Police Service brutality

Ironic that after the struggle against "institutional racism", a change of name from the "police force" to "police service", initiatives on community policing, softly-softly, the PC police chief, Ian Blair running the Met, etc, after all this we have policemen assaulting peaceful demonstrators: for me the shield in the face against one young demonstrator was the conclusive incident; but the truncheon on the back of the legs of a woman doesn't look good, nor does the death of a frail bystander after an unnecessary push by a police officer, even if we say that the policemen involved is not responsible for Mr Tomlinson's poor state of health before the push. Then the unprecedented arrest of an opposition MP, Damien Green and the searching of parliamentary offices. So liberty and good policing are not about ticking the politically correct boxes, we can now all agree.

Meanwhile the real criminals can rob and murder with impunity or ridiculously light sentences. I recommend Peter Hitchens' book, the Abolition of Liberty, which argues that security and liberty are not in opposition; that everyday public order is essential to liberty and protactive (bobbies on the beat) policing is essential to safeguard these; that the police have become agents of the state rather than the people, politically correct policing being part of this development.