Despite the Chancellor using his budget to declare austerity so last decade, the vibe for public services is still abandonné for the next few seasons. And yes, that includes the boys and girls in blue.
London’s Met Police are so underfunded that, this week, they announced that they will be licensing their iconic branding – evocative, to many, of brutality and racial profiling – in order to sell merchandise to tourists. They hope the proceeds, which could be millions, will go towards funding frontline policing and training staff.
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The merchandise isn’t out yet, but we simply couldn’t wait, so we teamed up with Dog Section Press – known for trying to bring about the post-police world through their anarchist publications – to create some suggested looks, drawing aesthetic inspiration from the force’s past and present allegations of corruption; institutional racism; unaccountable deaths in custody; and that time they were found to have infiltrated numerous progressive pressure groups with undercover cops, who had sexual relationships with activists. Chic!
From Total Policing to totally hot, protect and serve up some of the hottest looks from our exclusive range of Met Police merch. We think they say: Yes, I am bold enough to anaesthetise state coercion; Yes, I am oblivious to the numerous injustices this badge represents; and: Yasss, I want to alienate half of my friends.
