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It's very easy to get caught up in the gleeful
schadenfreude surrounding
the Andrew Mitchell affair, and there's no doubt that with the whole "pleb" thing he could hardly have chosen a word more toxic for a Conservative politician (well, I suppose "peasant" might have been worse), revealing as it does the furious jackbooted Nazi
space lizard lurking under the ill-fitting human disguise. In the light of that, the amusing revelation that during his time at
Rugby school he was a "stern disciplinarian" and earned the nickname "Thrasher" comes as no surprise whatsoever.
His BBC profile also reveals that he used to work for investment bank
Lazard Brothers. Lazard.
Lizard. Coincidence? I think not.
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What struck me as slightly odd, though, was the notion, seemingly unchallenged and accepted by everyone involved in the associated media scrum, that you can be arrested for
swearing at a police officer. It certainly seems
that this is true, usually under the provisions of the
1986 Public Order Act or for the older offence of causing a
breach of the peace. Now I'm certainly not saying that some drunken nutter wandering round a quiet residential area at 2am shouting "
CUUUUUUUNT" at the top of his voice shouldn't be subject to some form of legal sanction, but just saying, for instance, "fuck" in the context of a heated exchange with a police officer shouldn't be enough to
get you arrested, unless we're still living in the 19th century and no-one's told me.
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Police officers are meant to be rufty tufty types who can restrain hardened crims if necessary, after all; they shouldn't be swooning and reaching for the smelling salts if someone says "bollocks" to them. Similarly, if I can't be arrested for saying "shitcakes" to someone I know, or some random stranger who doesn't happen to be a police officer, then I really don't see why the police should be any different.
This Guardian article has a good summary of the current position, certain aspects of which the police spokespeople seem a bit embarrassed about discussing, and probably rightly so. Note that you can also be arrested for telling a mounted police officer (very politely, without swearing) that
his horse is gay.
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