I had an argument with a police officer and a CSO on Saturday, it was brilliant.
We got turfed out of a bit of grass in front of one of the lakes in Regents Park... no sign, but apparently you're not allowed to sit there anyway. It was a young CSO and we didn't cause much fuss... told him it seemed a bit silly and his response (after first pretending not to hear me) was "Well, you are sat by a lake, so... obviously...."
He didn't go on to tell us why it was obvious that humans shouldn't sit by lakes.
Anyway, we moved to just across the path. The CSO moved onto the next couple in the area and after about 20 seconds I noticed they were having a fairly pally chat, so I pricked up my ears. Turns out the guy sitting down and his girlfriend are both off duty police officers.
"How long have you been here mate? Wouldn't you want to transfer somewhere else with a bit more action... I can get you in somewhere with a bit more going on, but you're not going to get beaten up or anything" (love that bit)
The guy gives him his e-mail address (Paul Gaffney!) and the CSO walks off without making them move.
CSO walks straight past me as he leaves, so I interrupted..
"Excuse me"
*nothing... CSO puts his head down and carries on walking*
"Excuse me, OFFICER"
"Err yes?"
"What just happened? How come they didn't have to move?"
"Well, err... they will... I'm going to move them now...."
Then the off duty policeman sitting tend butts in....
"Leave it mate, keep quiet and we can carry on sitting here... it's cool..."
That got me a bit pissed off, so I raised my voice a bit making sure everyone around could hear what was going on...
"No, see, actually, what just happened was that you told this young CSO that you could get him a better job because you're an offduty real policeman and now you and your girlfriend, who is also a police officer get a nicer spot than everyone else in the park? Right?"
*silence*
The CSO had taken that opportunity to take flight. The offduties chatted for a few seconds and then got up and moved. He came over and apologised, politely shaking my hand and saying that he realised that sort of thing wasn't very good for the police's image with the public.
Shame he apologised actually. I'd taken a couple of photos to send to the Metro... would've made a fun little story, but it seems a bit mean after he was polite enough to say sorry.
Minor example, but I wonder what else you can get people to turn a blind eye to with the flash of a badge.....
(It's just a good job I hadn't lit up my spliff of rather stinky hash before I found out they were offduties!)