Sartre reader?
Sir: Colin Welch (Centrepiece, 27 Octo- ber) wants to see soft policing replaced by more forceful law enforcement and says he wants to increase respect for the law.
I don't think anyone respects hardness as such (does Mr Welch respect Scargill?) but people do, in general, respect justice. I suggest that if the police want to defuse violence and not accelerate it, then they must appear just. They must disarm critic- ism by respecting people as individuals. Brutal horse charges merely provoke hatred and hysteria, because their targets are selected indiscriminately.
The police have to keep order justly, because if in the heat of confrontation they forget about justice, they will lose the respect they need to be effective, and they will also cease to deserve it.
Chris Laws
Garrow House, 115 Heslington Road, York
P.S. Has Mr Welch ever read Sartre?
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