WHENEVER the police use force to control a crowd threatening disorder – be they political activists, protesting farmers or football hooligans – they are publicly censured by the politicians for not exercising adequate restraint.
The standard criticism against the police is they had used excessive force, irrespective of how threatening the behaviour of the demonstrators may have been. Of course, the politicians would never dream of saying anything remotely censorious about the people who made the use of force necessary, because crowds represent votes.
But it seems this pandering to demonstrators is not restricted to vote-seeking politicians, as a report, recently completed by ombudswoman Eliana Nicolaou illustrated. Nicolaou was investigating a complaint by a citizen who had alleged he had been beaten up by police while protesting against the war in Iraq, outside the US embassy last year. Her report, which she said was based on the constitutional right of safeguarding the right to freedom of expression, noted that the police had used disproportionate violence.
Even the ombudswoman cannot resist making an arbitrary moral judgment, despite the fact that this is not one of her responsibilities. Did the fact that the demonstrators had broken the law by throwing bottles of red paint at the police not matter? It was the duty of the police to arrest the demonstrators who were breaking the law, even though Nicolaou did not seem to think so.
Throwing bottles of paint at the police, for Nicolaou, was a way of people exercising their constitutional right of freedom of expression. She even had the audacity to claim that the police actions should not have been influenced only by the concern for resting public order but also the general anti-war mood prevailing at the time. According to the ombudswoman, it is acceptable for citizens to break the law as long as they are demonstrating for a worthy cause. Exactly who would define what constitutes a worthy cause she did not mention.
While the police chief, Tassos Panayiotou, wrote back and told Nicolaou that her findings were mistaken and he would take no action, his political superior, Justice Minister Doros Theodorou took her side. The minister responsible for public order, foolishly endorsed the law-breaking and said the police should not have responded even if they were pelted with eggs, paint and tomatoes. “The right to demonstrate is worth more than the uniform of a policeman,” Theodorou has said.
Only in Cyprus would a minister of public order and the ombudswoman censure the police for enforcing the law. State officials, who do not believe that the police should enforce the law at all times, should pack their bags and go home because they send out the wrong message to the public as well the force.
