Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Police Prevent Essential Supplies From Reaching Activists

Brad Day | 31.08.2006 15:46 | Climate Camp 2006 | Climate Chaos | Ecology | Repression

During Climate Camp's Day of Mass Action at Drax Power Station fellow activists attempted to get water and food to dehydrated activists stood on the perimeter fence. However, police refused access to the nessecery footpath meaning the supplies couldn't reach them. It demonstrates the heavily unreasonable police presence during the whole camp.

Many of Climate Change Activists set off to Drax power station on mass on the morning of the 31st of August. They initially took a complex route, in order to confuse police actions, meaning they were trecking over fences and across many rough and muddy fields. The police presence was large but calm, but the route exhausting. Food and Water supplies quickly dried up and the group radioed the camp requesting some be sent down as soon as possible. A small group of people walked down from the camp carrying the required supplies. As they reached the footpath directly leading to the activists' whereabouts they were greeted by an overwhelming array of a dozen police vans and many bored looking officers wandering aimlessly.

The small group of water carriers approached the police in a friendly manner explaining honestly the reason for their visit. However the police were very blunt in their insistence that the public right of way had been closed for the day. This was apparently under Section 14, a rare law that means people are unable to access certain areas. It was implemented to avoid protesters reaching the perimeter fence and gaining access to the power station. However, the protesters had already reached the perimenter fence by outwitting the police. Upon arriving at the police point, the water carriers attempted to reason with the police and explain that they were going to return straight after the water was delivered. They even went as far as offering to be accompanied by a police escort. It was unbelievable that the police did not except this proposal. Not only would it have worked in their favour, in terms of finding out the location of the activists, but by refusing they were failing in their duty to secure the safety of all citizens. They claimed to be keeping the peace, but the water carriers offered no obstruction to peace as their only concern was to ensure the safety of fellow activists.

One of the water carriers felt so strongly about the stupity of the situation that she attempted to cross the police line. However, despite only attempting to cross peacefully, she was promptly arrested for Breaching the Peace. The individual officers, from my perspective, were not being unduly forceful and remained calm. However the whole situation stunk of an over-centralised police operation where the high commanders in the institution were having little regard for sense of community or civil liberties.

This has been a common theme of the police's approach this week. Even some of the police on the ground have admitted the futility of some of the orders placed on them. The operation has been excessively massive and has wasted masses of public money that could have been spent on wind farms or alievating poverty. The police officers were correct in their analysis that they were only obeying orders. However, such orders were completely inappropiate and mostly irrelevant. The main point of this camp for me is to reach people and welcome them on board in the fight against places like Drax and Climate Change. The camp has put a lot of focus into being warm to visitors and offer them a chance to learn and be inspired. However, the first thing visitors to the camp recieve is masses of police taking their picture, searching them and viewing them with suspicion. It implies Climate Change is only a movement for criminals, and nothing could be further from the truth. If the government is so worried about our direct action then maybe it could respond by putting in place the long term changes needed to prevent Climate Chaos.

Brad Day
- e-mail: curious-tale@hotmail.co.uk

Comments

Hide the following 3 comments

Policing of environmental politics

31.08.2006 18:11

Totally agree, Brad - I would hate to do a job where I had to follow such orders. The point is made!

Tom Hellberg
- Homepage: http://tom@ecoworriers.ord


??

01.09.2006 02:21


Food and water supplies quickly dried up, the route was exhausting.... the camp was thirty minutes walk behind the PowerStation!!! What’s wrong with you people you exaggerate every situation, we have 2000 protesters coming, no wait a minute we really only have 600. Were going to close Drax down, or hang on were just going to lock on to some lighting towers completely non essential to the system. How can you ever expect to achieve credibility when everything is so over the top. Like it's wrong that police were present in such large numbers and the tax payers should be angry about this....... I hate to have to tell you this but I'm a tax payer and I'd rather pay them to do what they have done and go home to a house where my lights and heating work than let you bunch of loons run round a 4000MW PowerStation threatening supplies. The police told you that the right of way had been closed under section 14, then shock and horror when you ignore them they arrest you for it, what did you expect?

??


arresting details

02.09.2006 19:01

Dear ??
Just so you know, no charges were brought against the person arrested as they had broken no law - yet another 'false arrest'. People have to stand up to these cops as they are making up the rules as they go along,
As for going back to your uninterrupted life of power consumption, I understand that your feelings come from ignorance and fear. I hope you are able to grasp the seriousness of our situation before your house is swept away in a hurricane or flood. And when your grandchildren ask you what YOU did to stop climate chaos, I wonder what you will answer...


Cleanairplease


Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech