Comments on: London borough police chief claims he sought advice on gay flag

By: Howard

Howard — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 02:09:28 +0000

Sir Paul Stephenson i belive needs to support his officer's a little more. in regards not all police officers are srt8. i would have though that supporting to fly the flag would have infact been an honour on many levels. after all under Article 26
All persons are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to the equal protection of the law. In this respect, the law shall prohibit any discrimination and guarantee to all persons equal and effective protection against discrimination on any ground such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. so i think the fact of displaying the flag would confirmed and inforces this sector. maybe he needs to be a little more lest selfish in his actions. after all arnt rules there to be adapted to fit with the times. its not the leader its the army who make's the leader wouldn't you agree.

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By: Andrew Quick

Andrew Quick — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 12:47:35 +0000

Should NEVER have been flown.

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By: Sister Mary Clarence

Sister Mary Clarence — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 11:03:38 +0000

The issue here really is abut whther the flag was taken down because someone has some prejudice against gay people or not surely.

The flag shouldn't have been flown in the first place and to not fly is is surely only treating us 'equally' with other sections of the community. Equality is so often an issue here, and while people try to justify it with all sorts of arguments here, it amounts to us arguing for special treatment if the flag be allowed to be flown. However good the mitigation is for flying the flag, we are straying outside the realms of equality.

The idea that Sir Ian Blair okayed the flag, seems very plausible. For a police commissioner he always seems to have a failure to understand right and wrong, the law and the importance of following procedure,

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By: Charlene

Charlene — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 09:54:21 +0000

I can see why the decision was took to fly the flag after all there is still mistrust of the Police & under reporting of hate crime, so publically supporting LGBT history month is sending a positive message.

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By: Flapjack

Flapjack — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 09:34:08 +0000

While multiple flags is a nice idea IMO it would soon look pretty cluttered. If the police are doing their job right there only needs to be one adornment outside a police station, and that's a blue lantern with the word "Police" on it. That they serve the whole community should be a given.
Specific community policing information is what the waiting room noticeboard is for…

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By: Will

Will — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 08:25:18 +0000

Actually, Grr, that's one of the better posts I've seen here in a while. You make a good argument.

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By: Grrr

Grrr — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 16:58:29 +0000

On one level I don’t really care what flags the police fly. If they have rules about only flying the Union and their own MPS flag then so be it. I can’t see the logic of making an exception for flying the rainbow flag. However, I do care about who gets to set these rules. After all, the police work for the people of this country right?
The Union flag can give off different signals to different people depending on context. At times it can make us feel part of a community (for example when we win a medal at the Olympics) and at other times it can make us feel excluded (in Northern Ireland when accompanied by very tasteful red, white and blue painted kerbstones). So what’s the purpose of flying flags at police stations? I don’t need to see a Union flag to know what country the police station belongs to and I don’t need a MPS flag to know it’s a police station.
So surely the most useful thing a flag flying outside a police station can signal, is that the police are there for all sections of the community. Why not fly flags for different sections of the community to demonstrate that the police’s bigoted past is something that they are working to put behind them, that community policing is a reality not political rhetoric? What harm could it do, and why don’t we have a say in these rules?

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