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Police attack party in North Wales

undercurrents | 02.09.2004 12:01

Police overuse of force

Weekend party is attacked by riot police in North Wales.

A National Trust-owned car park at Porthor, near Aberdaron, was the site of the unlicensed party for 300 people. The party-goers were told to vacate under section 63 of the Criminal Justice and Order Act.

Despite hundreds of party goers being from Wales, Deputy Chief Constable, Clive Wolfendale blamed people from England saying: “These people, from the south of England, made a disgusting mess of a beautiful part of Penllyn and selfishly denied the use of the area to anyone else."

Reports from the party goers say that Police pepper sprayed children as young as nine, baton charged people and pushed sound systems over a cliff. Police also reportedly smashed video cameras of people filming beatings of fellow ravers.

Three vans containing sound equipment were also seized. Deputy Chief Constable, Clive Wolfendale justified his force by telling a local newspaper,"I hope this has taught them a lesson- that they cannot just come here and flout the law."

Undercurrents is concerned that Police see beatings and excess use of force as a way of teaching people lessons just for having a party.

More on this story as it arises

undercurrents
- Homepage: http://ww.undercurrents.org

Comments

Hide the following 4 comments

Colwyn Bay Massive Attack

02.09.2004 13:45

Racism and violence. and flouting the law. ooh. What do you expect from Wolfendale and his 'Colwyn Bay Massive'.

Note he didn't mention how National Trust go round visting sites of outstanding beauty and wreck them with fences, car parks, extra roads.

Remeber, this is the guy whpo rapped at the Black cops conference -

"So what we bothrin' with this stinkin' institution / No love, no heart, no sense, no proper constitution / No-one loves the coppers cos' we're rotten to the core / Cross between the devil and a governmental whore".

Well I couldn't agree with you more on that Clive.

full rap at

 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/north_west/3664381.stm


Free Harry Roberts


Well what do you expect?

02.09.2004 15:39

"Police pepper sprayed children as young as nine, baton charged people and pushed sound systems over a cliff. Police also reportedly smashed video cameras of people filming beatings of fellow ravers"

Trying to hold a rave in the centre of Najaf - I mean come on!?!

Whoops

No sorry - it was Wales! Easy mistake to make.

Still ...

Perhaps we need to get a bit Moqtada with the filth - cause revenge is certainly brewing up.

I'm still very bitter about the battle of the beanfield - where pregnant women were dragged by their hair through broken windshields and young children siezed by the authorities were treated to the site of their parents being beaten to a pulp before being 'force fed' a diet of burgers to 're-educate them'.

Behead the fuckers and be done with it.

Start with the big pig.



a twisted hate filled veteren of attempts to dance till dawn


coverage by bbc and comments

03.09.2004 01:47

August bank holiday weekend is one of the biggest weekends for raves of the year. This year in the months before the bank holiday two huge 'moot' raves had taken place with upwards of 19 different soundsystems operating (many being joint efforts between different riggs). There was a big effort by police in many counties to mount operations against free parties during the bank holiday weekend - some in advance like blocking off known party locations, many others deploying helicopters and forces on the ground.

Here's a BBC article aboout the party that just tells the polices side of the story and which some people wrote in and complained about:

Three bailed after rave arrests
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/north_west/3612358.stm

The last of the revellers did not leave until lunchtime on Monday

Three people have been released on bail after police tried to break up an illegal rave on the Llyn Peninsula.

Police say around 300 people gathered for last weekend's unlicensed event.

Two men and a woman were arrested for alleged public order offences and aggravated trespass, and the woman also on suspicion of possessing controlled drugs

A police officer suffered an eye injury after being hit by a missile, said North Wales Police.

A force spokeswoman said the party started in the early hours of Saturday in the car park at Whistling Sands, near Aberdaron.

"Incidents of damage, noise from the sound system and high powered lights from the stage were reported," she said.

"Police attended the scene and the organiser of the event was given a direction under section 63 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order act 1994 to quit the land by noon on Sunday.

"It was apparent after the deadline that the police direction was being ignored and officers attended the car park with a view to upholding the law.

"Skirmishes broke-out, the crowd grew hostile and individuals in the crowd started to throw missiles.

Police helicopter

"One officer received a serious eye injury which has resulted in him being hospitalised in Ysbyty Gwynedd, Bangor."

At 0800BST on Monday officers wearing full protective clothing and supported by the police helicopter returned to the site.

"By this time the National Trust beauty spot was strewn with litter and rubbish," added the spokeswoman.

"Police quickly took control of the site and a few minor skirmishes were soon quelled.

"During the morning those attending the rave gradually left the site with the last leaving about 1300BHST."

Deputy chief constable Clive Wolfendale said: "People have made a disgusting mess of a very beautiful part of the Llyn Peninsula.

"This was a planned rave but I am pleased to say North Wales Police officers dealt with it effectively and efficiently."


--------------

comments from a party web forum discussing the bbc article:

Obviously emotions are high after the weekends events, and heightened even more so by the inaccurate reporting in the press. But every press report ive seen for the past year and way before that has been totally inaccurate so this im afraid is certainly nothing new.
The systems are still in the possession of the authorities and legal advice has been sought and steps are taking place as we speak for the safe returnal of all equipment.

---

the only thing that might be written or broadcast in the right way, would be about the 9 year old child being sprayed.

on the other hand though, that could be used against us. ie. the public would never understand why a child was at a rave in the first place.

---

if any one has got footage of that kid being maced then they should report it. coz thats out of order. i saw this guy that was filming the riot police coming into the rave then two of the pigs smashed him up he was bleading. They shouldnt be able to get away with that.

---

we cant let them get away with what they did, it was totally illegal. i hav a few photos of police wiv out there badges on, i think if we get all the evidence together we could really do something. a nine year old boy got cs gasses along with loads of other people, generators got chucked of clifs, many people got batterd for no reason, all equipment got seized with no paperwork n we had packed up, false arrests had taken place, i could go on for ever.
we need to do a few things, we need to get intouch wiv the media, mixmag the bbc and newspapers aswel.
we need to all write a letter to the head of the north wales police, tell them the events which took place and ask for a full appology n compensation where needed

---

the only good system is a soundsystem!


3 party pics from earlier in the summer

03.09.2004 02:06

who invited these guys to the party? in the middle of fucking nowhere!
who invited these guys to the party? in the middle of fucking nowhere!

a nice pre solstice party
a nice pre solstice party

creative but provocative statement
creative but provocative statement

More laws were introduced this year against rave parties.
Some get away with it, others don't :(

Always clean up your rubbish, like many do :)

bass bin


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