Can I contribute with a survey in another three countries?! The first one is my native Italy.Things DID change in the space of a generation,I'm glad to say.Example:in the '70es,when my mother would protest,cops (seems) where given anphetamines to increase violence.My mom told me some gruesome bits.There is this episode,fixed in my mind,about a student protest being raided from the police.My mother was caught.A peaceful friend of hers was beated on his head until his right ear was torn off.Another one,pregnant,was kicked right on her belly with a rifle(the baby was all right).As mum was siezed by her long hair(she was sixteen or younger)she screamed to the cop:Look at me!!!I could be your sister!!!.And she was left untouched.I like to think about it.When I did the same thing,many years later,cops were seen as an instrument of the Government.Students would throw coins at them,but the police(a thing which gets me ashamed of my fellows'behaviour)never reacted a single time.

Another country is France.I would have enjoyed my travels there a bit more if it wasn't for for the violence you breathe.There's violence from the street kids and there's more violence from the police.Example:I got in Montpellier,South France,early in the morning.As I walked to the streets,there was this hidden hell moving in the shadows.People my age emptying pockets of trousers who know where they got,approaching us in the strangest ways,etc...I stayed there a few hours.As we were at the train station,a completely stoned junkie started hanging around us.Just a few broken words.By the time I got on the train,the last thing I saw were three cops Beating him to the ground with sticks.Connecting the circle,does this sound a catch 22 thing?! Last country is Australia.And yes,here is a bit like playing in a police state.There is a great paranoia about alcool-it's a crime to walk with an opened bottle...- and most of the music venues are pubs.There you are.And aussies seem to fall in hte alcool thing all the time,even if they're often armful only to theirselves.I live in the Cross,if anybody knows about it.Our Real Estate Agent got shot the first time he came to visit us.Friends who come over at our place can't get used to the constant sound of police cars.Others can't stand coming because junk-addicted friends where left to die here.People comes for fights here,you can see the blood if you walk around early in the morning.But wait,I love this place(like Simon&Garfunkel would...)and I can walk freely and safely through it anytime,day and night.Cops know what to whatch and what to stop.And I see the embarassed,concerned face of a human being on them quite often .(even if my father curses them everytime he comes over...)It's hard work.As a white person,my experience is positive.AS A WHITE.

You want a playing episode?!OK.Jamming on the beach ,summertime.People of every race drumming and having fun.Cops come over.There are bottles all over,probably joints.Do they look at us?!No.They walk stright to a bunch of aborigenees and empty their glasses.Second night.Cops come over don't care about alcool consumption(drinkin is prohibited pretty much everywhere eccept your place,restaurants and pubs),about the noise,whatever.They kick a sleeping aborigin person,grab him and carry it in the police car.None of the hippie arseholes up there sayis anything.They keep on playing(I would have carried them in the car...selfish kids...).I followed the car,walked(I was probably trying to calm down my conscience,I admit it.OK) through the police station station,whatever,I never got track of that man,nor got to know his true offence.Despite Reconciliation tensions and some self-blaiming/winging,aboriginal people here is still in the hands of under-schooled,violent,racist cops.Mind you,I talked before about good cops.But it looks like a fair slice of ugly ones are left to their Death in Custody Game here,which won't figure among the Olimpic ones.The End