Who polices the police in New South Wales? Because I want my rights back; the right not to be arrested on the basis of a hunch, the right to walk unaccosted by police sniffer dogs, and the right not to be shot by killer Taser guns for alleged ‘non-compliance’ directions.

Police shouldn’t arrest anyone, stasi-style, enforce police-station bag searches, or issue statements full of fibs about “the suspect looking furtively as we approached”, if they’d only paid a café bill while quickly searching for change. This fiasco only led to one person being late for an appointment with, ironically, a Minister in the government which introduced the law. This risible rule was imposed as an ‘anti-terrorist’ measure but fails to protect law-abiding citizens. It was rightly ridiculed by the ABC’s, The Chaser, who circumvented it. And Magna Carta 1215 enshrines my right to Habeas Corpus, the right not to be falsely imprisoned without trial.

And I object to a wet nose in my crotch if a police puppy, with all the intelligence of a sock puppet, thinks I may possess a drug. The only drug I take is a short black coffee. The independent NSW Ombudsman says this approach has proven to be ineffective. So if a junkie brushes past me leaving a micro-trace of some substance as I rush home through Kings Cross, I am guilty until proven innocent. This is not right.

And now I may be shot by a 50,000 volt Taser gun if I don’t comply with police directions. Police shoot to kill, but are Tasers really necessary? Ample other methods exist such as hand-cuffs, batons, capsicum spray, tear gas, shields and a $700,000 water canon that can blow you away at 50 paces (and still never used), and their Glock 22 gun, a NATO force-approved killer firing 15 snub-nosed, .40 calibre bullets semi-automatically, even underwater. Cops are a cop-out if they can’t get some semblance of law and order with all this kit.

Tasers are directly linked to 350 deaths say Amnesty International, and electrocute muscles and neurons. The name derives from a fictional character, Thomas A Swift and his Electric Rifle, based on an early English 20th century adventure story.

No known study proves that those with high blood pressure or mental illness are safe, so for those shot more than once, death draws nearer. This kill-first-think-later policy means innocent victims can’t give any evidence: the dead don’t talk, a convenient truth for some. And in July 2009, NSW Police tasered a protester (The Hub August 6-19 page 7). The man burst into flames and died. An investigation is yet to report on whether police acted properly.

But there’s no point trying to march in protest because I can’t legally protest on streets or footpaths without, you guessed it, police permission. My colleague lodged a request, circa 2001, for a small street table to collect signatures to save a heritage building. There’s been no response yet.

My jurisprudential rights outweigh police desires for more powers, but police are demanding more and more of my money to give themselves more and more powers they can’t handle.