Two items that really should be read

The first was posted by a friend on FB and comes from The Age. It is a stinging indictment of the shallowness and hypocrisy of the Australian public. The second is an article from Overland, for any of you still lingering in the fictional land where protests are not routinely - as a matter of training, policy, and force deployment - immediately subjected to brutal violence.

A letter from The Age;

"Public offended by protests, not issues

ON AUSTRALIA Day in 2008, an indigenous man, Mr Ward, was arrested in Western Australia and transported 360 kilometres in a prison van with no working airconditioner. With temperatures in the van reaching 50 degrees, he collapsed and died. The WA coroner found that Mr Ward died a "ghastly" death and essentially was "cooked".

Did the people who have written letters to newspapers and called talkback radio over the past few days to express outrage over the "violent" demonstrations by Aboriginal people feel equally outraged over what happened to Mr Ward? Did they express that for such an horrendous event to happen on our "national day" was unacceptable? Was it the front page headline in our national papers for three days running?

I am sick of the fact that so many people in our society are always so much more offended by the protests about social problems than the social problems themselves. Tony Abbott may think we've come a long way in 40 years, but many Australians, both indigenous and non-indigenous, would vehemently disagree with him.

Jane Thomas, Belgrave"

 And secondly, an analysis of police tactics as regards OMEL. And before you say 'But, I don't agree with OMEL...' Stop. That's irrelevant. The broader issue is the haphazard, arbitrary enforcement of laws, and the default use of excessive force. It may be OMEL today, but it could be anything else tomorrow or the day after. Read more here.