Liberty and Order

Book excerpt: This unprecedented behind the scenes analysis of public order policing, first published in 1994, investigates the impact of increased police powers and equipment on basic democratic freedoms, describing and analysing police operations from protest marches to riots, and from royal ceremonials to street carnivals. When confrontational government policies stimulate inner-city riots and violent protest, the state response is all too often to equip the police with enhanced legal powers and the paraphernalia of riot control. In Britain such developments prompted debates about a drift into authoritarianism. Here the policing of political protest is examined within its political and broader ‘public order’ context, and the text draws on extended and detailed observation of actual events.