Please don't compare some rhyming bumpkin to a man the stature of Sir Alan Patrick Herbert.
"In recent years, it appears, there has entered for the first time, systematically, and unashamed, into the administration of British justice the repellent figure of the agent provocateur, which is a French expression signifying an official spy who causes an offence to secure a conviction; and I use that phrase partly to impress upon you your own profound ignorance and partly because there is no other. There is no other phrase, and for a very good reason; the idea is so repugnant to British notions of fair play and decency that it has never found expression in our language. I have seen no comment, judicial or other, upon the importation of this loathsome practice; it has stolen in, unblessed and almost unobserved, and has taken a firm place in the national life. It is not employed for the suppression of the major crimes, where official dishonour might be forgiven in a noble cause; no constable causes himself to be murdered or robbed for the protection of the public by the apprehension of a dangerous person. But it is the constant support of small prosecutions for small offences wisely invented by righteous people for the hindrance or prevention of public enjoyment."
--- Rex v. The Commissioner of Metropolitan Police, Chief Inspector Charles, Inspector Smart, Sergeant Oliphant, and Constable Boot (1930) |
