I'm very sorry
Myusername, it really just goes to show what I've often said about text fora as a means of communication, especially for serious issues - it's terrifyingly easy to have what you typed be read in a way very different to what you intended
.
I'm glad that you realised that I didn't set out to patronise or insult and I would've been better not to mention your username at all, for it makes it seem as if everything that follows it is addressed directly at you (particularly when my use of what I meant as plural "you" reads like singular "You") :blush:.
Apologies once more, especially as I didn't even manage to complete or phrase well the thought that arose when I read the read the last paragraph in your post above mine i.e. that abuse of authority has been much more extreme in the recent past than what we (hear about) these days.
That's why I mentioned age {and I got you confused with someone else too there :double blush:} as having been out and about during those scary times really brought home the point about the general public only having those rights we're permitted.
I hope we can put aside my manifestly poor writing of last night, I was exhausted and the lack of coherence is embarassing - as is the lack of self-critique of what I wrote before posting.
You're quite correct in pointing out that I'm not really talking about the behaviour of the officer in these incidents but a different issue.
You're also correct in saying that I lifted from the run of posts in the thread, rather than the video, a sense of 'Entitlement Culture' and spoke to that rather than the video.
I can also see, properly re-reading what my own words
actually were rather than what I
thought I was saying, why another would get the impression I was espousing that we should just accept a 'police state' rather than resisting it. What I was blathering towards (and not quite getting to the point) is that an overly vigorous reaction to 'small scale' bad policing could serve as a trigger for an authoritarian backlash.
Reading my Tolpuddle Martyrs paragraph, I can't believe I made such a hash of what I meant to say! As you say, I was referencing it as a 'warning' from the past but in the sense that if those in power decide on a course of action, then protest which obstructs that course will result in quite fearsome reaction. In such cases the route of protest has to be tangential if those protesting are not to be violently silenced. Given the longer term outcome of what happened in Tolpuddle, it was a bad example anyway
.
The Miners Strike would actually have been a better one to highlight, as for all the protests and strong public support, we still failed to prevent the destruction of the NUM and the industry itself. As a student at the time, I did support them in what small practical ways I could manage (a picket here, a few quid there) so I think that our views are perhaps closer than the exchange in the past few posts would suggest.
Regardless, it is really something to talk about in another thread rather than here, so I wont bang the drum any further. I've only 'run on' somewhat here, rather than in a PM, because I believe that
public apologies are best when you've upset someone and are genuinely contrite - most especially when you also want to clarify what you meant (I'm still having trouble with that bit
).
Cheers
Mark
