While I’m generally one to rant about the state monopoly on self defence and violence, I can appreciate that, sometimes, it is very gratifying to see agents of the state doing their thing.

Like, and I’m picking an example out of the air here, when six fellas take it upon themselves to become violent twats and begin to hit people round the back of the head. An ordinary person, of course, is legally able to restrain said fellas, but nothing more than that in most cases. But an agent of the state, with their monopolistic powers, can turn up, boilersuited and with baton in hand, and do much more interesting things.

Like, and again this is a completely made up example, make the worst of the fellas sit in the corner while a dog sits guarding him. A very loud dog, with big white teeth. Something like this, but a good bit younger. Younger, of course, meaning “more likely to do something rash and unpredictable”.

Or they can turn up and haul remaining fellas into the back of ye olde meat wagon and transport them, post haste, to a long wait before seeing the beak in the morning.

Or, and this is quite impressive and scary at the same time, they can use CCTV to get the registration number of the taxi that several of the (hypothetical) fellas escaped into, use the DoE database to find the company that operates said taxi, get the company to contact the driver, and then be waiting to pick up the several fellas once they reach their destination.

All in, in such a situation, the police can work hard, quickly and efficiently. Pity it’s only a hypothetical example, of course.