More toys for the police

Already regularly carrying, and using, guns and tasers, UK police have added yet another weapon to their armoury. Police chiefs are facing growing criticism after footage obtained by the Guardian showed an officer using CS spray on three ‘tax avoidance protesters’, leaving them needing hospital treatment. CS gas is widely used in Israel against peaceful protesters, and has caused many deaths there; most infamously the recent killing of Jawaher Abu Rahmah.

Politicians and trade union leaders described the use of the spray as "extreme" and "aggressive" after seeing the video of the officer using the spray at close range during Sunday's protest organised by UK Uncut.
Lib Dem MP Tom Brake, co-chair of the party's home affairs and justice committee, said - perhaps a little more kindly than was necessary: "The use of CS gas in a public demonstration, unless officers' safety was at risk, is an extreme tactic and would break a long-standing British tradition of policing public protest with minimal [sic] force. This is a road we do not want to go down."
The footage prompted Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the PCS union, and Neal Lawson, chair of the leftwing pressure group Compass, to call for a public inquiry.
"When tax injustice enjoyed by the rich is combined so starkly with vital public service cuts for the poor and the government refuses to listen or act then people have the moral and legal right to protest. We deplore the use of such aggressive policing techniques and call for a public inquiry to investigate and report on the use of CS spray against protestors on Sunday."
The Metropolitan police has said it is “reviewing” the circumstances of the incident, by which we may assume that it is waiting for it to blow over. And should the inquiry ever take place, we may rest assured that it will find that the officers who are subsidised by our taxes behaved in a responsible and professional manner.
Before Sunday's protest, which involved sit-ins at high-street shops around the country, Sir Hugh Orde, the president of the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo), criticised the lack of willingness of new protest groups that have sprung up around the internet, such as UK Uncut, to “engage” with police before protests. He said if they continued to refuse to co-operate, then police tactics would have to become more “extreme”.