A wide gulf in attitudes towards the RUC was evident in two meetings of the Patten Commission which were held in Derry yesterday.
At the first meeting at St Columb's Park House in the Waterside a unionist mayor of the former Londonderry City Council, Mrs Marlene Jefferson, described the widows and families of RUC men as the real victims of violence.
"I feel there is change needed within the RUC, but who better than the RUC itself to say what change is necessary?" she said.
Mrs Jefferson's husband, Jim, who introduced himself as "a Bogside Prod" said he appreciated that at times the RUC operated under severe pressure. "I know what I am talking about. I lost 15 teeth in the back of a Land-Rover myself, but generally they are doing their job and they are doing it well," he said.
Mr Stanley McCombe told the commission members that the RUC itself realised changes were necessary. "But when I speak to policemen, I ask them when they are going to do away with their guns. The answer I get is about one hour after decommissioning by all terrorist groups," he said.
One of two Presbyterian ministers who addressed the meeting, the Rev Maynard Cathcart, said . . .there has to be change, because our police force must become a police force and not a military force protecting society from terrorists. It must be accountable to the society in which we live and representative of the community. God willing, we will see the day when our policemen will be able to walk the streets and be respected and have the respect of all our community."
The Rev Dr Joseph Fell said he believed there was what he called a silent majority within the minority in favour of the police. "The last member of the RUC murdered in this city was not a Protestant . . . "As he lay dying on the street, someone who was not a Protestant went over to him and held him in her arms and said to him, `You are somebody's son, let me pray for you.' "
Later at the Calgach Centre, between the Diamond and the Bogside, commissioners heard Mr Michael English describe losing two sons "in the 30-year conflict". His son Gary died on Easter Sunday 1981 after he was run over by a British army Land-Rover. Another son was a member of the Provisional IRA.
"When my second son, Charles, died, his body was still inside in the back seat of a car for five hours. He was not allowed into the mortuary. A priest came to give him the last rites but he was stopped by a detective sergeant in the police."
Another woman told the Commission that just over eight weeks ago her son, who admitted being a police informer, had to leave Derry. She claimed he was recruited as an informer by police officers who said they would drop charges in relation to a domestic incident against him.
"I want the Commission to realise our whole family is now in ruins . . . In my opinion there is only one way that Northern Ireland is ever going to be really peaceful and that is to disband the RUC . . . "
Mr Pat Devine told the Commission he has been a teacher at St Joseph's College in Derry since 1972 and teacher in charge of careers for the last 14 years. He said he regularly received career information from the RUC which he gives to his students. "They laugh at it."
"There are people who would like to join the police force if it were acceptable to the community. I told my class today I was coming to this meeting. Out of a class of 18, three said they would like to join the police force."
Sinn Fein has rejected a unionist claim that it is "packing" meetings of the Patten Commission on policing to convey the impression that there is a general mood that wants the disbandment or radical reform of the RUC.
Mr Michael McGimpsey, the Ulster Unionist Party Assembly security spokesman, said yesterday he was alarmed at "the way Sinn Fein was manipulating the Commission's public meetings using coercive tactics".
Ms Bairbre de Brun, Sinn Fein's spokeswoman on policing, described the accusations as a "transparent lie".