Even taking into account the actions of the IRA the Black & Tans were in general very brutal, the prevailng attitude among them seeming to be, it doesn't matter if you kill them they're only paddies. In the link in my first post it is shown that senior officers quite openly expressed this sort of opinion and the rank and file following their lead commited some terrible crimes, crimes which don't even have the "excuse" of being carried out during a war they were quite simply the most vicious of crimes carried out under official sanction