between a rock and a hard place

Sir Mark said his officers "had reasonable grounds to believe an offence had been committed," but that police more broadly had "been left between a rock and a hard place" when investigating online speech.

Sounds like Collier’s stand has put Burrows between a rock and a hard place.

Santi Camacho, who rarely attended church before the raids, said immigrant communities everywhere are finding themselves stuck between a rock and a hard place: facing possible arrest during worship, or hiding in their homes until they potentially subside.

"For the past year and a half, Arab society found itself between a rock and a hard place in the sense that on one hand, they're suffering from the policies of the current government, and on the other hand, they're seeing their brothers and sisters in Gaza and in the West Bank suffering because of the war," he says.

"They're stuck between a rock and a hard place," Mr Lau said.