Sir, - It may be that in some circles The Irish Times's impartiality is applauded or its "leftward leanings" harangued, but on the evidence of the report by Frank Millar (The Irish Times, May 2nd), I would have to question both. This report could have been written by the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, as it recounts verbatim its spin on the day. The headline tells one story: "Police successful in dispersing Oxford Circus protesters." Frank Millar called it a standoff. What looked to be happening to me was that the police corralled demonstrators for eight hours in a rainy London square. They "dispersed" after being searched and photographed. Where was the "freedom to march"?
What happened to "innocent unti proven guilty"? In the "democracy" we live in people would question this if it was happening in China or former Soviet bloc countries. They would be bleating on about the evils of the state.
It seems that large protests against the consensus mainstream politics of free trade will no longer be tolerated. Photographing demonstrators is just the start. It will not be long before demonstrators are criminalised.
May Day 2001 was a sad day in London and, I suggest, for Europe, but not only because violence ensued - though that was perhaps inevitable after the media build-up and the ridiculously Draconian policing techniques - and not because of the £20 million price tag put on salaries, lost business and criminal damage. No, it was because of the huge step towards Britain and Europe becoming a police state. - Yours, etc.,
Paul Moloney, Mountjoy Square, Dublin 1.