I lived through the period of bad policing under Thatcher and after. Racism in the Met and beyond, corruption in the West Midlands force etc BUT I have always felt that community policing, sensitively done, with officers of diverse skin colour, religious and social backgrounds, is essential in developing a tolerant, open minded and pluralistic society. More guns and fewer police creates authoritarianism and, eventually, the seeds of dictatorship. It is ironic and devastatingly tragic that, as the government spends more on technological anti-terrorism, those that would cause devastation become anti-tech in their modus operandum. What use is hi-tech against a kitchen knife, a van and implacable psychopathy? Only men and women officers on the ground who care for their fellow beings, can counter such primitivism by being the eyes and ears and shapers of society, fully trusted by the people they work among.