I WRITE in support of Mr J. Renniker (Letters, August 20) and his condemnation of the decision by the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) to sack any police officer who is a member of the British National Party (BNP).

The BNP, whose views I deplore, is a legally-constituted organisation whose existence is as valid as that of any other political party. Those who seek to prevent any individual from supporting the BNP have forgotten the adage that "I may disagree with another man's views, but in a free society would be prepared to die for his right to hold them".

The enemies of freedom can always conceal their real intention behind a pretence of concern for social order.

The police hierarchy have adopted such a misguided stance, and have thereby ensured that the BNP will gain the status of martyrdom. People who don't have time for the BNP are now more likely to consider its policies and aims. Bearing in mind that, at the last European elections, the BNP polled 800,000 votes, one has to ask just how wise is the ACPO decision.

An appalling precedent has been set, and where the ACPO leads others will follow: we already have the spectacle of Barclay's Bank refusing to do business with the BNP. Just where will this end?

Can we expect ACPO to adopt a similar policy with regard to, say, the Socialist Workers' Party (SWP), a Trotskyist organisation whose views are just as extreme as those of the BNP, though in the opposite political direction? When is ACPO going to understand that the existence of extremism is the price we pay for the great freedom we enjoy?

Logically, the result of ACPO's thinking is a campaign to make the BNP and SWP unlawful and thereby violate Human Rights legislation as well as poisoning the intellectual atmosphere. Is that what ACPO wants?

ACPO is clearly in the grasp of that politically-correct, anti-racist mentality which has so infested our national life at both ideological and institutional levels. They appear to think that in pursuing an authoritarian line they can thereby help the cause of good race relations, and that their misguided gesture will make the minorities more at home.

In fact, the very reverse is the case. By focusing on the minorities, making them the central feature of policy-making, they are alienating the white majority, whose resentments have resulted in group conflict and riots in places such as Oldham, Bradford and Rochdale.

The only position ACPO should adopt is that of absolute equality in dealing with race relations matters. No individual group should be favoured, and there must be recognition that the right of any police officer to belong to any lawful political party is sacrosanct.

RAY HONEYFORD