There are always people ready to explain why police violence is justified and why protesters should simply do as they are told. Which is rather ironic. These are often the same people who invoke Magna Carta whenever their own liberties are threatened, as though our rights were handed down from above by benevolent rulers. They weren't. Magna Carta was largely a settlement between a king and his barons. The broader freedoms ordinary people possess were fought for across centuries: through the Peasants' Revolt, the Levellers, the Glorious Revolution, the Chartists, the trade union movement and the suffragettes. Authority rarely woke up one morning and decided the people deserved more power. This footage comes from the protests in Paris. An eyewitness on the ground claimed: “𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐝𝐢𝐝𝐧'𝐭 𝐝𝐨 𝐚𝐧𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐝 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐰𝐞 𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐠.” What we do know is that hundreds of thousands demonstrated across France, that much of Saturday's protesting was peaceful, and that French riot police charged crowds and used tear gas and water cannon during clashes in Paris. Whatever you think of the protesters' politics, the principle matters. The right to protest means very little if it exists only while the state approves of what you are protesting about. Every generation enjoys rights secured because somebody before them refused to know their place. The serf was supposed to obey. The worker was supposed to obey. The woman without the vote was supposed to obey. We are supposed to obey. Fortunately, enough people refused. We may have exchanged the legal status of subjects for that of citizens, but the expectation that ordinary people should know their place has proved remarkably persistent. And that authoritarian instinct is found on both the left and the right. Too many will defend the right to protest when it's their tribe on the streets, yet applaud the heavy hand of the state when it's their political opponents. Governments are supposed to serve the people, not the other way round. And rights are not rights at all if they only apply to people we agree with. I have a deep admiration for the United States, its Founding Fathers and what they set out to achieve. And yes, I'm well aware that America has often struggled to live up to those founding ideals, both historically and today. But that doesn't make the principles themselves any less worthy. And I don't think anyone expressed the principle of democracy better than Abraham Lincoln when he spoke of government "of the people, by the people, for the people". That principle should belong to every democracy, including ours. Not government by a wealthy and powerful few, serving the interests of an oligarchy while ordinary people are expected to know their place, keep their heads down and obey. And when those in power forget who serves whom, protest is how the people remind them. 𝑾𝒆 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒄𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒛𝒆𝒏𝒔, 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒔𝒆𝒓𝒗𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒆. 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒈𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒏𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒊𝒔 𝒔𝒖𝒑𝒑𝒐𝒔𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒂𝒏𝒔𝒘𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒐 𝒖𝒔, 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒔𝒊𝒍𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆. @PaulKnaggs, The Heartlands Tribune