Book Review: In the Office of Constable
| Author | Michael Head |
| Published date | 01 June 1980 |
| Date | 01 June 1980 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0067205X8001100209 |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
1980]
Book
Reviews
255
In
the Office
of
Constable by
SIR
ROBERT
MARK. (Collins, London,
1978), pp. 1-320. Cloth, recommended retail price $15.95 (ISBN:
o00 216032
3);
Report to the Minister for Administrative Services
on
the Organisation
of
Police Resources in the Commonwealth Area and
Other Related Matters by
SIR
ROBERT
MARK.
(Australian Government
Publishing Service, 1978), pp. 1-79. Paperback, recommended retail
price $1.65 (ISBN: 0642 91363
3).
There
is
asubtle change from the courts to the tax collector for
the purpose of controlling society, and since the poor have always
outnumbered the middle class and the wealthy, there
is
no hope of
reversal of this process by conventionally democratic means.
(In
the Office
of
Constable, page 298)
Sir Robert Mark's autobiography reveals him to be very close to
fascism. From start to fininsh his book
is
acontinuous argument for
more and more police power over society under today's conditions of
world economic slump and turbulence.
As Britain's Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis 1972-1977,
his view of the police
was
one of unashamed omnipotence:
The police are therefore very much on their own in attempting to
preserve order in an increasingly turbulent society in which socialist
philosophy has changed from raising the standards of the poor
and the deprived, to reducing the standards of the wealthy, the
skilled and the deserving to the lowest common denominator.
(In
the Office
of
Constable, page 244)
Or
as
he impressed upon the police officer graduates at his last Passing-
Out parade:
It
puts you in aclass apart. ...during the crises inevitably caused
by weak or misguided legislation, inadequate research and the
subordination of reality to political expediency, it is for you, and
you alone, to bear the strains until reason prevails.
(In
the Office
of
Constable, page 235)
In line with this philosophy Mark
is
avehement defender of the absolute
independence of the police
as
aforce above and beyond the control of
elected governments:
When socialists in the Commons and the House of Lords speak of
apolice force accountable to Parliament or anational police force,
they are not thinking of justice. They are thinking of police as a
tool of government.
(In
the Office
of
Constable, page 282)
Another feature of this philosophy
is
an open contempt for the legal
niceties which are supposed to contain police power:
Let me make it quite clear that Iam one of those who believe that
if the criminal law and the procedures relating to it were applied
strictly according to the book,
as
ameans of protecting society it
would collapse in a
few
days.
(In
the Office
of
Constable, page
51)
He readily admits that illegal procedures are often used against
IRA
suspects and that police bashings are common even in ordinary cases.
He points out that British police were indifferent to the passage of the
Labour government's Prevention of Terrorism (Emergency Provisions)
Act 1974 which gave the police power to hold people for
five
days
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