HOME | IMC UK | Editorial Guidelines | Mission Statement | About Us | Contact | Help | Support Us

Oxford Indymedia

Oxford police left standing as animal rights protesters run rings around them.

FTP | 28.01.2006 23:28 | Animal Liberation | Repression | Oxford

Billed as the latest large scale protest in the city following the resumption of building at the controversial new animal laboratory on South Parks Road, the animal rights protestors today adopted diversionary and autonomous tactics that left the police panicking.

Last month a similar event resulted in five arrests when the police went back on their word in negotiations over the permitted route, by penning in th 650 protesters. Of those arrests four have since had their charges dropped, including the individual who was kicked in the balls in the cells. There was considerable embarrassment for the police when mp3 recordings of the negotiations were released on an activist website.

In the last week there has been a notable rise in harassment of protesters by the police, often desperate to find out what was planned for today. Following several clear cases of bad faith on behalf of Thames Valley Police all contact has been cut and the lack of information has caused them to be wrongfooted.

Today several groups of protesters assembled. Large groups marched to the laboratory and back, while others stayed in town and carried out protests against Vodaphone and other university targets. Police had to resort to imposing a section 14 order over the entirety of Oxford but it had little effect.

One group started outside the Said Business School and gave the police the slip with a march into town. Several mounted police were seen galloping through the town knocking passerbys to the side, as their radios carried desperate commands to prevent the activists reaching the centre.

At Vodaphone one individual was arrested for handing out leaflets while the several officers, an inspector among them, roughed up several females and forced them into the corral created on Market Street.

Meanwhile several other autonomous groups took independent action and visited a large number of university buildings to ensure the message was heard by everyone. They repeatedly lost the police, blending in and reappearing at random.

There was one arrest at 5pm for a section 5 offence, the police apparently disliking an image on a poster. Both arrested individuals are now released.

Activists have left the city on a high note, feeling that they have achieved a considerable amount in spreading their message through out the public and university. The police paid the price for their previous deception, having lost the goodwill of the protesters, and were made to look fools instead.

Future protests are planned along with the weekly Thursday afternoon protests at the site. For more information see www.speakcampaigns.org.uk

FTP

Comments

Display the following 17 comments

  1. Well... — pro-science
  2. Oh, — pro-science
  3. What are you on about......? — Gary B
  4. well done — pro-science
  5. Pro Science — Alan B Stard
  6. Gary B, — pro-science
  7. visibility — *
  8. re: pro-science — jools
  9. Article pretty biased — John Boy
  10. Horses — Tofu Liberation Front
  11. response on horses — FTP
  12. Delusional enslaved front — Mick
  13. In response — Vegan Liberation Front
  14. foolish boy VLF — FTP
  15. get our priorities straight — common sense
  16. Inspector Morse is Not The Oxford Police — ARC
  17. priorities — Ed Rolls
Publish your news
-->

Kollektives

Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World

Other UK IMCs
Bristol/South West
London
Northern Indymedia
Scotland

Oxford 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

IMCs


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