Loki Posted October 19, 2011 Share Posted October 19, 2011 Right, so because of the violent resistance of the protesters, the police have been called in to make arrests. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Posted October 19, 2011 Author Share Posted October 19, 2011 Right, so because of the violent resistance of the protesters, the police have been called in to make arrests. It would appear so. The plan to get attention and kick up as much of a stink, not to mention ensure that the police & local authorities have as much trouble as possible seems to be working a treat though! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KrAzY Posted October 19, 2011 Share Posted October 19, 2011 The police are dealing with the protestors though who are not being evicted because they do not live there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Houchen Posted October 19, 2011 Share Posted October 19, 2011 Because everyone resisting is being violent, including anyone chained to a scaffold? What are they doing, flicking their hair in a threatening manner? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members ReturnOfTheMack Posted October 19, 2011 Paid Members Share Posted October 19, 2011 (edited) I think people are saying that the police are doing the actual evicting. But whats the line between evicting and making removing people to keep the peace? I think the police are trying to tread that line. Baddly. Â edit: or as David said. Edited October 19, 2011 by ReturnOfTheMack Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dynamite Duane Posted October 19, 2011 Share Posted October 19, 2011 (edited) The way this is going, one of these protesters is going to die, and it'll be entirely their own fault. Regardless of who's fault it is, once a protester dies (again) at the hands of the police, things will kick of big-time in this country, especially if it's filmed or even televised. The current climate in this country isn't geared towards forgiving the authorities for such things. Â It's also worth considering that the protesters have actually won regardless of this outcome. Once another travelling community beds itself in, will the local authorities be willing to go through all of this again? The protesters more than likely will be. Violence on the streets is playing into their hands, it's the old problem, reaction, solution - leading to more Acts of government imposed, more heavily armed police and calls for the army to get involved etc. All protests need to remain non-violent. Edited October 19, 2011 by Dynamite Duane Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
big mickey Posted October 19, 2011 Share Posted October 19, 2011 "No Ethnic Cleansing" Â Steady on! Let's not overreact lol!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Posted October 19, 2011 Author Share Posted October 19, 2011 I've fixed that post for you, Mickey. You forgot something. Â "No Ethnic Cleansing"Â Steady on! Let's not overreact lol!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magnum Posted October 19, 2011 Share Posted October 19, 2011 I don't pretend to know the whole history of the dispute, but the whole thing has me feeling uneasy. All a bit stormtroopery for my liking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Posted October 19, 2011 Author Share Posted October 19, 2011 (edited) I don't pretend to know the whole history of the dispute, but the whole thing has me feeling uneasy. All a bit stormtroopery for my liking. Regardless of the legality of it all, it reminds me of the last time we had a 'Tory Government. In fact, there are many things we're experiencing now that remind me of those days. Edited October 19, 2011 by David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
big mickey Posted October 19, 2011 Share Posted October 19, 2011 On the one hand I kind of feel a bit bad about the residents themselves  However watching the activists get tazed, shoved around and arrested was good fun Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Posted October 20, 2011 Author Share Posted October 20, 2011 (edited) However watching the activists get tazed, shoved around and arrested was good fun A bit like us watching you lot getting treated the same on your marches? Except more people enjoy seeing that, obviously.  The editorial in todays Morning Star makes for interesting reading;  Politicians who defend the use of massed riot police to enforce the eviction of Dale Farm residents should consider the effect of televised images on Britain's reputation. If this had happened in a country that our government disapproved of, David Cameron would have denounced state violence and ethnic cleansing.  But he and his apologists seek to portray Dale Farm as an issue of law and order based on the traveller community's refusal to follow normal legal paths.  This cosy myth ignores the reality that, despite decades of anti-racist legislation, discrimination against Gypsies and Irish travellers remains widespread and largely unpunished.  A modern, inclusive society ought to be able to tolerate small communities that follow their own culture, provided that this does not harm the rest of society.  That was the reasoning behind the Labour government's 2004 Housing Act obliging local councils to provide traveller sites to enable an itinerant culture to flourish alongside its settled counterpart.  Unfortunately, anti-traveller prejudice led many councils, largely Tory, to ignore their legal responsibilities and to direct Travellers to sites in neighbouring council areas.  Those who pontificate about Gypsies and travellers having to abide by the same laws as the rest of the society should explain why they remained silent when some councils flouted the law by not providing sites.  This was particularly so in Essex where there was effectively a blanket rejection of all traveller applications for a site, resulting in no legal pitches being provided for a decade.  It is not surprising that, faced with this institutionalised racism, some travellers chose to buy land and build their homes before applying for planning permission.  Far from this being an outlandish peculiarity of the Traveller community, it happens frequently with regard to housing construction and extensions or alterations to existing structures.  Planning authorities then have the choice of giving backdated approval or of ordering demolition and restitution.  In 80 per cent of cases, backdated approval is agreed, but this falls when the applicants are travellers to just 10 per cent.  Basildon Tory council leader Tony Ball has personalised the Dale Farm situation, promising non-traveller residents last year that he would either push through the evictions by this autumn or resign his position.  He and his council portray their anti-traveller stance as a defence of the green belt, although they have approved other applications for housing on green-belt land by non-traveller interests.  Additionally, although Dale Farm is classified as green belt, the site is actually based on a former scrap yard.  It is as though Essex Tories, in demanding the eviction of Dale Farm residents without planning permission, have taken a deliberate decision to provoke a confrontation with them for political reasons to show that they can act tough against a national minority.  This assessment is strengthened by the well-publicised agreement of the Prime Minister to cough up Edited October 20, 2011 by David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members SpursRiot2012 Posted October 20, 2011 Paid Members Share Posted October 20, 2011 The Morning Star never makes for interesting reading. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobbins Posted October 20, 2011 Share Posted October 20, 2011 The Guardian leader is worth a read. Highlighting the failures of local authorities to provide anywhere near sufficient sites for travellers in accordance with human rights law.  http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/20...rm-pitch-battle  The scenes from Dale Farm yesterday morning were stomach-churning. The vivid images that will stay in the mind were of young mothers fleeing with babies in their arms, of old ladies frightened faces lit by blazing fires. Violence of this kind demands explanation. On the face of it, the case is entirely straightforward. The Travellers have broken planning laws by setting up, albeit on land they owned, homes for which they do not have planning permission. Basildon council's right to send in the bailiffs has been exhaustively contested in the courts. Although the strength of yesterday's police response, which included the first ever use of tasers in crowd control, will raise difficult questions, the proportionate use of force was sanctioned in law: and it should be remembered that the sympathisers with the Travellers, if not the Travellers themselves, were ready to use force too. There is almost nothing good to be said for the long and miserable saga that has culminated in the eviction of 80 families from their homes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Posted October 20, 2011 Author Share Posted October 20, 2011 The Guardian leader is worth a read. Highlighting the failures of local authorities to provide anywhere near sufficient sites for travellers in accordance with human rights law. Surely anyone with at least a few brain cells must realise that the phrase 'Human Rights' and the UK don't really go together? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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