I sincerely hope the Heathrow protest stays entirely peaceful. But the police tactics already being deployed seem to be heavy-handed, unnecessarily intimidating and deliberately provocative. Before anyone starts banging on about the terrorist threat and how times have changed, let's just remind ourselves of a couple of facts. There have been many other moments in recent history when police acting on the orders of (then Thatcher ) Gocernment have gone OTT. One was at Greenham Common, when peace protestors ( all female, largely middle-aged and middle-class) were arrested and their camps gradually dispersed and increasing violence. The other was around the same time during the miner's strike in 1984. No left activist over 40 will ever forget the Battle of Orgreave, in which hundreds of mounted police attacked picketing miners at a coking plant. South Yorkshire police were ordered to pay more than £500,000 in damages to 39 miners injured by police.The BBC neatly reversed the TV footage to show the miners first attacking the police and the police then charging. Some things never change, do they?
Posts
