flee under police protection

0Your narrative describes an unlikely scenario. There are too many disconnected ideas - not enough information to make sense of it. 02br
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00Your first choice is ambiguous, but I know what you mean. Your second offering is the more likely of the two, but I can't picture it happening in the US.02br
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00"Police escort" is the term we'd use for an im

0Avangi, here's the full context. Please let me know if police protection is what native speakers would say in the sentence.02br
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00Yet critics say they are worried it will target people who legally live and work in Italy.02br
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00Frustration with illegal immigrants turned to rage last week when an angry mob attacked a Roma gypsy camp outside of Nap

0under police protection - means that you are being looked after, safeguarded, kept secure by the police.02br
00It can mean a police escort, but this involves movement which you have in your example.02br
00It can also mean that you are kept safe, hidden, perhaps in a safe house containing police officers 0-

0Yes, I'd say "police protection" is appropriate here, and would be the natural expression. It sounds like a police "presence" was well established when the evacuation took place, and it was probably done under police direction02br
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00The thing that threw me with the sentence in isolation was the unlikely use of "flee" describing an action under police control. It sound

0I'm afraid I don't understand what threw you off. Could you elaborate a bit so in the future, if I ever write something like this, I'll know what to watch out?02br
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00Thanks0-

0I believe the problem arises in that the word "flee" sounds like a VERY rapid event, something that is not organized. Having the police there to protect them sounds like something that needs to be organized in advance. So having someone "flee" but be "under police protection" seems like an unlikely combination. 0-

0To me, "flee" evokes an image of total panic and chaos, while a police-ordered evacuation is supposed to be orderly. I picture people fleeing an erupting volcano - the police included.02br
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00I don't mean to suggest that we haven't had our share of riots in the US. I was caught in the middle of the one following the Rodney King trial. The police are sometimes helpl

0That's a good point. So, what do you think of this combination after looking at the full context? If it's acceptable, what information given by the context makes it possible?0-

0Excellent question. I'll get back to it. BTW, I don't know why I said "Rodney King trial." The officers who beat and kicked him were on trial, and were acquitted.0-

0The preamble to the torching made it clear that this was a desperate situation and the evacuation must have been impromptu. I've heard stories of people torching places to force the occupants to "flee" so they could be attacked or possibly shot. The Gypsies had to flee both the flames and the rioters. Since the police were there, they would naturally do whatever they could to protect the fle