Arrest and fine was shabby act
LORRAINE Lock calls for more sympathy to be shown to the police (Viewpoints. M.E.N., March 8), but public cases like the arrest and slapping of a maximum fine, without judge or jury, on veteran health protestor Karen Reissmann do more than torpedo her sensible call.
I’m no fan of Reissmann, nor a Socialist Worker, but this is a shabby act.
Your report says Reissmann had taken steps to ensure people followed government distancing regulations. All the 40 attending were masked despite it being outdoors – hardly a throng in St Peter’s Square at noon on a Sunday. She is pictured wearing a mask. What the degree of “noncompliance’ Supt Caroline Hemingway refers to is not obvious to me. Has the constabulary become an arm of the Conservative Party’s propaganda machine?
It does GMP no credit that the officers pictured so zealously combatting the risk of transmission were not wearing gloves while (wo)manhandling a protestor.
Is this the shape of things to come? Policing works with consent – anti-democratic abuse of power, apparently is political support of a disliked government policy reminds me of what went on in the same area 202 years ago (Peterloo). Observer, via email
Disgusted by police action
I AM disgusted with the handling of the nurses protest in Manchester last week, these nurses were on the front line.
Six months before we were applauding these people, now they cannot protest without being arrested.
David Margeson, via email
Leave Her Majesty alone
WHY are Meghan and Harry getting all this publicity? Feel so sorry for the Queen, she has been a credit to our country and is now 96 years of age, with her husband Philip ill in hospital.
Andrew and Fergie were bad enough, then all this with Meghan and Harry, they are a disgrace – thank goodness for William and Kate.
Let Meghan and Harry live their life in their grand mansion in America, but leave the Queen alone. Loyalist, New Moston
Don’t bear comparison
IT is ridiculous to compare Meghan Markle’s life with the Royals with that of Diana. Diana married a man who loved someone else while one assumes Harry adores Meghan. Diana endured years of misery while Meghan hardly had time to unpack a suitcase.
The main bond between Harry and Meghan is that they both come from dysfunctional families. Around the time of Meghan’s wedding she was criticised heavily by her siblings mainly surrounding the fact their father wasn’t invited. Her father still hasn’t seen his grandchild.
It seems that every female currently supporting Meghan is her best friend, but for how long?
If his marriage should fail in the future one wonders just where that would leave Harry? Silly boy.