The RUC is the most professional police force in the world and to disband it would plunge the North into chaos and terror, the Independent Commission on Policing heard yesterday when it visited Newtownabbey, Co Antrim.
Around 200 people attended the meeting. Mr Andrew Marlow said members of the commission from Britain and the US should be used to allegations that their police forces were biased against "the negro population". So they should understand that there was an anti-British element in the North who had initiated a "slander campaign" against the RUC.
A member of the Progressive Unionist Party criticised proposals from nationalists for a two-tier police force, with some issues being dealt with at a local level. That would mean the entire force "falling into line with the local hoods".
A larger than expected crowd of almost 300 people attended last night's hearing in Antrim of the Independent Commission on Policing. The Ulster Unionist mayor of Antrim, Mr Paddy Marks, said:
"Any change must be structured and gradual - changes must only proceed at the same pace as changes in the security situation but with the overriding condition that changes can and must be reversible."
The deputy mayor of Antrim, Mr Donovan McClelland, an SDLP Assembly member, said: "We wish to see the establishment of a policing service which can be respected and trusted by both nationalist and unionists alike."
The Sinn Fein representative for the area, Mr Martin Meehan, said the RUC would never be acceptable to Republicans.
The RUC may not be angels - none of us is perfect - but neither are they devils, a church of Ireland cleric told the Independent Commission on Policing for Northern Ireland in Armagh last night.
The rector of St Mark's parish, the Rev John McKegney, speaking on behalf of the Select Vestry, said they could not support calls for the disbandment of the RUC but criticised those on the pro-Union side who said they want absolutely no change.