All in the line of duty.

Yesterday a Metropolitan police officer was struck by a vehicle in a hit and run incident in Dartmouth Park Hill, Camden. The incident happened just after 3pm, and the officer was taken to hospital with lower body injuries.

Tomorrow we are due to witness more protests across the capital, with crowds proudly holding the ACAB, banners, ‘All Coppers Are Brave, sorry I mean Bastards, (we actually mean brave), yet today this officer lies in hospital with injuries he faced doing his duty.

Assaults on police officers has risen by a shocking 17%. Figures obtained by the Met show that 7,026 police officers were victims of assault last year, that works out to 19 officers a day injured on the streets of London for doing their job. Even more horrifying is the that fact that nearly 50% of these assaults resulted in some degree of injury to that officer.

This may not phase you, but it does me. Imagine if 19 members of your work place were assaulted everyday? If you were spat on, verbally abused or even physically abused on a regular basis doing your job. These are the difficulties these officers face and sadly are accustomed to. Everyday we read stories of how these officers face challenges on an unprecedented level and everyday they go out to do their job and keep our streets safe.

Tomorrow, once again protesters in London will go out with their anti police banners and make a conscientious effort to undermine our police officers and show their contempt. Perhaps these protesters could step in the shoes or boots of their arch enemies and experience for themselves the work they do. Truthfully, I doubt whether they would last a day as a police officer in London.

It is one of the hardest jobs a person can do in our society today. Police officers deal with trauma most days and have no time to actually deal with the the stress the job causes them. Yet they go out day after day and are there when we dial 999.

Perhaps today is the day we can actually spare them a thought and ask our self, could we do what they do? Could we wear that uniform and know that when that call comes, we are the ones that are going to run into danger, we are the ones not sure what that situation is like or just what horrors we are going to face? Are we going to come out of that situation in the same condition we entered it? Ask your selves these poignant questions and if you could actually do what they do?

Today another 19 officers will be assaulted on the streets of London, for us another statistic, for them, perhaps a life changing experience they might not recover from. They are people, they fathers, mothers, husband, wives, sons and daughters too.