Straw Poll Shows Public Support for Policing

The Police are getting the balance of enforcing Covid19 rules “just about right”. That's the result of a straw poll online conducted by the Police and Crime Commissioner Sue Mountstevens in the West Country. The local community newspaper for East Bristol, The Week In, said that the poll results will come as welcome news for police employees, who have faced criticism from some quarters for too harshly issuing fixed penalty notices on people who are flouting lockdown rules. Just over fifty per cent of people who responded to Ms Mountsteven's straw poll said that the balance was “about right”, whereas forty per cent felt that the police were actually not doing enough to enforce England's second lockdown rules. Nine per cent of respondents felt that the police were being oxerzealous and over enforcing rules. The Guardian newspaper notes that, fuelled by misinformation and conspiracy theories on the internet, a mish mash of Covid19 deniers, right wing libertarians and ultra nationalists have been organising anti-lockdown protests. The exact make up of these gatherings has been difficult to judge, but many are united in a belief in secret government agendae and the need to oppose Covid19 social distancing rules.