What the fox say?

Metro disaster

Washington suffered a real disaster this week.  The city runs on a great Metro system but unfortunately a couple of days ago there was an incident on one of the lines and a train filed with smoke in the tunnel.  I can only imagine the fear and panic as Washingtonians feared the worst.  Passengers had to walk along the line before many were taken to hospital, where one lady died.  The TV covered this incident well but I, like many, was left reflecting on what might have happened.  The TV coverage showed the FBI and the Department for Homeland Security at the scene.  This led many viewers to think something sinister had occurred.  Thankfully that was not the case; this was just a tragic accident.  Nevertheless, the response reminded me that we are fairly safe in this city and when we are not, there are many who are both ready and wiling to offer protection to those who call this city home.

This is a line and station I frequently use and I'd be lying if I said it didn't give me a chill.  But, I took confidence from all the Washingtonians this morning who picked themselves us, went back to work and used the Metro to get there.  Great people in great cities do that.

‘Je Suis Charlie’

Free speech has been all over the headlines here just as much as it seems to have been in Europe.  There was a great deal of coverage of the ‘Je Suis Charlie’ movement here which I guess was not surprising given the importance Americans place on free speech, more of which in a moment. What was surprising here - and its caused a bit of a brouhaha - was the lack of American presence at the pro freedom demonstration in Paris last week.  Much of the media has made the point that America should be leading the world and many were disappointed that this didn’t happen this week.  

The race is on

Meanwhile, America is clearly moving into presidential election mode.  Jeb Bush, George W’s brother, has pretty much confirmed as running for the GOP and John Kerry has intimated he is also going to enter the race - for the third time.   No real word from the Democrats, but the word on the sidewalk is that Hillary is a shoe-in for that one!

Fox ‘News’?

Now, talking of free speech, the demographics of Birmingham, as seen through the eyes of Fox News have clearly made the headlines in the UK.  Whilst Fox themselves have not covered this story over here, which is no surprise as balanced journalism is not really what they do, it has been reported by several of the other broadcasters who have not been too supportive!

I watched Fox last night to see if they would make any mention of Steven Emerson’s gaffe; alas no.  Instead they filled their programmes with other news and correspondents’ views.  One of these correspondents was Nigel Farage but even his views were made to look left of centre by one of the most bigoted commentators I’ve ever came across - Ann Coulter.  Ouch.  Check her out, she has a number of views which I would describe as being those of a ‘flat earther', that being somebody who believes the earth is flat when all the evidence and testimony is to the contrary but who will not let it go!  Some of her worst being, ‘Gays have got to be pro-life. As soon as they find the gay gene, guess who the liberal yuppies are going to start aborting’ and that “Jews need to be perfected by becoming Christians”.  These are just two of this woman’s abhorrent views.  Now my point is not so much how vile she is (that’s a given) but why is she allowed to voice such hate on the TV?  One of the things I really enjoy is American TV drama, the West Wing and Sopranos being two of the best, but I am left amazed that the same nation who produced these allows this hate to appear on TV hidden within news and current affairs coverage.  This is, I guess, all wrapped up in the First Amendment and freedom of speech, but with freedom comes responsibility. I cannot understand how allowing Coulter to be on TV can ever be described as responsible.  In the UK she would not only make Katie Hopkins look reasonable she would probably be arrested.  Fox proves again there is no need to let facts get in the way of an extreme political view.  For the avoidance of doubt, that’s me finished with Fox!

I guess the thing is, we really don’t like hate speech in Scotland and come down on that pretty hard.  Sometimes we get criticised for doing that and I really get the importance of ensuring free speech, but if you don’t stop the hate, the result is Coulter and thats a result I’d rather keep away from our televisions, not by enforcing a law but just because people don’t think that type of talk is right.

Police Academy Virginia

I was asked to talk about Police Scotland’s values based approach today at the North Virginia Police Chiefs meeting.  It was a real privilege to be there.  The audience was a bit different for me, with representatives from policing, the sheriffs’ departments, the FBI, DEA and Homeland Security.  In all, about 25 police departments and law enforcement agencies were represented, all coming from an area significantly smaller than Scotland.  Given the changes in the Scottish policing landscape over the last couple of years this was a bit of a bizarre experience.  Whilst we are still evolving and are still not perfect, I certainly believe the single force arrangements we have in place is a more streamlined arrangement than I've found here; which in no way takes away from the professionalism and high standards which have been evident in my meeting with US law enforcement.  I just think there are too many agencies in a small geographic area with overlapping areas of responsibility.  All in all, not dissimilar to Scotland pre April 2013 where we were also extremely professional, just too numerous.

My presentation seemed to go well and I’ve been asked to do a bit of training with a couple of departments on the back of it already.  I mention this for a couple of reasons; first, to make the point that I am actually working whilst on this adventure!  Secondly, there were about 30 people in the room, and, you know what? I have never sat in a room with as many people carrying guns before.  I’m still processing that, but out the 30 or so people there, I was about the only one without a gun…lots of pressure not to say anything offensive!  But joking apart, I find that quite a challenging thought.

I got a look around the training academy where it the meeting was being held.  I had a look at the officer safety training.  It was just ending when I was there but I got this wee snap of the things they were practicing with.  These are steel gun replicas…very different from the wiffle sticks and the fist suit we use in Scotland.

The other race is on!

We went to a couple of sports events over the weekend.  On Saturday night we watched the Washington Capitals, which was brilliant and on Sunday it was the Mason Patriots basketball match.  Whilst these were both great, nothing topped the Diaper Derby on Sunday.  Basically, a group of parents line up on one side of a mat with their crawling child and the other parent waits at the other side shouting for the crawling kid to come toward them.  What a laugh, my kids loved it!  Not sure how it would have been for 8 babies hearing several thousand adults shouting at them! Not seen anything like it at half time during any sports game in Scotland, but there must surely be an opening for competitive parents to get into this at Murrayfield.

One of the things that is missing here when it comes to competitive events or indeed who might win or lose a TV reality show, is William Hill and all his mates.  There are absolutely no betting shops in view anywhere I’ve been in the States.  I’m a man of many vices, but gambling is not one of them, so these are not shops I’m missing out on.  I just think its interesting that there are none here with the surfeit of sport that the Americans have and millions in Scotland where we basically have football and no diaper derbies…yet!

What I’ve learned this week

Train disasters can happen anywhere.

If you want to lead the world it’s good to travel.

Stupid people have freedom of speech too.

I prefer being hit with a kid on baton than a kid on gun.

Babies in red nappies, like red cars, go really fast!

Any thought or comments are most appreciated.

Take care Mates

Richie