I HAVE no inside information on the accusations against Michael Jackson, though I am not inclined to believe them. I do have inside information on the mentality and methods of the American police and their symbiotic relationship with the television industry. Several decades ago in New York University sociology studies we delved into what I characterise as police thuggery and their craving for publicity. We had film made in Philadelphia police raids. We saw doors broken in, all sorts of shouting, beatings, pushings and handcuffings, broadcast on the local TV stations for maximum publicity and viewership ratings.

It was a modern version of the Christians being thrown to the lions in the Roman Colosseum for the delight of the spectators. The joke in Philadelphia was that if you saw a TV crew arrive outside your house, disappear immediately before the police appeared, and be sure to leave your door unlocked to deny them an excuse for break-ing it down. That tradition goes on.

The recently retiring Governor Ryan of Illinois cancelled the execution of 162 people, after reading each case history. He said on national television that the Chicago and other police had shown remarkable incompetence, carelessness, and had bullied and tortured their victims to fake and manufacture evidence for false convictions. Four of the people were released immediately as they were innocent. They had been tortured and lied about by the police. Governor Ryan was remarkable for caring about those people. His actions got national attention.

While living in New Jersey, a state famed for its sleaze, I uncovered an extensive network of police traps that would be illegal in Scotland. Part of it involved fake boy prostitutes. It was strictly Third World stuff. When victims fail to fall into these traps the cops become edgy about the huge unaccounted-for sums of taxpayer money being squandered. They then manufacture results by easy defamation and ensure it is given to the national TV news networks operating from New York. Sexual innuendo is the oldest and easiest police trick in the book.

I passed my findings to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. What they, as America's secret police, might have done with it is anybody's guess. My guess is very little. Cops of various hues are a wonderful brotherhood.

Daniel Clark,

51 Mount Grange, Edinburgh.