Ha!
Nothing like a ridiculous joke from a police officer to divert the attention away from the dangers of giving too much discretionary powers to the police.
Let's see if you laugh just as hard when you are the victim of the police abusing their broad powers.
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/police-face-integrity-commission-over-attack-20120506-1y76l.html
You don't need audio, and you don't need to be a Sherlock Holmes to see what went on there.
Why was there a band of cops walking down the path, following a bunch of dudes in the first place?
I'd make a wild guess and say they had previously been a problem at the festival, and were being monitored and shadowed by the cops to see what they'd do..
In normal fashion, the boyos - who were probably a bit inebriated and feeling a bit brave, would have been giving the cops a good old mouthful and taunting them.
See it almost every footy game; brave tough heros who think it's cool to pick on cops for simply being there, taunt them and give them a mouthful of obsenities.
So then one of the cops gets that first guy in the addidas shirt and his mate turn and say something to the cop, and then come up to him and be in his space and the cop moves him off, after which all the mates move in. Naturally; the cops are not going to let these fools take control and so move to shut them down as soon as possible.
Cops don't go around and smash dudes or pick on blokes for the fun of it - especially when they know there are cameras at these venues.
The smart@rse dudes always start this stuff. I love it that the cops finish it.
But what the cops do - and I applaud them for it - is single out the troublemaking losers and drunks and takes steps to shut them down.
You can't reason with drunks; they just never know when to shut-up and calm down.
You can argue that the process of shutting them down incites more violence and provokes a situation? Maybe so, but the alternative is to have no police presence anywhere.
It's like the police pursuit argument about whether to chase alleged offenders who flee or not; you're damned if you do; damned if you don't.