Blocking access to a small town politician

[artifactsofmars]

We had a big political fight years ago and we were at a town meeting, which turned rather raucous near the end of the meeting. It was pandemonium to say the least with people in gorilla masks and a high level of acrimony.
The town politicians had the cops in there in force and at one point I was physically blocked by a sheriff's deputy even though I never intended to do anything but go forward. I was not hit or anything like that. It seems to me that was wrong though I did not press anything and I especially thought that it was inappropriate to have cops there in force when we are supposed to have free access to our own government. What do you think of this issue? Did they do something illegal?

[JoshTheBoss]

I don't really think that what they did was illegal. In the end, they just want to do their job and go home at the end of the night. They are trained to prevent crime as well as enforce the law. Sometimes this includes using force to "control the crowd" so that things don't keep escalating. The problem is that sometimes it goes too far.

[Esperahol]

To protect and to serve doesn't mean allowing the lynching of some idiot civil servants. It mean keeping the peace and forming a barrier to lawlessness. So, yeah they were doing their job and nothing wrong seems to have gone down.

[Jatelo2]

You have your right to freely access the government services and the service deliverers, that remains unchallenged. However the police have a duty also to regulate your mode of access, especially if it might endanger the life of the service deliverer. So nothing wrong. Both were doing your duties: You want access while the Sheriff want to ensure safety of another citizen.

[Nicky2013]

Too bad you guys don't live in New York. We have so many outlets and platforms here to bash our political people it's crazy. Radio. tv call in shows, meetings, or protests.