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''' '' EUROPE :
POLICING EUREKA '' '''
''WHAT WE ARE SEEING IS A GROWING LEVEL of discontent among members of our society who see a fundamental illegitimacy in law enforcement under the pandemic,'' said Clifford Stott, a professor of social psychology at Keele University in England and an expert on crowd behaviour.'' And it has created strange bedfellows.''
IN BRISTOL - AN ENGLISH COLLEGE town where the pubs are usually, very usually packed with students - there were fiery clashes between the police and the protesters.
IN KASSEL, a German city known for its ambitious contemporary art festival, the police unleashed pepper spray and water cannons on anti-lockdown marchers.
A year after European leaders ordered people into their homes to curb a deadly pandemic, thousands are pouring into streets and squares. Often, they are met with batons and shields, raising questions about the tactics and rule of police in societies where personal liberties have already given way to public health concerns.
IN COUNTRIES LIKE Austria, Denmark, Romania and Spain, frustrated people are lashing out at the restrictions on their daily lives.
With much of Europe facing a third wave of infections that could keep these stifling lockdowns in place weeks or even months longer, analysts warn that tensions on the streets are likely to escalate.
IN BRITAIN , where the rapid pace of vaccinations has raised hopes for a faster opening of the economy than the government is willing to countenance, frustrations over recent police conduct has swelled into a national debate over the legitimacy of the police - one that carries distant echoes of the Black Lives Movement in the United States.
Right-wing politicians who bridle at lockdown restrictions are as angry as the left-wing climate protesters who regularly clog Trafalgar Square in London as part of Extinction Rebellion demonstrations.
Adding to the sense of outrage is the case of Sarah Everard, a 33-year-old woman who was abducted and killed while walking home in London, an act for which a police officer was later accused.
The Metropolitan Police then roughly broke up a vigil for Ms. Everand on the ground that the participants were violating coronavirus rules and social distancing.
Early in the pandemic, one local police force used drones to shame a couple walking a dog on a lonely path. The owners of the gyms and sports clubs were raided by police when they opened against the regulations.
The violent clashes in Bristol, which left two police vans charred and 20 officers injured - one with a punctured lung - are deeply frustrating.
Last summer, the city became a powerful symbol Black Lives Matter movement, when a crowd pulled down the statue of a 17th century slave trader, Edward Closton, and dumped it into Bristol Harbor.
An earlier version of the government's coronavirus regulations contained a provision that allowed nonviolent protests. But that was removed from a later version, leaving the right to peaceful assembly in a kind of legal limbo.
''This pandemic has exposed the weaknesses of our unwritten constitution when it comes to certain rights,'' said Adam Wagner, a human rights lawyer and expert on the coronavirus rules.
''If you take representative democracy from the process from the process of law making, you miss out on key voices.''
''The Coronavirus Act contains some of the most draconian detention powers in modern British legal history,'' said Mark Harper, who heads the Covid Recovery Group, a caucus of Conservative Lawmakers critical of the lockdown rules.
While many say the debate on the role of police in Britain is overdue, some sympathize with the plight of the officers.
They are caught between politicians and the public, with a nebulous constitutional status and a shifting set of rules to enforce, particularly during a public health emergency.
''It's not the fault of the police that the coronavirus regulations are in part necessarily draconian and in parts unnecessarily draconian,'' said Shami Chakrabarti an expert in civil liberties and a Labour Party politician.
The bigger problem, she said, is Britain tends to conduct debates about the role of police after wrenching episodes like a police shooting, the killing of Ms. Everard or the violent clashes at Bristol. This inflames public opinion in one direction or the other, she says, but can get in the way of thoughtful debate.
''We almost only ever have this discussion in moments of crisis,'' Ms. Charabarti said, ''not in peacetime''.
To sum, it is ever so obvious that. Heavy-handed responses to lockdown protests only increase the tensions.
The Honor and Serving of the Latest Global Operational Research on The State of The World, continues. The World Students Society thanks authors Mark Landler and Stephen Castle.
With respectful dedication to Leaders, Students, Professors and Teachers of Europe, and then the world. See Ya all prepare and register for. Great Global Elections on The World Students Society : wssciw.blogspot.com and Twitter - !E-WOW! - The Ecosystem 2011 :
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