What do you have to do to get arrested?

When Canadian Tamils recently occupied the Gardiner Expressway in Toronto, I held my breath. Not because I was worried about what they might do, but because I was worried about what the police might do. Canadian police have occasionally used more force than necessary to deal with protestors. In the end, the situation on the Gardiner was handled well by the police. In Britain, however, there is reason for pessimism about how police plan to treat future protests of an environmental nature, as George Monbiot discusses in this op-ed.