YOU'VE BEEN RUMBLED! - National Demo Report
click on image to enlargeYesterday’s national demonstration called by SPEAK saw 500 people march through the streets of Oxford in opposition to the plans by Oxford University to build a new animal torture centre. It was an impressive turnout, particularly given that it was a wet, cold and windy day. Spirits were high and the collective opposition to Oxford University’s plans was self-evident; protesters made it clear that – if necessary - they were prepared to fight the building project every inch of the way.
The demonstration was one of many that have been organised by SPEAK in the two years since the campaign was formed in Oxford. On each occasion, SPEAK have entered into negotiations with the Police, and each time, demonstrations have passed peacefully and without incident. This has been due in no small measure to the discipline and self-restraint shown by protestors, despite provocation on many occasions by Thames Valley Police officers, who were clearly looking for a confrontation.
SPEAK has made it clear from the start of our campaign in Oxford that our fight is with Oxford University and their plans to expand their animal torture facilities, and not with Thames valley Police, yet the police made a mockery of the term unbiased policing during yesterday’s demonstration. Having offered a mutually agreeable route to SPEAK officials at meetings early on in the negotiations 2 months ago and again just last week, they reneged completely on this agreement. In the event, what transpired was the unwarranted and brutal provocation of those participating in the afternoon’s events.
click on image to enlargeAs the demonstration made its way into South Parks Rd, campaigners who had proceeded in an orderly fashion for a quarter of a mile were confronted by barriers across the road into which they had been promised access; the route was further barricaded by a cordon of police. As protestors tried to exercise their democratic right to peacefully protest and get to the allotted meeting area promised to them by Thames Valley Police, they came under a sustained and brutal attack by police officers, who indiscriminately attacked woman, children, the elderly and infirm. Women were thrown to the ground, peaceful protestors were kicked whilst lying on the ground and one campaigner sustained suspected broken ribs. Despite this unprovoked assault on a legitimate protest, the protestors were able to maintain their ground and refused to be intimidated by the attempts of Thames Valley Police to suppress the legal demonstration.
click on image to enlargeThe turn of events did not come as a complete shock, as SPEAK has learnt not to trust a police force in which officers involved in negotiations promise one thing and deliver entirely another on the day, nor indeed to trust a police force being run by two key figures at Oxford University (Lord B, chairman of the local Thames Valley Police Authority, and BS, a local magistrate member), whose influence and pro-Oxford university sympathies are clearly likely to constitute a clear conflict of interest.
Until yesterday’s demonstration, SPEAK had been unable to prove that Thames Valley Police are a police force whose neutrality has been compromised by the influence of Oxford University. SPEAK now have in their possession audio evidence that shows without doubt that the trouble, which erupted at Saturday’s demo, was solely down to the lies of Thames Valley Police force at the earlier meeting. This audio evidence will shortly be made available for people to listen to.
click on image to enlargeThere can be no doubt that the officers present at the last meeting we had with Thames Valley Police on the 5th January were lying to SPEAK members, when they negotiated and agreed to the route the demonstration was to take, and never had any intention of keeping to that agreement. Police had promised that the demonstration would stop outside the partially built animal research laboratory, where we would be allowed to congregate for 30 minutes in order to listen to speakers. The chief police negotiator is clearly heard saying on the audio evidence “It would be unreasonable of us (Thames Valley Police) to say you can’t go to the site (the partially built lab).” At 36 minutes and 10 seconds into the meeting Thames Valley Police negotiator commented: “Good news, you are going to the site”!
click on image to enlargeThere is no doubt that historically, mishandling by police during demonstrations over issues which invoke deep feelings can result in passions being inflamed and people resisting the repressive measures against their legal right to protest in a democracy – indeed, their right as human beings to express a deeply-felt opinion. The police tactics - coupled with the presence of horses, over which we have repeatedly expressed our concerns as being an inflammatory factor – can only lead one to draw the conclusion that their actions on Saturday, were designed for maximum provocation. Hardly the sterling sort of stuff one should expect from an un-corrupt police force…
But who said anything about un-corrupt? For months, we have highlighted numerous incidents in which Thames Valley Police have shown a clear bias in favour of the abusers. Most notoriously, of course, there is their failure – or refusal – to prosecute an Oxford University professor for cruelty to a primate. We have documented two assaults on a 70-year old protestor, witnessed by police officers, who turned a blind eye to both incidents. We have catalogued numerous assaults by police officers on protestors, and just last week were able to photograph police officers dragging a peaceful campaigner from his car – a man who had committed no crime, and whom they later released without charge.
click on image to enlargeThames Valley Police describe their operation against animal rights protestors as “Operation Rumble”. Well, chaps, this time YOU’RE rumbled…so far, you’ve proved that you’re little more than lackeys dancing to the beat of Oxford University’s drum. Isn’t it time you sorted out your code of ethics?
We say once again: we are not here to fight the police – we are here to fight against cruelty. We are here to fight against cruelty to animals on our terms, not according to the twisted dictates of a corrupt institution. The police have proven that they are not prepared to be impartial – that they are not prepared to uphold the law and the rights of individuals to democratic and peaceful protest, and the simple right upon which they themselves agreed – to allow peaceful protesters access to the object of their protest. It is because of their intransigence and their duplicity, and ONLY because of it – that the events of the day were thus marred.
click on image to enlargeThe violence that took place on Saturday should spur us forward; that such events took place can only serve to fuel our determination to forge ahead, for we know BECAUSE of these events that we are tantalisingly close to victory, despite the sluggish resumption of work on the animal abuse lab. We KNOW that such resistance from the authorities is because they fear and know we possess the power to change things. We are the movers and the shakers of the 21st century – ALL OF US – and we can and must stay committed and focussed on our goal – we won in Cambridge, and we can win in Oxford. And the sooner we do that, the sooner we can move onto the next target, and the next, and the next one after that until the words ‘vivisection: abolition of’ are read in history books alongside the story of the movement for the abolition of slavery, many of whose champions were also totally opposed to vivisection.
