Some 400 people took part in a protest against bullfights in Xixon, Asturias (under the boot of the Kingdom of Spain).
After some exchange of insults between those celebrating animal torture and humanitarian protesters, police, which is anything but neutral, charged against some demonstrators, arresting one.
This person was apparently subject to beatings inside the police van, what caused other protesters to inquire for his situation, to which police responded with more violence and more arrests, as can be seen in the video:
Source: Madriz Rebelde[es].
The fair and effective handling of public protest in a democracy is what police are to do. Of course it is a lot easier to talk about improving our police than doing it. For the most part, police throughout the world are the same. And the same insights and direction for improving them hold true. Police should be well-trained, restrained in their use of force, honest, and courteous to all. To take a look at how to improve police, see “Arrested Development: A Veteran Police Chief Sounds Off About Protest, Racism, Corruption and the Seven Steps Necessary to Improve Our Nation’s Police” (Amazon.com in US and EU). My blog is at http://improvingpolice.wordpress.com where I discuss these and other current police improvement issues. Good luck and may we all experience not just good but great policing!
ReplyDeletePolice generally take one side and enforce it. It has little to do with the law, being this one, in most cases, just a pretext for the imposition of the dominant side, the one favored by the oligarchy and the political regime.
DeleteMost arrests are arbitrary: law and judges are just to sanction them. Abuses by police (or other powers like bankers) are almost never persecuted but don't you dare to raise your voice!