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The Sweeney’ 1970s ITV hit was the real dirty/bent Met Flying-Squad cleaned up. Just like the 19Haties Brit-hit ITV posi-propaganda ‘The Bill’. Both dirty bent-media cleanup covers of real dirty bent-Met cops. Quel surprize !‘
Dirty bent-Cops/Media, is there a straight-1 then or now - or ever ?
" ‘The Sweeney’ series aired during a dark period for the real-life Flying Squad. In the late 1970s, the Flying Squad was publicly censured for being involved in bribery, police corruption and excessively close links with the criminal fraternity. Unlike the unwavering high standards seen in the fictional Sweeney, the actual commander of the Flying Squad, Detective Chief Superintendent Kenneth Drury was convicted of five counts of corruption and jailed for eight years on 7 July 1977. An internal investigation, called Operation Countryman, was then launched to stamp out more corruption. A further 12 officers were convicted and many others resigned. ”
1964, the dirty bent-Met ‘OBS-PUBS MOB/UNIT’.
“ The Obscene Publications Act 1964 brought extra responsibilities when the unit were given the task of enforcing the act. As a result, obscenity became a new part of their terms of reference.The unit reached its lowest ebb in the early 1970s when chronic allegations of corruption came to a head with the detailed exposure in 1972 of systematic payments by pornographer James Humphreys to seventeen policemen, including DCI George Fenwick, head of the obscene publications squad; his direct superior DCS Bill Moody; Cmdr Wallace Virgo, head of the Serious Crime Squad, in overall charge of the unit; and Cmdr Kenneth Drury, head of the Flying Squad. As the ensuing corruption investigations widened, the obscene publications squad was replaced in its entirety with a new group of officers drawn from the uniformed branch, and in all over 20 detectives were dismissed or required to resign. When the cases ultimately came to trial in 1977 the presiding judge Mr Justice Mars-Jones summarised those involved as having engaged in "corruption on a scale which beggars description". ”
1972,enter new-broom Met Commissar Robert Mark.
“ The Metropolitan Police had recently been rocked by exposure of massive corruption in the Criminal Investigation Department, and Mark, with the famous quote that "a good police force is one that catches more crooks than it employs", set about attempting to reform it. He changed disciplinary procedures, returned many detective to uniform, made a number of television appearances praising the uniformed branch following student unrest and protests against the Vietnam War, and began to gather around him a group of loyal, ambitious uniformed officers who had not graduated from the old Hendon Police College.[1] The uniformed branch began to gain precedence and CID was increasingly put under uniformed command. In 1971, with Brodie, an old-school officer who commanded CID, out of the country, Mark formed A10, a special unit established to investigate corruption. Among those rooted out were Commander Kenneth Drury, head of the Flying Squad, and Detective Chief Superintendent Bill Moody, head of the Obscene Publications Squad and ironically also of the Anti-Corruption Squad. Both were jailed, along with several other officers, and nearly 500 more were dismissed or forced to resign.”
Barry Cox, John Shirley, and Martin Short (1977). “THE FALL OF SCOTLAND YARD”. Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-052318-9.
NO COPIES Currently Available ANYWHERE ? Quel Surprize !
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