It seems incredible that the police in London could be seen as restricting liberty, not being liberty’s protector, however, Reith stated that “dislike of police existence and opposition to it for varying reasons united the citizens of London . . . ”. Both Parliament and Press attacked the New Police. In Parliament, Reith wrote that “the Whigs had . . . consistently opposed for nearly a century all proposals for the creation and establishment of police, and had blindly made themselves the mouthpiece in Parliament of nationwide hostility to the idea of police . . . ”. An example of the campaign waged in the Press was, they  “accused [the police] of ignoring the presence in the streets of drunkards and prostitutes, and when remedial action by policemen was reported they were depicted as tyrants who molested helpless men and poor, pathetic women”.  The product of this antagonism was that “ . . . there occurred in the autumn of 1830 the first of a long series of riots deliberately organized for the purpose of driving the police from the streets and increasing the public demand for their disbandment by making their presence in the streets impossible”. The violence climaxed in the Cold-Bath Fields Riot of 1833where one policeman lost his life and several others were injured; “public opinion, fickle as ever, veered in favour of the police”.  From that point on, the police enjoyed an ever growing popularity. When Peel died in 1850 he “had lived long enough to see his creation, the Metropolitan Police, wear down the public opposition that assailed it in its infancy and become a national institution”