Smog police

　　”Remember, I am your master!” A man with a hideous face yelled viciously at the woman curled up in a corner.
　　In the past 20 years, such a scene has often happened in a house in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, England.
　　The perpetrator was David Carrick. By day, he is an armed police officer protecting dignitaries. Back home, he’s a violent female abuser. He has committed domestic violence, abuse, intimidation, illegal imprisonment, sexual assault and other atrocities against at least 12 women. The court confirmed that he committed 49 offences.
　　On February 7, Carrick was sentenced to life imprisonment, but the public’s doubts about the Metropolitan Police Department did not stop. In the police force, there are many “problem policemen” like Carrick, but the high-level police not only did not punish these people, but also let them stay in the police force, causing vicious incidents such as police bullying of women and racial discrimination. hair. Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mark Rowley admitted that the police “had failed in two ways”. First, they failed to pay attention to Carrick’s repeated “hating women” behavior, and second, they failed to make up their minds to clean up such people.

Police found the whip with which Carrick beat his victims, cameras monitoring their movements, and the stairwell where they were held in Carrick’s home.

　　The British Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement that Carrick’s case was “appalling”. Home Secretary Suella Braverman said the incident was sobering for the Metropolitan Police and police across the UK. “The key is that we have to find out why he can still wear the police uniform for so long (after committing crimes).”
“I am the law”

　　Emma (pseudonym) is in her early 50s. In 2017, she met Carrick at a party.
　　At first, Carrick was polite to Emma, ​​and occasionally mentioned that he was doing security work for then prime minister Theresa May and foreign secretary Boris Johnson. Carrick will also take her to play near 10 Downing Street, where the Prime Minister’s Office is located.
　　Shilpa Shah, a lawyer for the British Crown Prosecution Service, analyzed, “Carrick’s profession makes the victim lose his vigilance. He will say: ‘You will be safe with me because I am a policeman.’ This Let him gain their trust and build a good relationship with them.”
　　Emma’s father is also a policeman, so she has a crush on Carrick in his uniform. When Carrick offered to live together, she quickly agreed and moved into Carrick’s home.
　　”He said he would protect me, but I also had to do one thing, I had to obey him.” Emma thought that this was Carrick expressing his love for herself, but what happened next made her more and more collapse.
　　”I’m like his personal stuff, with no freedom. He doesn’t allow me to see family or friends, what clothes I want to wear, what food to eat, how much food I can eat per meal. He often laughs at me and humiliates me , would ‘punish’ me too. Stealing money and talking to other men were all excuses to ‘punish’ me. He beat me all over with a metal whip. At night, he made me sleep naked in the In the stairwell, or on the cold floor.”

On October 3, 2021, protesters gathered at the gate of the London Police Station.

　　When Carrick goes to work, he will use the camera at home to monitor all of Emma’s activities, and from time to time send her photos of himself wearing a police uniform and holding a gun, threatening her to “obey” because he “is the law.”
　　During the days with Carrick, Emma felt worthless, and even thought that she might as well die. “I have never felt so lonely and powerless.”
　　There are more than 10 women who have experienced the same painful experience as Emma. Most of them met Carrick through social media software. When we first met, Carrick was very polite, like a British gentleman. After learning that Carrick is a cop, they let their guard down, only to fall prey to the demon.
　　Many victims said Carrick manipulated them with words and brutality into thinking their existence was a mistake. One victim said that he kept holding the gun in his hand and aimed it at her from time to time, making her afraid to resist.
　　They also dare not report the case. Another victim said: “I don’t trust the police anymore. If something goes wrong, I don’t know if I want to call the police because I am afraid that the police department will send a police officer like Carrick.” Shah said
　　, Carrick threatened women that no one would believe them if they complained. “They also felt that they would not be believed because they were complaining to a police officer, which is obviously more likely to be believed.”
　　Adding to the pain of the victims, even leaving Carrick could not eradicate painful memories. One victim said, “No words are enough to explain the impact of what he did on me.” Their spirits have been destroyed, and some can only paralyze themselves with nicotine and alcohol.
　　In March 2021, a rape case by the police gave the victims hope. The body of 33-year-old Sarah Everard was found in a suburban woodland seven days later when she disappeared while walking home. The murderer turned out to be Wayne Cousins, a senior police officer of the Metropolitan Police. He admitted kidnapping, raping and murdering Everard.
　　The murder was a sensation in the UK at the time, sparking a national debate about women’s safety, sexual assault and police “knowing the law” and prompting a government inquiry.
　　In October of that year, the police received a call to the police. The other party said that he met the policeman Carrick on a dating website. When they first met, Carrick poured alcohol on her and then raped himself in the hotel. This time, Carrick was suspended.
　　The prosecutor in charge of the case, Ian Moore, said that after taking over the case, he realized that Carrick must have other cases. As a result, more and more victims came forward and pointed out that Carrick had abused him. The victims lived in different areas and were of different ages, and their cases spanned 20 years, but their testimonies about how Carrick controlled and abused them were strikingly similar. “I’m appalled by this,” Moore said. “I’ve been in a lot of cases and I’ve never seen one officer hurt so many women.”

　　After learning of her son’s accident, Carrick’s mother still couldn’t understand how her son became a demon who hurt women.
　　Carrick, 48, was born in Wiltshire, England. His upbringing seemed no different than any other kid. He likes sports and is a black belt in taekwondo. The mother said that Carrick often brought his girlfriend home when he was in school, and every time he saw a girl, it was a new face.
　　Later, the parents divorced. After the mother remarried, she gave birth to a son and a daughter. Carrick was not very friendly with his younger siblings. One child complained to his mother, “Carrick is a horrible man, he used to kick me in the back of the shin”. The mother didn’t take this matter to heart, thinking it was just the children’s slapstick behavior.
　　But to Carrick’s childhood best friend, there was another side to him.
　　At 19, Carrick enlisted in the Army. Between 1996 and 1997 he served for a period with the British Army Logistics Corps. After retiring, Carrick joined the Metropolitan Police in 2001.
　　The friend said: “He used to exaggerate his work. When he got into an argument with someone, he would show his police card and intimidate them. I told him, ‘You are a policeman, you can’t do this’, but he never listened. It’s too much to do whatever you want.” The friend also said that Carrick chose to join the armed police force because he wanted to have a weapon so that he “looked powerful”.
　　Carrick’s treatment of women disgusted his friends. “He has always disrespected women, especially after drinking, treating them like rubbish. I have seen him disrespect his girlfriend more than once.” Carrick’s neighbors have also seen his domestic violence
　　girlfriend . In 2019, a neighbor found the door of Carrick’s house open, and he was strangling his girlfriend’s neck so hard that he seemed to strangle her to death. Her screams could be heard all over the street. Neighbors quickly called the police.
　　In fact, as early as 2000 to 2021, the police received many complaints against Carrick, involving rape, domestic violence and harassment, but in the end they were all dismissed, and Carrick was not criminally sanctioned. There are no investigations of misconduct.
　　It is worth noting that some British media revealed that Carrick was suspected of burglary before becoming a policeman, but he successfully passed the police examination and approval procedures and entered the police force. During his 20 years as a police officer, stories of his brutal treatment of victims have long been circulated within the force. Colleagues ignored his actions and nicknamed him “David the Bastard”.
　　London Mayor Sadiq Khan said: “Londoners will be appalled that a criminal with a proven track record has been in the force for so long.” He urged police to investigate Carrick’s abuse of power.
“Criminals in Uniform”

　　London is named “Fog City” because of the amount of fog, and the London Police also has the reputation of “Fog City Guard” in the UK. But in recent years, controversy surrounding these so-called “guardians” has continued.
　　A senior media person living in the UK told the Global People reporter that because the criminal in this case was a policeman and a public official, the public paid a lot of attention to this matter. Many British newspapers are following the incident, trying to find out how many victims there are, which has also put the Metropolitan Police under pressure. This case speaks volumes about the many problems with the Metropolitan Police that have remained unresolved for years.
　　First, the police department has been negligent in its police background checks. Carrick, who has a record of criminal suspicion and complaints, was able to pass the approval of the Metropolitan Police Service twice (in 2001 and 2017), which highlights the weak review of the approval department.
　　A women’s safety campaign group said the Metropolitan Police was an institution in crisis. The group’s head, Andrea Simon, said the Metropolitan Police had been aware of Carrick’s horrific pattern of behaviour, but had failed to act appropriately. It shows how “broken” the police system that is supposed to keep the public safe from abuse is.
　　After Carrick’s case was revealed, Assistant Metropolitan Police Chief Barbara Gray said: “The duration and nature of Carrick’s criminal behavior is unprecedented in the police force. He should have been dismissed from the force long ago, but we missed it. The opportunity led him to take advantage of his position to continue committing crimes.” Gray also said that Carrick is not the only police officer in the Metropolitan Police who has been charged with serious sex crimes.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mark Rowley.

　　Last year, an internal inquiry into the Metropolitan Police found 1,809 members of the Met had been involved in more than one case of “misconduct” since 2013. Relevant complaints involved corruption, violent attacks, sexual harassment, leakage of confidential information, etc., but only 13 of them were dismissed, less than 1% of the total, and the vast majority of them continued to work in the police system. The British media called the group “criminals in uniform”.
　　The emergence of “problem police” is ultimately caused by the mechanism. The UK has a population of more than 67 million, and there are about 100,000 police officers in the UK, equivalent to 169 police officers per 100,000 population, which is a low proportion among European countries. There are opinions that the lack of police force puts pressure on the police station to recruit police officers, and they cannot screen personnel well and conduct background checks, resulting in uneven quality of police officers.
　　The Carrick case also shows that the internal management of the Metropolitan Police Service is extremely chaotic. A former minority policeman wrote to the media that the Metropolitan Police Department is a “place full of corruption and discrimination, it was and is still”. The problems disclosed in the internal investigation report are just the “tip of the iceberg”.
　　Currently, Raleigh has set up a new working group to conduct an internal investigation. “Hundreds of people who behaved dishonorably have undermined our credibility and we need to drive them out and uproot them,” he said.
　　Whether Raleigh can “uproot problem personnel” as he said, there is great uncertainty. The Metropolitan Police Department is under the Ministry of the Interior, and the Ministry of the Interior is its own system. It is difficult for the judiciary to directly interface with it. The outside world does not know how and how the investigation will be carried out. They can only wait for the results of the police investigation.
　　Some London citizens sighed: “If even the crimes and hidden dangers inside the police station are ignored by the authorities, how can the police protect the people? Can justice still be done?” David Carrick was born in 1975 and joined
　　in
　　2001 The British police force, who has served as an armed police officer in the Parliament and the diplomatic protection department for a long time, took advantage of his position to abuse women in the past 20 years, committed 49 crimes, and was sentenced to life imprisonment on February 7, 2023.