a good turnout for a friday with glorious sunshine and lots of strange men in dresses. =0)
sam did an excellent job of arganising the sounds , thanks to everyone else who helped make it another great day out. saw at least one international film crew there alongside many other more local reporters.
ive included the photo of the chap getting arrested after the supposed asault , from what i saw all he did was knock a coppers hat off with a gentle tap from behind , they hate this though so they'll call it asault. the police were manhandling someone at the time and were well out of order with their tactics for the day.
there was also a dangerous amount of incompetance shown by the horse handlers , who struggled to control their mounts most of the time. (from what i hear these horses were drafted in from sheffield for the day.) the police were doing their usual tactics of stopping and starting the procession and were refusing to move on until the people who wanted to use the footpath caught up woth the rest of the demo , we were told we would be arrested if we went in front of the horses but eventually *someone* pushed past and we all followed. one of the policemen was so bad on his horse that he was dismounted at one point and due to their bad handling and "holding back" on the reins the horses were jittery and nervous and at one time jumped backwards into a couple of demonstrators. the lack of control of the officers could have ended up in a serious injury for the people behind them.
there was one fantastic moment when the guy who was arrested for masking up escaped from the back of the van and a quick chase ensued across the menwith countryside with a string of about ten coppers in a line chasing this one guy who was running hell for leather towards the moors and freedom. =0)

one thing that bothers me is that the police closed of the public footpaths that we have always used before, they would give no reason for doing this , would not explain under what law they were doing it , nor would they say what we would be charged with if we crossed their line. im sure they cant just close footpaths like this. anyone want to enlighten me?

increase the peace, weapons of mass.

XXXxpyda