The public are fast losing patience with thuggish policing

clipped from www.guardian.co.uk The arrest, early on Monday, of 114 demonstrators in a school outside Nottingham on suspicion of conspiracy to cause criminal damage and aggravated trespass, long before they managed to get anywhere near the Ratcliffe-on-Soar coal-fired power station, smacked of intimidation; the bail restrictions then placed on them draconian and deeply unsettling in a free society And news that Ian Tomlinson, the news-paper vendor shoved to the ground during G20, died of internal bleeding rather than a heart attack, is shocking there is a wealth of video evidence online showing excessive force being used against demonstrators Yet it's increasingly clear we cannot trust the police account of events

From the author: “This (police) aggression is no doubt linked to the government's nasty habit of writing laws that prefer the convenience of security forces to the rights of free citizens. But the police are public servants, not government enforcers. Their job is to keep the peace, not clear the streets of dissent.”

This steady evolution of laws being written to favor government instead of to protect its citizenry reeks of fascist idealism: Control the masses before they can do anything that might hint at voicing their opinion.

The government’s fear stems from not being able to ‘control’ its citizens. The answer is simple, politicians should abandon their self-idealized role as ‘controllers’ and return to their intended function as public servants. Put the public’s needs first, stop lining your pockets with our money, stop setting up sweetheart deals with corporations, and listen to what the public has to say.