Happy New Year from PSNI West Belfast #tweetonthebeat

Happy New Year from your friends PSNI West Belfast who kept their 750 followers mightily … informed and entertained with their #tweetonthebeat feature, live tweeting some of the lively hi jinks they got up to on Wednesday night to see in 2015.

A few choice examples:

Because having to go out to deal with “loads” of domestics – you know, intervening to stop people being abused or terrorised in their own homes – sounds like a Happy New Year to me. Which I suppose is probably the point to this joke? I don’t know. Either way, jokes about domestic violence and such tend to go down a bit like a lead balloon.

Tarring all (or at least many) local young people with one drink and drug sodden brush?

And let’s not forget PSNI North Belfast who were busy providing community policing for eejits,  and drunk males. Not to omit that vanishing drunk woman on the Shankill.

Thanks for the updates and happy new year to you too PSNI!

I would be the first to agree that the PSNI don’t have the easiest of jobs. I’m certainly not rushing to put myself forward. So why not give people the occasional update on what they have to deal with out on the big old, bad old streets? And why not try to inject a bit of humour into the proceedings?

On the other hand, lighthearted tweets about providing support to people who have probably been physically harmed, threatened or traumatised due to “domestics” – read domestic violence, physical fighting, nasty threats, homes being smashed to pieces, however you want to term it – and disparaging comments about “eejits” and “a lot of young people out and about” hardly inspires community confidence (nor will it get you RTs and new followers). Respect is, after all, a two way street. The PSNI’s self-stated purpose is “to make Northern Ireland safer for everyone through professional, progressive policing”. I’m not sure how professional these comments are, nor do they accord particularly with the PSNI Guiding Principles of “being responsible”, “inspiring confidence” or “treating [people] fairly“.

But I may say no more in case I end up in one of these…

W[r]ite Noise