> Everything you quoted makes it sound like an overtly anti-freedom power grab meant to meet a minimum of resistance, and implemented specifically to control protestors at an event that was planned for months.

I agree that that is the government's intention. I'm not sure the police are that smart.

> I'm not sure what you're trying to say with "I'm not a supporter of the current government BUT" - it seems like the quote explains perfectly how bad it is.

In pointing to a commentary that hypothesises that the rapid introduction of the legal powers may partly explain the police's heavy-handed behaviour, I'm not trying to excuse either the govt or the police. The may be multiple factors at work here: government authoritarianism, police complicity with that authoritarianism, and also police confusion.