Some of you (ok maybe two..ok one of you) expressed some interest in aspects of policing my beloved London, gleaned from some of my previous posts. An old ex colleague contacted me recently and told me about a Flickr thing where there is a veritable pastiche of police life (but not as we know it, Jim) in London over the decades. I actually found it quite interesting, but then again I would, wouldn’t I? My chum told me that there’s actually a photograph of me in amongst the snaps. Apparently I’m near a pic of JFK and Mrs Kennedy as they were leaving 10, Downing Street but of course they were way before my time.
So, for anyone interested in such things (or for those of you who may have problems sleeping) here is the link where you can play `Spot the Lexican` and for members of the `gun pr0n society`, you may even see the odd Glock 19 or H&K MP5. I’ll buy the winner a Guinness, in person, when we manage to meet.
The SEG Honda biker is wearing what might be a Glock, the grip doesn’t fit my idea of a Glock, however.
Good spot Busbob, Glock17/19′s have been the main Met slp for the last decade or so, although on the specialist firearms teams SIG 226′s were creeping in. In my Met days I carried a Walther PP 9mm short (.380) and latterly in my county force it went from a 9mm Browning HP, through S&W Mod 19 357Mag (but we used .38Spl +P semi wadcutter) and then back to slp’s with a S&W single action 9mm (with a 95grain semi wad round, as recommended by the Home Office
. Just before I left we switched to SIG 226 and ditched the MP5 for H&K 5.56mm
Over here the police have gone from the basic .38 Spl they used for decades – to the 9mm – now to the .40 caliber. Interesting story on how the .40 came to be – which itself evolved from the 10mm – which came of interest to the FBI because of this
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1986_FBI_Miami_shootout
I think in London the criminals are a bit more polite and less feral.
Quite a view of London Life, HD! And those police cars seem a lot more “colorful” than I remember 40 years ago.
Always thought the sage Mr Johnson was spot-on describing London life. I was thinking the other day – just being there a week (how I got there from the Army is another story – a C141 flight to Mildenhall – no easy way to get back or face being AWOL) – anyway another story another time.
But I was thinking the other day – wanting to see a play, I went to see Pygmalion with Diana Rigg in London – there was SRO (do they still sell those tickets)?) – I remember that play to this day. 2 pounds to see it.
I mean, if you could only see one play in London I can’t think of a better one.
I am sure a lot as changed in the interim.
Just finished seeing a marathon series of Rumpole of the Bailey – all the episodes from 1978 – 1992. Apparently they would show them sporadically over the decades?
But I think it is one of the best written series. Was interested in how the British legal system differs from ours.
Is it pretty accurate depicting life at the Old Bailey?
Bill, I used to show the video of the infamous Miami shoot-out to my firearms students (incl the David Soul version). Thankfully, at that time, we also packed M14′s
As for Rumpole, an excellent series and well researched. Mrs HD has given evidence at The Bailey, I never had a case that high profile.
and Diana Rigg……oh you lucky lucky lucky
I truly mean no offense, but GAWD those are some ugly paint jobs on Police vehicles! I’m sure it does the job of making them highly visible, but was the gouging of eyes really THAT neccesary?
MikeD, couldn’t agree more old chum. In my day the police `Area Car` came in a choice of 2 colours, dark blue or black. They had a single blue light on the roof and one small `POLICE` sign mounted over the rear licence plate – that was it. They were either 3.8 Jaguar `S` types or Rover 3.5 V8′s (with the lovely old Buick Skylark engine). Very little got away from us and at night nobody saw us coming but, interestingly, the one car that was a little bugger to keep up with in a pursuit around the close-packed West End streets was the basic Mini!
The Met sure does drop a pretty penny on BMW, don’t they? I only saw Beemers and Hondas when it came to the bikes… makes me wonder why there aren’t any Turnips in the mix.
The cop cars were mostly all white with orange stripes during my three years in London… and I have to agree the new colo(u)r schemes are ghastly.
Hogday … What a lovely panorama of London life in those pictures! My husband and I watched as much of the Diamond Jubilee Thames flotilla as we could find on the Sunday. It was a wonderful display of boats and barges, including some of the rescue boats from the Miracle of Dunkirk. And that miracle remains large in our hearts. And I have to say that the Jubilee flotilla seemingly went off without a hitch. As racing sailors [former, I rush to say] ourselves, we know how hard that is to pull off. I couldn’t find you in the pictures, but that’s not surprising, because we don’t know what you look like.
What’s fascinating to me is that the Queen and her ‘people’ can pull off a complicated action like the Jubilee Flotilla so very well. Organizing it must have been a nightmare. Anyway, our American TV stations were stupid enough not to carry it, or to comment knowledgeably on it, but we thrashed around on our two computers enough to find a coherent narrative.
Sooo… congratulations on both the Miracle of Dunkirk and the Miracle of the Queen’s Jubilee. And congratulations also on your new Duchess of Cambridge. She’s a world-class beauty and has inherent good taste as well.
Lucky lucky Prince William….
Marianne
Buck, yes the administration (those who think they know best but never asked the rest of us what we thought) went all `hi-viz` on everything – what pillocks.
Marianne, I found my pic. Next but three from the Kennedy’s o/s `Number 10` if you click the pic there’s a description of what’s going on, with a namecheck on yours truly.