren’t a classic example of society’s innocent sheep needing protection from the predatorywolves, I don’t know what is.
Are the police losing sight of their job?
They will no doubt claim they are on the case, citing evidence of the recent hauls of heroin, cocaine, and cannabis they have seized.
True, but I wonder how many they have not seized. The illegal drug trade is flourishing like never before.
The Mail investigation revealed that this is partly due to the creation of a new marketplace. It has moved from the street corner to every youngster’s phone.
The algorithms of social media sites like Instagram make it easy for dealers to expand their reach. Once innocent victims show interest, they are quickly offered a vast array from other dealers.
This is how the algorithm works. The wolves have now made it much easier to capture the lambs.
How is the police policing the wolves? Facebook, the owners and operators of Instagram, claim that they are doing a great job. According to them, they have removed 2.3 million pieces from their website that were drug-sales related between April and June of this year.
Although it is possible, the Mail revealed that the Mail’s thug still appeared to be doing very well. The charges against the wolves in the social media world go far beyond facilitating drug-dealing.
How many more stories are there of teens being trapped in its poisonous web and causing harm or even death?
Frances Haugen, a former boss at Facebook, stated this week that the site was promoting online hatred because its algorithm prioritizes extreme content.
She accused the company of negligence and ‘dancing in data’, despite it claiming it was at the top of the problem.
Mehmetaj explained how every month he grows up to 2,500 cannabis plants – which he calls his ‘babies’ – including high strength ‘stardog’ and super-potent ‘wedding cake’ (stock image)
According to leaked research, the company’s employees believe it only removes between 3 and 5% of hate speech and just 0.6% of content that violates its own rules on violence and incitement.
And Facebook’s reaction at this endless list?
Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of the company, announced this week that it is changing its name. It’s hard not to choose whether to laugh or cry.
Perhaps he is afraid because MPs are discussing a new law to ban social media companies from publishing harmful content. Ofcom could fine them up to 10% of their global turnover under this law.
But don’t expect anything. Zuckerberg is one of the most skilled lawyers on the planet, and he relishes the idea of a fight.
But it’s the police that protect us sheep from the less skilled wolves: the burglars, the robbers, and the rapists.
Their record is not encouraging. Only 8 per cent of crimes ever lead to prosecution — let alone convictions. We are entitled to ask them what they did other than the crime.
Here’s something. They have been busy dealing with non-crime hate incidences.
They recorded 120,000 between 2014 and 2019. They also recorded 120,000 between 2014 and 2019.
Answer: We live in a society where some people feel they have the right to be protected from being offended or any other views.
A group of activists decided that Professor Kathleen Stock was transphobic and hounded her out of her job at Sussex University.
This is a small matter that can be set against the horrors we face when our children become brain-damaged drug addicts. Maybe.
The rule of law, as Thomas Hobbes recognized 500 years ago is inviolable. It exists to protect all citizens. Even PC Dixon knew that.
OUR SPIES HAVE A BETTER PRAY MAGAZON CAN DELIVER
Amazon is signing up a brand new customer.
I’m sure many of us have spent sleepless nights worrying about where Jeff Bezos will find his next trillion dollar after his company has bought every retailer on the globe.
It actually has three new clients: MI5, MI6 & GCHQ.
Amazon has signed up three new customers: MI5, MI6 and GCHQ in a deal worth somewhere between £500 million and £1 billion (stock image)
You’ll know that those are the three security agencies that protect our national security. This allows us to sleep in safety knowing that if foreign spies are lurking in our shrubbery, they will get our collars felt very quickly.
The deal is worth a trifling amount by Jeff’s standards: somewhere between £500 million and £1 billion and it’s with Amazon Web Services (AWS), which is the company’s cloud computing arm used for storing data.
It is believed that this will allow our spy to search data more efficiently using the latest technology, such as speech recognition tools.
My only concern is what happens if the system fails.
Perhaps the secrets will need be delivered by an Amazon driver at GCHQ one day. But what if there isn’t anyone in?
Let’s all hope he doesn’t just leave them there.