The police, Jim, have a very thin tightrope to walk and being human may sometimes react excessively. IMHO the problem at the early stage (apart from Duggan having been a known villain and gangsta on a smallish local scale - apparently and allegedly out to commit murder with a loaded illegal firearm) was that the IPCC failed to communicate and teh police (wisely IMHO) thought that they could not interfere with the IPCC process by making pre-emptive announcements. I know I don't often sympathise with the police, and I don't wholly trust them, but I think they were in a no-win situation at that point.

Mither, the loaded laws that your "brave lads" used (that included the power to sequestrate union funds) were put in place by Thatcher precisely to do what they did - disempower unions. Any employment law textbook will tell you. Well, almost any of those that examine the reasons for the ebb and flow of workers' rights.   You puzzle me. Most of the time you seem to want to undermine and enslave the working class and unwaged, and every so often you say something that is not so fascistic.