Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

David Knight: We can protest loudly and hold police to account without resorting to violence

John Thaw (right) as Flying Squad detective Jack Regan in 1970s police drama, The Sweeney
John Thaw (right) as Flying Squad detective Jack Regan in 1970s police drama, The Sweeney

A tall, grim-faced detective pushed forward and stared at us with a snarl creeping across his face.

“Right, strip off. We need your clothes, shoes first,” he ordered.

“This is now a crime scene and your clothes are required to be examined forensically.”

He reminded me of Flying Squad detective Jack Regan from The Sweeney cop drama, which was huge on television at the time.

Shoes and jackets were off and we begged their pardon; I worried how far this was going as I was wearing my Superman boxers and we were standing outside in a garden.

I loosened my tie, but not the one pictured under my chin in my byline photo, I hasten to add.

David Knight

I only mention this because an eagle-eyed reader said I was wearing the same tie in a picture of me in last week’s column taken a quarter of a century ago. Funny, but not true – both ties were flowery, but different colours. Something blossomed from his observation, though: he showed I was boringly predictable in my tie style.

Mercifully, before the undressing could go any further the detective bawled out again: “Now pick up your stuff, clear off and don’t do that again.”

Or words to that effect, although as I recall he used far more industrial language.

There were some guffaws as we shuffled away sheepishly.

Policing (both factual and fictional) has changed

Two young reporters were taught a lesson, but we kind of respected it. It was part of the cut and thrust of the times, I suppose.

Fate put us in the wrong place at the wrong time rather than deliberately interfering with a police investigation. I wandered into a seemingly deserted property with my sidekick Arthur after being tipped off that there was a major incident in the vicinity.

We had no way of knowing at the time that a body had been found and it looked like murder.

We also failed to notice that while we were at the back, police were gathering at the front. Suddenly there was a commotion and we were surrounded.

We unwittingly overstepped the line, but they were also sailing pretty close to it for a few moments.

Things were different for both real and fictional police officers back in the days of The Sweeney

These days one of us would have filmed it on our mobile phone, possibly igniting a social media outcry about heavy-handed police. Somebody would have organised a protest in a jiffy.

If we ended up starkers in a back garden in Line of Duty, you could imagine officers being hauled in to explain themselves. But no one would have batted an eyelid in the swashbuckling Sweeney 30 years earlier.

Softly, softly or heavy-handed?

I suppose it’s all about how far you push it: do you stand your ground or accept authority? Public and police have far-reaching choices to make about challenging or enforcing the law.

I thought of my embarrassing escapade after the north-east’s police chief raised fears about stand-offs and general public belligerence when officers enforced lockdown rules.

One half of me longed for the police to get stuck in and sort these people out. But I also cherish the softly, softly consensual style of policing we have in the UK. That is what makes it so different.

I hope police still value this, too, but it is a tricky tightrope on which society balances.

The dilemma was brought into focus graphically by violent scenes at the Clapham Common vigil after Sarah Everard’s recent death.

We are lucky we can have strong opinions and hold our police to account. But we must preserve sensible boundaries to protect our democracy

But in other high-profile examples, peaceful protest has turned to violence as a hardcore element revels in a showdown with police at all costs. The original point of the protest is corrupted.

It seems pre-ordained that some throw themselves into a confrontation as martyrs, begging police to carry them off with a bloodied head. And the police oblige as commensurate force is lawful, however shocking it might appear.

What is the alternative – to let lunatics start running the asylum?

We don’t know how lucky we are

Alex Salmond’s strategy for reinforcing a potential separatist “supermajority” in Holyrood for another referendum includes “peaceful” street protests. If it happens I hope they are trouble free, but in the current climate anything could happen.

And, let’s face it, if I was a pro-independence strategist I would prefer public protest to be angry and shouty at least.

After all, the imagery projected worldwide is meant to portray an oppressed people shackled against our will. But let us keep it in perspective. In other countries people have laid down their lives protesting against real tyranny.

We are lucky we can have strong opinions and hold our police to account. But we must preserve sensible boundaries to protect our democracy.

Some extremists probably think they are already in a police state for not being allowed to attack the police.

But we don’t know how lucky we are: what if we were waking up – or dying –
in Myanmar?


David Knight is the long-serving former deputy editor of the Press and Journal

Read more by David Knight: