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The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state with the aim of enforcing the law and protecting the public order as well as the public itself. This commonly includes ensuring the safety, health, and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers encompass arrest and the use of force legitimized by the state via the monopoly on violence. The term is most commonly associated with the police forces of a sovereign state that are authorized to exercise the police power of that state within a defined legal or territorial area of responsibility. Police forces are often defined as being separate from the military and other organizations involved in the defense of the state against foreign aggressors; however, gendarmerie are military units charged with civil policing. Police forces are usually public sector services, funded through taxes.
A constable is a person holding a particular office, most commonly in law enforcement. The office of constable can vary significantly in different jurisdictions. Constable is commonly the rank of an officer within a police service. Other people may be granted powers of a constable without holding this title.
The Bow Street Runners were the law enforcement officers of the Bow Street Magistrates' Court in the City of Westminster. They have been called London's first professional police force. The force originally numbered six men and was founded in 1749 by magistrate Henry Fielding, who was also well known as an author. His assistant, brother, and successor as magistrate, John Fielding, moulded the constables into a professional and effective force. Bow Street Runners was the public's nickname for the officers although the officers did not use the term themselves and considered it derogatory. The group was disbanded in 1839 and its personnel merged with the Metropolitan Police, which had been formed ten years earlier.
A highwayman was a robber who stole from travellers. This type of thief usually travelled and robbed by horse as compared to a footpad who travelled and robbed on foot; mounted highwaymen were widely considered to be socially superior to footpads. Such criminals operated until the mid- or late 19th century. Highwaywomen, such as Katherine Ferrers, were said to also exist, often dressing as men, especially in fiction.
Clement Blair Peach was a New Zealand teacher who was killed during an anti-racism demonstration in Southall, London, England. A campaigner and activist against the far right, in April 1979 Peach took part in an Anti-Nazi League demonstration in Southall against a National Front election meeting in the town hall and was hit on the head, probably by a member of the Special Patrol Group (SPG), a specialist unit within the Metropolitan Police Service. He died in hospital that night.
The City of Glasgow Police or Glasgow City Police was the police covering the city and royal burgh of Glasgow, from 1800 to 1893, and the county of city of Glasgow, from 1893 to 1975. In the 17th century, Scottish cities used to hire watchmen to guard the streets at night, augmenting a force of unpaid citizen constables. On 30 June 1800 the authorities of Glasgow successfully petitioned the British Government to pass the Glasgow Police Act 1800 establishing the City of Glasgow Police. It served Glasgow from 1800 to 1975, when it was amalgamated into Strathclyde Police.
Bow Street Magistrates' Courtand Police Station each became one of the most famous magistrates' courts and police stations in England.
John Nichols Tom was a Cornish merchant and maltster who re-invented himself as Sir William Courtenay, stood for parliament in Canterbury, was convicted of perjury in a smuggling case, spent three years in the Kent County Lunatic Asylum, and, following his release, gathered a small band of followers and paraded in the Kent countryside. He, along with several of his followers, was killed in a confrontation with government soldiers in Bossenden Wood, in what has sometimes been called the last battle to be fought on English soil.
The Metropolitan Police Mounted Branch is the mounted police branch of London's Metropolitan Police. It is part of Met Operations.
Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Charles Rowan was an officer in the British Army, serving in the Peninsular War and Waterloo and the joint first Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis, head of the London Metropolitan Police.
Sir Percy Joseph Sillitoe KBE DL was a chief constable of several police forces. He changed the role of radios, civilian staff, and women police officers within the police. He was later Director General of MI5, the United Kingdom's internal security service, from 1946 to 1953.
The Battle of Bossenden Wood took place on 31 May 1838 near Hernhill in Kent; it has been called the last battle on English soil. The battle was fought between a small group of labourers from the Hernhill, Dunkirk, and Boughton area and a detachment of soldiers sent from Canterbury to arrest the marchers' leader, the self-styled Sir William Courtenay, who was actually John Nichols Tom, a Truro maltster who had spent four years in Kent County Lunatic Asylum. Eleven men died in the brief confrontation: Courtenay, eight of his followers and two of those sent to apprehend them. The background context of the battle was the impact of new Poor Law and it has been linked with the Swing riots.
The Harper's Ferry Model 1805 U.S. martial flintlock pistol manufactured at the Harpers Ferry Armory in Virginia was the first pistol manufactured by an American national armory. It was the standard handgun of the U.S. Dragoons during the War of 1812.
Riding Officer was an occupation common during the 18th century around the coastlines of Britain. The principal duty of the office was to patrol the coast within their predefined riding range to suppress smuggling. Their duties included meeting and corresponding with the other riding officers either in person or by letter, and inquiring and learning if there were any smuggled goods upon the coast, or landed. They were to get the best information regarding this booty, and to acquaint the Officers of the Customs all over the shire. The Riding Officer always kept a journal reporting all his activities.
A pistoleer is a mounted soldier trained to use a pistol, or more generally anyone armed with such a weapon. It is derived from pistolier, a French word for an expert marksman.
The Battle of Bow Street is the name given to a riot which took place in Bow Street, London, during March 1919. The riot involved an estimated 2,000 Australian, American and Canadian servicemen fighting against 50 Metropolitan Police officers.
The history of the Metropolitan Police in London is long and complex, with many different events taking place between its inception in 1829 and the present day.
The Bow Street Police Museum, opened in 2021, is based in the former police station in Covent Garden, London. Bow Street has a unique place in the history of policing in London, with the museum presenting the story of policing and criminal justice in the area from the eighteenth century until 1992, when the police station closed.
The Coldbath Fields riot took place in Clerkenwell, London, on 13 May 1833. The riot occurred as the Metropolitan Police attempted to break up a meeting of the National Union of the Working Classes (NUWC). Figures for the number of police present at the varied between 70 and 600 officers; figures for members of the public who attended varied between 300 and 6,000. Both Commissioners of Police of the Metropolis, Sir Charles Rowan and Sir Richard Mayne, were present and two British Army officers stood by to summon military reinforcements if needed. It is disputed which side started the violence, but Rowan led a number of baton charges that dispersed the crowd, and arrested the NUWC leaders. The crowd were pursued into side streets and a number were trapped in Calthorpe Street. Three police officers were stabbed and one, Constable Robert Culley, was killed. There were few serious injuries inflicted on members of the public.
The Bow Street Foot Patrols were an armed and salaried foot patrol set up in London, England, in the winter of 1782–83 by Sampson Wright and supported by the new Home Department of the British government. The government provided funds to support 46 men who worked in eight groups of six; each of the groups was assigned to one of the major routes around the metropolis and went out every night of the week.
References
- ↑ Speed, P. F. (1968). Police and prisons. Longman. p. 27. ISBN 978-0-582-20412-6.
- 1 2 3 Critchley, T. A. (1978). A history of police in England and Wales. Constable. pp. 43–44. ISBN 978-0-09-461490-1.
- ↑ Fitzgerald, Percy Hetherington (1888). Chronicles of Bow Street police-office : with an account of the magistrates, "runners," and police; and a selection of the most interesting cases. University of California. London : Chapman and Hall. pp. 91–92.
- ↑ Halliday, Stephen (2006). Newgate : London's prototype of hell. Sutton. pp. 111–112. ISBN 978-0-7509-3895-2.
- ↑ Whiting, J. R. S. (1986). Crime and punishment : a study across time. p. 81. ISBN 978-0-85950-615-1.
- ↑ Williams, Brian (1986). Stand & deliver. Uxbridge : Hillingdon Borough Libraries. p. 81. ISBN 978-0-907869-08-5.
Sources
- Hetherington, Fitzgerald Percy (1888). "The Patroles". Chronicles of Bow Street Police-Office: With an Account of the Magistrates. London: Chapman and Hall. OCLC 25847300.