BEING a person who took part in peace marches, marches against what seemed to me to be a deliberate policy of promoting unemployment at the time of Margaret Thatcher, and taking part in demonstrations against the introduction of the poll tax and the struggle of miners for an industry in their local areas, I have in the past encountered police who clearly did not think I was entitled to make my point.

It struck me that there was a police canteen culture which had no appreciation of what people like me see as a right in a democracy, and a country where there is freedom of assembly, and all they seemed to be aware of was that they were perhaps working overtime they had not sought or had their leave cancelled.

So when I saw snapshots of police behaviour at the London G20 protests it came as no surprise.

I am of the opinion that there is need for a public discussion of what we expect from the police, and I suggest that part of their training should be the fact that we live in a democracy and not a totalitarian state run by an elite who believe in harsh discipline and speaking only when we are spoken to by our superiors.

Geoffrey Bulmer, Billingham.