While the rank stupidity of a tightly grouped demonstration during a virus pandemic is arguable, let us not ignore that the protest against bolstered police power was met with the flagrant abuse of what fuzz already holds.

That was exemplified by beating the crap out of mild-mannered bystanders after having first scarpered from less easy targets.

One big bowl of cowardice and bullying, together with a striking endorsement of the principles of the protest, if not the timing of it.

Now that the ‘broken bones’ baloney has been scraped away, we now have an assertion that police officers had only ‘confronted’ the pour souls who were struck.

Yes, I remember only too well the days when cops used to confront people down the stairs of the local nick.

Watch the footage, and you will see that ‘confronted’ is cop-code for ‘deliver a shield-strike’. This is apparently a legitimate tactic, but legitimacy derives from a context.

Using force in self-defence may be lawful, but if evidence of self-defence does not become apparent, that becomes an unlawful assault.

And that’s the approach the police themselves would take, wouldn’t they?

For the life of me, I cannot see the lawful context for the strikes on those pedestrians.

And that is where we are with this one.

The police truly believe that they are a law unto themselves.

If you are looking for any stark indicators of this, check out comments from the Chair of the Gloucestershire Police Federation who stated in a now-deleted tweet that the Police ‘are not public servants’ and that ‘policing by consent is a general principle not a duty’.

Oh dear. The mask has slipped, but there won’t be any fixed penalty notice for that one.

The police are of course crown servants, which by definition are public servants. And while the consent lark is a (Peelian) principle, those principles form the essential moral duty of our policing system, which the Home Office notes in terms of

‘…power of the police coming from the common consent of the public, as opposed to the power of the state’. 

Forget the twinkly notions of police service – this is police force stuff through and through.

Or, given their woeful post-match interviews, police farce stuff.

And it’s only going to get worse.