I can easily see this being true. Police presence in P Square was very heavy and on occasions over jealous. Tonight I have witnessed the police launch two batton attacks against the protesters at the front of the crowd for trying to cross the police line - the protesters were trying to cross the line because the police behind them were pushing the crowd forward leaving the mostly very peacful demonstrators nowhere to go. I also saw one policeman get hit over the front of the head although as it was during scuffles on the front line of the crowd it's not clear if he was hit by a demonstrator or by a fellow police office's baton. I think it's very clear that just as the crowd contained a few troublemakers, the police contained a few officers who were hoping for a good fight. Lucky on the whole, they didn't get it.

I was part of the group that followed the samba band out of the square and marched up Victoria. Once the group was some distance from the square, 6 police vans pulled up behind the crowd, and lines of police walked quickly past the sides of the marchers in order to get in front of them and to block the side streets. The route was completely blocked by police in the front, and the crowd was quickly hemmed in. The band kept playing, but there was clearly no way out for the couple of thousand marchers. A mobile sound system was pushed up from the back, and things got quite packed. A single line of police blocked one of the side streets, and when it was clear that there was going to be no way out, a group of th crowd pushed against the police line. They locked arms and managed to stop about 3 crowd surges. Many of the police looked frightened and were screaming at the protestors to get back. I saw a couple of police use their fists and they were clearly trying to hurt people rather than simply stop them passing. I stuck my hands over my head and just pushed through, and managed to break through the police line with about 5 other people. I saw 2 vans with bars over the windows headed towards the line of cops, and decided to walk around back to the square rather than get picked up. When I got to the square, many people had left but there were still many cops blocking every street. Some of the protestors were using brooms and their hands to clean up the litter on the square. I helped out and then left, and as I was leaving, the band was headed back towards the square with a crowd of people. They hit another line of police, but by this stage I was behind the police line and decided to leave
Most of the police behaved themselves, but shame on the ones that took the opportunity to throw a free punch.

at 7.15ish i was walking up bridge street going towards parliament sq. i walked in between a barrier and a police van and got two steps further. several police officers jumped on me from behind and pushed me to the ground, handcuffed me causing injuries to my head and nose. they held me on the ground. i said i just wanted to get to the demo. i was kept in handcuffs near railings and as i continued to express my opposition to the war, he pushed me up against the railings. i was not violent in any way. because of my continuous discussion about the horror of war the officer said that he was going to "dearrest" me but now he wouldn't. i went to charing x police station where all police bar 2 were extremely rude. one ok officer apologised for my arrest saying some officers get "over excited". i was held until 2.50 am and charged with being disorderly whilst drunk. i had had 3 pints at lunchtime and i think they are confusing disorderly with being angry about the war. i was not violent in any way, the only violence was against me. i never used to feel that bad about the police but this experience has changed my feeling forever. well done boys!