A Self-Righteous Rozzer

    I left Kennington tube station and started to walk back home. I saw a group of policemen standing around a tall, wiry young man in his early twenties. The boy's mother stood to the side holding onto a push chair in which sat a small girl, the boy's daughter, I assumed. The boy's hands were cuffed behind his back with black plastic strips. He was crying and rocking from foot to foot.
    His mother said, "Well, I'll just take 'er 'ome then, will I?" He looked tearfully at her and replied,  "Yes, Mum, take 'er back, will yer?" He started to cry again. I walked over and sat at the adjacent bus stop, the better to listen in, and to try to find out why he had been arrested. One of the policeman, a squat fat man with a beard, tightly gripped the boy's upper arm. A yellow-haired policewoman with a lifetime of spite etched into her hard little face decided to make things worse for the boy by saying,
   "You've been very silly haven't you? This is what happens to silly people who don't do what they're told". 
    The boy struggled and roared out his frustration through his tears. The policewoman grinned in his face. The boy's mother now walked away, pushing the pram.
    "Mum! Mum!... Mum!" he called after her, "'Ave you got my wallet?" The policewoman told him that it was in the police car with everything else they had taken out of his pockets. He was then taken to the car and pushed inside. The door was closed and they drove off into the late afternoon sunshine.

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