P.C.S.O.com

[Debbie guest]

I have had a look at your Web site out of interets and have to register my dismay at the content of your 2005 calendar.
There's no place for that style of humour in today's society.

[Andrew Nonymous]

Dear all,

I am ashamed to have to hide behind a pseudonym but I am a serving Police Officer in GMP.

My Force issued an email today. I quote:

"GMP has become aware that the national PCSO Website has made available for
download a Calendar. This calendar is undoubtedly racist and under no
circumstances should be downloaded onto any GMP machine.

The matter is being dealt with as a racist incident and the originators
have received a rebuke from GMP in strong terms.

It is essential that all staff in GMP do not associate themselves with such
offensive material. Failure to follow this will lead to a lack of trust
amongst our staff and our communities.

Should anybody have downloaded this prior to this message, then those items
should be destroyed immediately."

So of course I have checked out the calendar as soon as I got home - can anyone explain where the racism is if it is so outstandingly bad?

I am currently printing a copy to put up at work and we'll see what happens. I am sorry that my Force is so afraid of criticism it stoops to these levels. More power to your elbow folks!!

[dilly day dream]

Andrew,

even though your word are words of support, i urge you not to put the calender up at at the station.

we live and work in a world where we are encouraged to challenge behaviour or things in which we find offensive or insulting.

your force has rightly excerised this right as they have found it offensive.

to only go against the wishes of its leaders will bring discontentment with in your force and this site.



Debbie.

thank you for your comments.

please if you go to the link for the calender now you will see that it has been removed.

the calender has been withdrawn and is currently being redrawn....

the new callender will hopefuly be with us soon and without any cartoons which will offend.


dilly day dream.
_________________
Yesterday is history.
Tomorrow a mystery.
Today is a gift.
That's why it's called the present!

[Gforceuk]

I'm glad that it wasnt really suited to my humour or i might have been tempted to put it up somewhere.

[Andrew Nonymous]

I have to agree that on the whole the calendar isn't that funny, and if it wasn't for the contentious censorship issue, I wouldn't even have wasted ink on printing it.

But if we do live in a challenge culture, surely that challenge is open to debate, and shouldn't be unilateral? As per usual on these issues, there has been a proclamation issued that a certain word/magazine/calendar etc is banned, with little or no explanation as to why, and with no right to exercise individual rights of choice.

In my Force, our Federation issued a copy of the monthly magazine MANCHAT, the cover of which had a cartoon that the top brass felt was inappropriate. We had, at the time, a discussion forum online. Some Officers challenged the decision makers to specify what was offensive about the cartoon. They couldn't or wouldn't.

So it's a bit of a oneway process. This does not equate with open and transparent does it? When I was a probationer, it was drilled into me that you should never have to resort to defending your actions by stating "Because I say so", that you should always be able to know on what grounds you are acting, and to be able to justify and explain those actions. This also applies to parenting, and many other social interactions - you shouldn't have to get dictatorial.

We now have top brass who wish to be unaccountable for their decisions, and prefer to play the "Big I am" card.

[CIDB]

Its not that bad!

[Old bobby]

[DBJ]

I too, like post no.2 work for GMP and received the same email. I also looked on the site to see what all the fuss was about and to judge for myself what if anything was so offensive. As the calendar had already been removed I have had to leave it to those above to decide for me what I can and cannot see.
Whilst I understand that the calendar may well have been offensive, it would appear that we are all now so sensitive that we are not even alllowed to be told what the calendar contained and what it is about the calendar that caused offence. (Post no2. has asked what it is about the calendar that is racist and has not had a reply.)
Surely instead of merely issuing an outright ban and then pretending it never happenned it would be better to explain the cartoon and then explain why it is unacceptable, otherwise are we not merely dodging the issue.
Again, like Andrew this reminds me of the MANCHAT cartoon, where GMP demanded that a magazine (paid for by it's members) be withdrawn immediately because those at the top deemed it to be sexist. In that particular case I completely disagreed with their interpretation that the cartoon was sexist and am still awaiting an explanation from the Federation as to why they waisted members subscriptions on reprinting the magazine.
For those of you who did not see the magazine it depicted a male PC walking past a female wearing stockings and too much make-up reading a copy of Shakespeare. With the PC saying to his colleague "That must be the new national intelligence model"
Not very funny I must admit, however I do not see why it was deemed offensive towards women. Where they denying that female models exist ? Where they stating that female models are offensive towards women, and should not be refferred to or depicted in any way ? Where they stating that the cartoon was offensive towards female models as it depicted them as being thick ?
I have digressed I know, however my point is that we need a debate on these issues and it must be open. The problem with leaving this for the bosses to decide what is and is not acceptable is that I am convinced that at least some of them do not understand the arguments. In addition they are all so worried about being labelled anything other than politically correct they appear to have lost site of the fact that we are all policing in the real world.
I agree that if the calendar was really offensive then it should have been withdrawn. However, was it offensive to the politically correct (mainly white liberal middle class) bosses, or was it really offensive towards the people it was depicting ?

[Andrew Nonymous]

I hope that by describing what was on the calendar, I might assist those who have not seen it. I do hold a copy on my own hard drive, but such is my concern that our Integrity Squad would set me up to discover my identity, I don't even feel safe to offer to e-mail it to anyone with an interest in making their own minds up.

The calendar features a PCSO undergoing the trials of PCSOing. He appears to be a white male. He appears in company with another PCSO on three occasions. These companions consist of a black male, a black female, and a white male.

The allegedly offensive cartoon is set either at night or in a dark room. The PCSO and one of his companions are shown only by their eyes in the dark. I am sure most of us are familiar with this cartoonist's convention, as it appears in such favourites as Tom and Jerry, the Roadrunner, etc.

The caption reads along the lines of "If only the mugger would open his eyes, we could arrest him".

Now this is where common sense seems to have gone out of the window. The PCSO is known to be white - and we can only see his eyes. The second PCSO we don't know what ethnic origin they are. I think that the incorrect assumption that has been made is that the mugger must be black because you can't see him. Yet there is nothing at all in the cartoon to even suggest this, and all the evidence present makes no hint at all as to his ethnic origin.

May I respectfully ask the hosts of this site that they allow this description and critique to remain in place; GMP's own Discussion Forum was closed down due to colleagues expressing opinions that clashed with the wishes of the hierarchy - I'd hate to see it happen again here.

[dilly day dream]

[Mr Political Correctness!]

PC gone too far in my honest opinion!

There is absolutely nothing on that calender that would send Mary Whitehouse spinning her grave.

[Old bobby]

Dilly day......none of us want to offend anyone. It's just nowadays too many people get offended at things they shouldn't and read into things things they shouldnt.
Having had an illicit view of the calender - I can say it is not in anyway racist - and anyone who views it as such must have a pretty paranoid quasi-hypochondriac sort of view on everything around them.
It is quite right we challenge racist behaviour - but to find it where it blatantly isn't, and to make an issue of things that blatantly aren't is in itself putting race relations back and undoing years of productive work in nuturing a mulit-racial and tolerant society.
The politically correct lobby are as much a threat to this society as racist, sexist and bigots.

Dilly - any chance of detailing the nature of the Greater Manchester complaint?

[exyellowperil]

i wonder if this PC panic is anything to do with the recent high profile dismissal of GMP officers for racism whilst still in training .the senior management are probably desperate to avoid the sort of media kicking and feeding frenzy that the MET had to put up with after stephan lawrence.This is not a dismissive statement the enquiory was a good thing THE media coverage afterwards was not and it made life on the street hard for all of us.
_________________
god has all the best words BUT the devil has the best tunes

[The Cartoonist]

Dear PCSO community

I am the cartoonist behind the On the Beat comic strip as well as the designer of the calendar. Words can’t describe my frustration and anger over this matter, especially as it is my cartoon that may get this positive and helpful website into trouble.

The Cartoon in question refers to the fact that when most artists draw characters in the dark, they usually only draw their eyes. The punch line is that the only way the PCSO can see the criminal is if he opens his eyes and gives away his position (This gag was inspired by an episode from The Simpsons).
May I ask those who condemned the cartoon where and how does it shows any reference to race? For that matter why is it assumed that the two sets of eyes belong to white officers as we can only see them with their eyes open????
If there is anyone that disagrees with me please explain in detail what makes the cartoon racist as I feel that it has been branded without reason .
Today, ‘racist’ is a very easy word to throw around, but it has such huge implications. Anyone labelling the 2005 calendar as racist really needs to choose their words carefully. It is evident that the calendar is not racist and is in fact the opposite. As someone in this forum pointed out, the calendar features a number of Black characters making jokes aimed at the main character who just happens to be White. The point is that the jokes are not made BECAUSE of any ethnic groups creed, colour or skin-it is just a bit of fun that relies on people's good humour and good sense to help build bridges.

I’m beginning to realise that this witch-hunt will have repercussions in future publications, perhaps to the extent that I will not be allowed to show a PCSO giving a lecture or ticket to a character that may be Black or Asian because of the fear of gross misinterpretation. It seems that cartoons I produce in the future will feature only white criminals - now, isn’t that by the terms of this argument racist?!

I have read all your comments and I thank those who have offered me their support over this issue .
May I ask that any Black, Asian people etc. reading this respond to my posting, as I would welcome any feedback on your interpretation of the cartoon in question.

Thank you

P.S. If you don't like the calendar because you don't find it funny, that is a personal opinion I respect. But please do not mix your personal taste of humour with this serious issue racism as there is no humour in being racist.

[falkor]

above are the words of John Child - long running artist and friend to this website

John - I do appreciate your sentiments as expressed there and indeed, those of well meaning ppl above you (in this thread) HOWEVER it does not matter whether you say, "Well I have seen the cartoon, it's not racist," that is insufficient. It is the fact that the cartoon CAN be viewed as racist, that is the big problem here and one that must be acknowledged. So therefore I apologise to any person who saw the April month of the calendar and was offended by the unintended racism that has been alleged.

an entire PAGE > has been devoted to the PCSO calendar issue < just click that link to see it if you wish

I would like to clearly thank John Child for his relentless support to this site and others and make it clear that it was MY error of judgement that has led to this terrible upset. I am at the top of this site and must bear full responsibility. I have read what ppl have said in all these forums and not a bad word has been said against this site or John Child or me.

Many question marks have been laid against the door of the complainants in this case but remember ..... they had to do something. Their officers were downloading or had downloaded that file (the calendar) and they could not just sit there, if part of that file was considered racist. What were they to do?

Please try and see both sides of the coin here (it has taken me almost 4 days to come to terms with it myself )