It’s appalling what the police have become in Lagos. The citizenry now have little regard for them. I have seen people give officers the ‘you disgust me’ and the ‘who are you’ look before now, especially the lower cadet who roam our roads. However, this imbroglio I experienced between a policeman and an ‘Agbero’ (hoodlum) was rather shameful. He spewed threats at the police officer like he had some authority backing him up. The officer (looking unkempt) on the other hand could only mutter some words helplessly while pretending or so it appears, to make a call to some of his colleagues. This act went on for over 10 minutes. I stood there trying to make sense of what just played out. I came to the conclusion that corruption has eaten deep into the soul of the institution (handouts, aka bribes have always exchanged hands between the citizenry and police officers). If not, how would an agbero have the audacity to even stand toe to toe with a policeman? A lot of work needs to be done in restoring their past glory.