“I Pay Your F**king Wages” – And That’s Why There’s No One Left to Police Your Street.

London’s protests are becoming like sponges—absorbing the few remaining frontline police officers left to serve local communities. This week is officially Neighbourhood Policing Week, according to the College of Policing. Yet, ironically, many of our dedicated neighbourhood officers are nowhere near their neighbourhoods. They’re in Central London, drafted out to control yet another protest. Not because they want to be there—but because they have to be.

Let’s be clear—everyone has the right to protest. But we’ve reached a critical moment where we simply do not have enough police officers to maintain these protests daily. Over the years, budget cuts haven’t just shaved off excess—they’ve stripped policing down to the bone. Once-respected roles, now barely sustainable, have seen officers leaving in droves due to poor pay, high stress, and working conditions that would break even the strongest. Many of these officers joined to serve communities they care about. Today, they find themselves working in an environment that’s at times unbearable.

At protests, officers are regularly greeted with verbal abuse. One of the most repeated phrases? “I pay your f**king wages.” It’s a line spat at officers as if it were a justified argument—used to diminish them, to humiliate them. The officers in a recent media clip stood quietly, absorbing the insult professionally. They weren’t interested in confrontation. Just another protest. Just another insult. Just another shift.

But here’s the question: what would happen if the roles were reversed? Would the man hurling abuse cope with the same level of daily hostility in his job?

It’s become disturbingly normalised to abuse police officers. That shouldn’t be acceptable in any civilised society. Of course, some officers have acted appallingly and deserve to be held to account. But for every one of them, there are hundreds more who are simply trying to do their job under relentless pressure.

These officers have been pulled away from vital roles in boroughs like Havering, Redbridge, and Barking & Dagenham—areas already starved of visible policing. And when they do return, they’re met with a backlog of cases and frustrated communities wondering where they’ve been. Spoiler: not on holiday. Just doing the job that no one else will do, in an environment that increasingly treats them like the enemy.

Policing in the capital has lost its way—not because officers have failed, but because they’ve been failed. By policy, by funding, and by a system that demands more and gives less. Crime continues to rise, mental health problems among officers are soaring, and neighbourhoods are crying out for a police presence that no longer exists.

So next time someone feels the need to shout, “I pay your wages,” the response should be simple: Then pay them properly. Because the thin blue line is thinning out fast. And when there’s no one left to answer the call for help—what then?

Thanks to Chris Hobbs (Obbise) for his footage.

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