Police becoming "society thugs" because they made them do push-ups?
Push-ups don't equate to police thuggery!
Give me a break!
I think you misundertood what I'm suggesting. I'm not saying that making a group of what we're told were the culprits do a few push-ups by the curb makes the attending officers "society thugs." No, what I'm trying to impress is that if this became the norm, thus chipping away at the notion of due process, we could end-up in a situation where the police become a law unto themselves.
I still stand by what I said... the Police is there to enforce Law and Order after all.
And I think you must allow the Police a margin of freedom, a certain leeway in their actions.
Indeed they are. But in this case they went beyond their official remit by passing sentence, which they're forbidden from doing.
Either way, in part I agree with you, in the sense that a slap across the face or a blow to the gut frees-up a lot of time and resources. Except in this case it was public, showing passers-by what happens if you piss-off the police, not break the law. Civilian complacency in the face of such a seemingly derelict attitude towards due process can potentially lead to the police becoming a potentially criminal nuisance themselves.