Can't we get rid of this Ian Blair idiot? Not only has he been taping phone calls (which is illegal), he's also head of an organisation which has killed innocent people (which is also illegal, though it becomes less illegal if you're wearing a Police uniform for some reason), they're now banning blogging by people like this. 
WWD slagged off Tony Blair, ID cards (and again, here), discussed how Hendon (the police training school) is a hotbed of theft, disagreement with "the immoral foreign policies of New Labour, and their sycophantic support of American foriegn policy", how horrible it is to have to deliver "the death message", the silliness of Charles Clarke, the Respect agenda, how CCTV isn't that useful, an entry entitled "The Death of Liberty in Britain", the failures of the IPCC in the de Menezes situation, the nutty "community leaders" and much more.
I don't agree with WWD's perspective on a number of things, especially the drug-war which is basically glossed over prohibitionism, using all the same nonsensical justifications that didn't justify the War on Alcohol back in the 1920s. But, here's what's great about WWD. He's critical of the police when he thinks they're wrong. And the blog is written by a human being.
I can be very nasty about the Police - I've called them things like "incompetents in uniform". But reading WWD makes me realise that there are coppers out there who know what they're doing and who are professional and don't buy in to all the BS that comes at them from the Higher Ups. This is good, and we need to encourage it.
The Met, who have the biggest image problem as a result of the de Menezes case, should be encouraging coppers to blog and blog openly - with their names and badge numbers. That way we can actually start a dialogue and try to understand what's going on with the Police. When there are blogs out there being written by police officers, we, the readers, can judge the Police by both their actions, by the statements of their "media people" and other Higher Ups, as well as from individual officers. Instead, if you cut out the individual officers, we can only judge the Police by their media presence and reported actions. And that's not good for the Police.
