The right to manifest and use of police force

Abstract

: individual or popular demonstration constitutes an inalienable fundamental right. It is, therefore, one of the bases of a solidified Democratic State of Law. However, not infrequently, conflicts arise between protesters and public security forces. It is therefore important to understand how both rights, the right to protest and the right to social protection, can coexist or, in the event of conflicts, how to proceed with the least possible side effect. In this sense, the present work aims, primarily, to analyze the use of the police force in the face of popular demonstrations. As general objectives, the following were considered to present what the right to freedom of popular expression and its limits consists of; discuss how mass phenomena occur; raise the theoretical-academic discussion about the use of police force in popular demonstrations. This is a theoretical work, so the methodology used was a search in the specialized literature on the phenomenon investigated here. The conclusion reached after the study was that the limits of the rights underlying the demonstration are the main legitimizers of the use of police force. However, the psychological knowledge of how mass phenomena occur is necessary for a more salutary guide to the use of this force, used only as a last resort.