Just Finished Reading: Spike Island - Portrait of a Police Division by James McClure (FP: 1980)

I could see early on why it took me several attempts to finish this book. It had been sitting on my shelf for years (I think I might have bought it new!) after at least one – or possibly two – previous attempts to read it. Unfortunately it’s actually quite badly written. Fortunately I’m made of much sterner stuff these days and there was enough of interest, buried in the meandering text, to keep me going long after I gave up previously. Plus I had a box to tick for the 2015 Reading Challenge!

This is a 533 page rambling account of the daily life of a police force in what was at the time the toughest inner city area in Western Europe. That quite a claim to fame though I suspect it probably wasn’t true. The interesting thing from my point of view is that ‘A’ Division immediately bordered where I was born – Toxteth in Liverpool – and many an officer mentioned just how bad it was there. OK, we moved away some years before this book was written but I never thought it was all that bad. Sure I grew up in a two bedroom house occupied essentially by two families (Mum, Dad, Brother, Me & Grandad/Grandma) but I never really noticed the poverty that must have existed back then. I guess that children don’t really notice that sort of thing – at least not for a while.

It was funny though, reading about the people the police came across – the criminals (often referred to as ‘bucks’), the victims, the needy and the lost. If we had stayed in that area I couldn’t but help thinking that I might have been one of them (if I hadn’t actually appeared as a cameo in the book as a buck that is!). There but for the grace of my parent’s forethought and planning….  

The author does, despite his wandering narrative, bring up some interesting ideas – although most of what he talked about has been overtaken by events. This was a time, despite the actions of the IRA, that the police (rank and file as well as senior officers) were dead set against being armed on a regular basis. Several of those interviewed had a deep repugnance for firearms and only issued them when absolutely necessary. This has changed a great deal although the average ‘bobby’ still goes unarmed most of the time. The other big topic discussed at length – from both sides – was the integration of women into the regular force patrolling rough areas on foot with nothing to protect them but their radio to call for help (in those days women officers didn’t even carry batons). Part of the worry from senior officers was that their male colleagues would over-react if a female officer got into trouble. But in the main having a woman confronting male offenders more often than not calmed things down. I’m not sure if that would happen today.

A few things did surprise me. One was the basic lack of equipment. Mostly on foot – with a handful of cars to draw on – police still flagged down taxi’s or even buses to get to a disturbance. Another thing was the acceptance of violence as a fact of life – that at some point in their career they’d probably end up in hospital after being in a fight. There was lots of talk, as you might expect, and much criticism of the legal system especially aimed at defence lawyers who seemed less interested in justice (or even the law) and more interested in being payed or simply criticising the police. Politicians came in for some equally frank criticism for both not helping the crime situation (being focused too much on statistics) or for actually making things worse. No solutions to either of these problems was forthcoming.

Overall, despite its many flaws, this was a reasonably interesting read. I did find it at times fascinating to ‘see’ parts of Liverpool I’d been to, lived near or visited later described from a police officer’s point of view. I honestly did raise an eyebrow (or maybe both) when one police inspector talked about Toxteth exploding in violence soon if nothing was done about things – a year or so later this is exactly what happened in the worst riots for a generation. Interesting from an historic and an anthropological perspective.

[2015 Reading Challenge: A book that takes place in your hometown – COMPLETE (28/50)]