HM doesn't like to dwell on the darker and more unsavoury elements of his chosen local but the last few days have thrown up a few first-hand examples of why you are more likely to take a bullet in Hackney than anywhere else in the UK. Firstly, we kid you not, a Merc with windscreen intact and five bullet holes sprayed across, guarded by a uniform plod. Then two days later a new crime scene, deliniated by blue and white incident tape in the road opposite and by the way the street is being picked for evidence by overalled experts, you can be sure another foot-soldier has hit the dust.