Almost everyone agrees that a civil society needs some kind of police force. That's because we all know, deep inside, that there are people out there who will do antisocial, harmful things regardless of how liberal and generous society is. Give people a Univeral Basic Income and the chance to earn more if they want to, and there will still be people who consider their UBI insufficient but will rather steal than work. Make every recreational drug you can think of legal, and someone will find or make one they can sell illegally for massive profits. There will always be men willing to pay for sex, or who want to gamble for high stakes. There will always be people who will kill other people - for money, for revenge, out of hatred or simply because they can.

So there must also always be people to protect the rest of us against such people. The problem lies in how you set the system up and the safeguards you put in place. I've written elsewhere about the differences between the UK and US systems. How ours grew from a tradition of local Constables charged with ensuring that those summoned to court duly appeared, and keeping the Kings' peace. How Henry Fielding tried to professionalise the system by forming the Bow Street Runners and how Robert Peel organised them and the other local Constables into the Metropolitan Police as an alternative to using troops to mainatain public order. How yours came about as a response to the hiring of armed guards by the wealthy and professionalisation of the Sheriff and Deputy system in the country. How our system is based on an unarmed police force and strict legal controls on civilans owning weapons while yours is based on armed police enforcing the law amongst an armed population.

Neither system is perfect. Both are riddled with corruption (largely due to organised crime). Both are prone to brutality and racial or class profiling of suspects. Both are notoriously reluctant to admit failures or clean their own houses. Both bitterly resent the organisations set up to improve and maintain standards. There is too much buck-passing and blind-eye turning and a severe lack of effective leadership at all levels. At higher levels, there is far too much politics going on.

Yes, peoples' attitudes must be challenged and changed. Yes, we all need to be working toward a fairer, more just and open society. But while we're about it, we need to undertake a root and branch reform of our law enforcement systems, and to that we need to fully define their roles and responsibilities, as well as the kind of people we want doing the job!