"The police, Jim, have a very thin tightrope to walk and being human may sometimes react excessively."
Sorry Richard, should have made it clear.
While I believe (know, from some degree of experience) that some of the police can act aggressively - (take a trip to the Notting Hill Carnival some day), in the main, the zero-tolerance policy coming from the top creates much of the tension.
The stop-and-search incidents I have actually witnessed, particularly in the Brixton area, are prime examples of this.
The people on the receiving end, appear to be, and quite often are, treated as "the enemy".
It came as no surprise to me that the first outbreak of trouble outside of Tottenham, on this occasion was reported to have started following a heavy-handed S&S in Brixton.
We got several first-hand tastes of these S&Ss in East London, when we were working with Travellers, where we were automatically assumed to be guilty of something "by association".
Jim Carroll