To think there are more than "a few bad apples" in the police force?

[nellynaemates]

I'm not anti-police, you won't hear me spouting on about the "pigs" or any such unpleasantness. I don't come to this as someone who has an irrational and in-built hatred of the police.

However, having read about the recent incidents at the G20 protests it sounds to me as though there was an organised effort to brutalise the protesters. In the Guardian yesterday a young woman described how she was laughing and joking with officers earlier in the day and how they told her that there was a surprise coming up.

Half an hour later it all kicked off and I urge anyone who hasn't to read the testimonies of these protesters. It is frightening and reads like descriptions of violence in totalitarian states.

"Peaceful" protests don't seem to be allowed to exist any more. People are cordoned off like dangerous animals and attacked for the slightest thing (or nothing at all).

I'm sure I'm not the only one who would think twice before going to a protest now because I wouldn't feel safe. In a supposedly democratic country this should not be the case.

I'm not saying all police are bad, but I do believe that a combination of the culture surrounding the "war on terror" and the fact that the police force is bound to attract some unpleasant and power-hungry thugs into its ranks means that we have real problems with trusting police to always be on the side of the law-abiding member of the public.

Stripey, every single one of them have been bailed without charge.

Report on Newsnight now, it has been utterly disgraceful.

But we shouldn't complain as the Staasi were worse.

Newsnight are doing a brilliant report about this right now.

I expect Jeremy Paxman is naieve as well.

Yes they've been bailed, not released. They could be charged at a later date.

You dont get bailed without charge
you are bailed to return to the Police station whilst CPS look at the evidence to decide if there is enough to chaarge/ or if further enquiries need to be made.

Actually, Moondog, the July bombings were a rather uncomfortably close to home for me, like many people who work or live in London.

Incompetent, trigger-happy policing does sod-all to protect the public - quite the reverse. It wasn't terrorists who gunned down Jean Charles de Menezes.

you can get bailed without charge such as being bailed pending further enquiries. Its not the same as released without charge.

Former police officer albeit in the mid 80's and involved in the Miner's Strike. There are lots of bad apples in the police, and the public generally don't want to know about it as to grasp the truth is a bit uncomfortable. I had seen to much to be surprised by any 'revalations' though I am assured by current serving officers that many of the features of the 'dark days' prior to PACE have left us.

Still even then the Met had a reputation for being pretty thuggish even among other serving officers and recent events do nothing to reduce that impression, sad to say.

No a lawyer was on saying it's a way for the police to intimidate them for the next 3 months - make sure they don't attend any demonstrations - and then quiety drop the charges when everyone's forgotten about it.

my spelling hasn't improved either.

Defence lawyer I presume? He/she doesn't get paid to be open minded.

Well let's see if they get charged then, eh?

Yes I saw that footage.

Some people will keep on insisting on the right of the police to beat up protestors though. Some respect for democratic rights to demonstrate.

yes lets. If they were doing nothing wrong and only wanted to wave placards outside the power station for a while then they can all sleep easy can't they?Time will tell.

It's always scary to realise quite how many of your fellow citizens would actually be quite happy living in a police state. Presumably because they think they'd be all right Jack, as upstanding citizens and all that. Forgetting the obvious flaw, that once you give the authorities the right to go after anyone they don't like, eventually they will come for you...

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.
Then they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
I did not speak out;
I was not a Jew.
When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out for me.

So the police forces of the UK are comparable to the Nazis now are they? FGS

no Mrs that isn't what has been said. It's a waarning about lack of vigilance and is cued by edam's obs. that the 'comfortable blameless classes' are living in a falsehood about their own security.

Its only because you live here and have freedom of expression that you can even copy and paste stuff like that safe in the knowledge that no-one will ever want to speak to you about it officially.

and long may that continue - the price of that luxury is being careful about what the state apparatus get up to.

Well seemed a strange analogy then. I didn't take part in any clandestine meetings about power stations so , therefore, I can rest easy

Yup, Sorrento, that's what I was thinking of. Pastor Neimoller?

The point is not that we are lucky to be "allowed" to read and distribute poetry but the fact that we need to preserve that freedom. If I had a pound for everytime I've read/heard if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear, but that's clearly not true because mistakes happen.

Clandestine meetings are not against the law.

No but gives the impression of something to hide though.