We didn't need a report by a pro-cop peer that took two years to tell us what we've known all along.

UK Policing has its roots in the violence and oppression of colonialism. The Met itself was set up almost 200 years ago by Tory home secretary Robert Peel, who was just back from establishing Northern Ireland's colonial police force. Many of the methods that were to become associated with policing had been developed within the context of British colonialism in Ireland, India, and elsewhere. These tactics ranged from surveillance, to divide-and-rule tactics, to the use of spies and informants.

And it isn't just the Met that's institutionally oppressive. The problem isn't with the culture of one violent and corrupt police force, it's the concept of policing that is the problem - along with the state institutions that the cops act on behalf of.

Racism, homophobia, and misogyny aren't a feature of one police force. Neither are classism, transphobia, and ableism. They are reflections of the dominant forces in our society, and they are built into their power structures.

www.thecanary.co/trending/2023/03/22/the...bzp3gooqxj3u5ujqhv9b

I don't agree with a Marxist critique of the existence of a Police Force being unnecessary.

It is how this force is run, monitored and held accountable that is increasingly and transparently the problem. It needs to look at its values, culture and recruitment.

Aditionally, whether UK Policing has origins in colonial practices is irrelevant; it isn't colonialism - and not all aspects of colonialism were "bad". So if it did, so what?

The article begs more questions than it answers (while nevertheless claiming to answer them) as so many radical left wing polemics do.