Smile of the Day Wednesday September 29, 2021

Wednesday September 29, 2021’s Smile of the Day: Scotland Yard

On this Day:

In 1829, the first units of the London Metropolitan Police appeared on the streets of the British capital.

The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), formerly and still commonly known as the Metropolitan Police and informally as the Met Police, the Met, Scotland Yard, or the Yard, is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement in the Metropolitan Police District, which consists of the 32 London boroughs. The MPD does not include the “square mile” of the City of London, which is policed by the much smaller City of London Police.

The Met also has significant national responsibilities, such as co-ordinating and leading on UK-wide national counter-terrorism matters and protecting the Royal Family, certain members of Her Majesty’s Government and others as deemed appropriate. As the police force for the capital, the Met has significant unique responsibilities and challenges within its police area, such as protecting 164 foreign embassies and High Commissions, policing London City and Heathrow Airports, policing and protecting the Palace of Westminster, and dealing with significantly more protests and events than any other force in the country, with 3,500 such events in 2016.

The force, by officer numbers, is the largest in the United Kingdom by a significant margin, and one of the biggest in the world. Leaving its national responsibilities aside, the Met has the eighth-smallest police area (primary geographic area of responsibility) of the territorial police forces in the United Kingdom.

The force is led by the Commissioner, whose formal title is the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis. The Commissioner is answerable, responsible and accountable to The Queen, the Home Office and the Mayor of London, through the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime. The post of Commissioner was first held jointly by Sir Charles Rowan and Sir Richard Mayne. Dame Cressida Dick was appointed Commissioner in April 2017.

A number of informal names and abbreviations are applied to the Metropolitan Police Service, the most common being the Met. In colloquial London (or Cockney) slang, it is sometimes referred to as the Old Bill. The Met is also referred to as Scotland Yard after the location of its original headquarters in a road called Great Scotland Yard in Whitehall. The Met’s current headquarters is New Scotland Yard, situated on the Victoria Embankment.

First, a Story:

Last night a thief broke into Scotland Yard and stole all the toilets,

Police say they have nothing to go on.

Second, a Song:

Even if you’ve never studied the history of the police force, chances are good you’re familiar with the Scotland Yard as a heavy feature of Sherlock Holmes stories. But how did London take the final steps from the privately funded and highly specialized Bow Street Runners to a police force salaried by the government itself? We talk about the inspirations behind the Scotland Yard and how London walked the fine line between social order and civil liberties, guided by Robert Peel. (We’re just as surprised as you are)  – per ExtraCredits and YouTube.com:

“We’re an educational YouTube channel made up of entertainment enthusiasts with backgrounds in game design, television production, literature and academia. Our team creates short-form animated video essays every week about game design, world history, mythology, and other subjects, all of which may or may not involve a cat!”

Here is ExtraCredits’ video on “Policing London – Scotland Yard at Last – Extra History – #5”.  I hope you enjoy this!

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qprhL2Jh2Ds)

Thought for the Day:

“It is one thing to train officers on fighting crime. It is a whole other thing to train them to build friendships and relationships, which are integral to fighting crime. This takes time, effort, and patience on the part of police officers.”- Rahm Emanuel

Further to the Hearing Aid Smile, Gerry Wahl of North Vancouver, BC, Canada writes:

If it’s a choice between poor hearing and poor eyesight — poor hearing is better but still not a good choice.

Hearing aids improve things marginally. They also have a bad habit of hiding every chance they get – and are somehow they also always end up with you in the shower – a significant electrocution risk 😉  

and the Rev. Bob Beasley of Pain-Court, Ontario, Canada, writes:

“Hi Dave,
 
Your Smile of the Day reminded me of a story I heard about an older gentleman whose family kept urging him to get hearing aids. It had become clear to them that his hearing was declining and he was missing a lot of the conversation going on around him. He was a proud man, and didn’t want to have to use hearing aids, so he kept ignoring their suggestion. Finally one day he decided he was missing out on too much, but too proud to tell his family, he booked an appointment with the audiologist without telling anyone. A couple of weeks after getting his hearing aids, he went back to the audiologist for a follow up appointment. The audiologist asked him what his family thought of him finally getting the hearing aids. To which the wise senior replied “Oh, I haven’t told them yet. But I’ve changed my will three times.” 

And further to the Smoking Smile, Russ Waugh of Gimli, Manitoba, Canada writes:

“Hi Dave & Colleen,

Good article/report. 

I tried smoking likely at around 12 years of age, and found I could not inhale, so, to be one of the “big boys” I would just puff the smoke in, hold in mouth then exhale.  By the time I was 15 or 16 I did not need to feel I needed to smoke to be one of the “big boys” any more so quit smoking.  Never smoked again until doing a U/C Operation for work, and again could not inhale and within a year met my now wife who was/is allergic to smoke, then our second daughter is also allergic to smoke, so, we do not have smoking around us, in our home and we never go to venues where smoking is allowed. 

Russ”

And further to the Summit Series Smile, Frank Fowlie of Richmond, BC, Canada writes:

“Great post!!!!!
Best regards,

Dr. Frank Fowlie”

Have a great day!

Dave & Colleen

© 2021 David J. Bilinsky and Colleen E. Bilinsky