A piper in Scotland putting them to great use!
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newsvideo/viral-video/11878006/Bagpiper-drowns-out-hate-preacher-in-Fife-Scotland.html
Priceless. 
But as far as the text at the very last goes, I must regretfully put on my pedant’s hat: The word “desist” as I know it is used along much the same lines as the word “cease”, rather than “stop”. One does not desist (cease) someone; one desists in one’s own actions, a frequent form being that one desists in, or from, doing something. Or you just simply desist, the something being already implied. So it would have been better to say that the police arrived presumably to get the fellow to desist (although from the writing it wasn’t absolutely clear whether it was the preacher or the piper who was expected to quit what he was doing. 
).
All right. Buzzkill over.
Well played, piper… well played.
True and interesting! Yes cease, desist, refrain, and abstain imply an action of the doer; constrain and impede are something done to the would-be doer. Stop goes either way, doesn’t it?
Have you read The Stuff Of Thought? A fascinating book entirely about this sort of thing.
No, but now I might have to.
I will confess that I’m embarrassed I brought it up, being well aware of the difference between the letter and the spirit of a thing. But journalism is an area that I’ve always looked to as a reliable exemplar of informed usage. Guess I’m going to have to learn to get over that.