Should we arm the police?

The top people in the police force are now openly talking about arming the police in rural areas, as armed police response units can't get to shootings in non urban areas fast enough to deal with them.

Rural police 'could routinely carry guns'

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-44151242

I was listening to a BBC radio 5Live interview a day or so ago where some top policeman was saying that the days of unarmed police in general is no longer realistic to the age we are living in and belongs to the 'Dixon of Dock Green' era, which for you youngsters were about fifty years ago.

He said todays officers have to deal with 'feral' young men armed with machetes and knives, who are prepared to use them, riding scooters and attacking people on the street.

Coincidentally (or perhaps he knew about the following) this was in todays news -

Teenage '21st century highwaymen' guilty of murder

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-44170122


Is it about time that we bow to the inevitable and arm all police or do you think that we still have many years of non armed policing to go yet?

No we shouldn’t arm the police, leave it as it is which works well. Only have specially trained police when  they are needed as a last resort

They will kill innocent people a cop is the last person i'd give a gun to they abuse their power as it is.

With the state of gun crime in the UK it would make sense for each city and town to have a small nucleus of armed officers on duty 24/7. After all, it's their job to protect the public and you can't fight guns  or knives with a baton. I can't see the day coming when all police are routinely armed and I'm quite proud of the fact that the UK is the only place in the world where the police are not routinely armed as part of their day to day duties. 
There is a decent argument for having the coppers tooled up. Thou shalt not kill says the Bible as do the do-gooders who argue against the return of capital punishment but try telling that to the armed gangs who terrorize our  banks, building societies and post offices or the unarmed copper lying dead in the street. They wont hear you.