to not believe she has no face

[moogster1a]

Listening to the "travellers" who are being evicted at long last and one of them said her sister has been beaten so badly by the police that she " now has no face left".
Another said the police set fire to a caravan.
These sound rational trustworthy people not prone to exaggeration.

Check the rule book again booyhoo

booyhoo presumably you should have some mode of transportation. As 'traveller' is a term describing your lifestyle, you should have some evidence that you can support that lifestyle.

A scooter with a tent strapped to the handlebars would suffice. But you can't stand in a pre-fabricated bungalow and call yourself a traveller.

there's a traveller/settled people rule book? what if i am a settled person who also owns a caravan?

wel in that case you cant go on holiday and call yourself a settled person. and who exactly have we to provide this 'evidence' to?

Well, they will be moved on by tomorrow I guess.

booy then by definition you are a 'settled person who also owns a caravan'. In the same way that I'm a 'settled person who also owns socks'.

So will be 'travelling' whether they like it or not!

poms that was tongue in cheek. i dont actually need to be told that i am a settled person who also owns a caravan (if indeed i did own a caravan)

I know it was tongue in cheek. As was my reply. Hence the socks.

this is a funny thread.

Dale farm is an illegal site that has taken over 10 years and untolled ammounts of resources to put right.

Travellers are not a race, just a group of people choosing a life style ( one which i like the sound of to an extent except i love my creature comforts).

I grew up next to a settled traveller site, went to school with them and had no bother, nice people all in all. (they did stop us in the evenings and offer to fight us for £5. If we said no we were left alone).

There was a fun fair run by travellers that came once a year but due to the troubles, fights, rapes that happended when it came then it got banned.

As a whole you do get criminals and nob heads in ever walk of life.

This was never going to end well was it.

I feel very sorry for some of the travellers. The community at Dale Farm has existed for such a long time I can understand why they feel it is unfair to evict them.

But at the same time if the community was allowed to continue, it would set a precedent. It would be no different from someone building a house without the necessary planning permission and therefore setting a precedent for home builders all over the country to do the same thing.

I also feel very sorry for the police (some of whom will also have sympathy with the travellers) who can't do right for doing wrong in situations like these. They're just doing a job. They didn't pass the decision to evict.

If you are faced by a bunch of angry people protecting their homes (as they see it) and hurling missiles at you, it must be very scary, even if you are trained in handling this sort of thing. If someone approaches you brandishing a weapon, you are going to use it to defend yourself because the stark reality is it is either you or them.

The only lesson to be learned from this is that more public land needs to be set aside for travelling communities. This problem isn't going to go away otherwise.

Whatever the rights and wrongs of it, there's something I find deeply unsettling in watching riot police evicting families from their home. I get it that it is an illegal site, that they've had chances to leave freely etc, but it must be distressing for the apolitical people who have lived there for a decade with their kids. Also, wrt the posts about increased crime and mess etc from travellers, surely this doesn't solve this problem (if it exists)? The travellers will still exist, they'll just be even further disenfranchised from the rest of the community.

I don't think anyone is aginst more land being provided for them, as long as they pay tax and don't increase the crime rate and make a mess.

The people trying to live at Dale Farm have been offered other accomodation, they just consider themselves to be above the law.

its a shame that they have to use police who have to wear protective gear in order to undertake their job.

Now i would argue that the need would not be there if they al left peacfully but they havent, in fact there are a number of rioters there causeing trouble. It is only fair we allow the police to protect themselves from harm.

Riot police are NOT evicting anyone!! Please get it right

Sorry, I did put that badly. I mean to say that it must be pretty bloody scary for those people who aren't particularly political, who feel obliged to stay because their parents and relatives are and because they feel they are protecting their home. Of course the police should protect themselves against violence, I wasn't suggesting otherwise.

The whole situation has been allowed to go on too long.

i have been a public order enforcer (NI Riots). it is bloody scarey. I agree there should be no need to use RIOT gear but its ashame that it is needed in this circumstance.

Gypsies and Travellers are not a race but an ethnic minority that is given protection by the Race Relations act ,so yes they can be racially discriminated against.

Drspoc....I did riot training when I was a met police officer. But I volunteered to be a rioter for them to practice on. We got to throw petrol bombs and rubber bricks! Great fun, til we rounded a corner and were met by the mounted riot police charging at us! Dear god, we ran fast!

ILoveTiffany. I have to admit I loved being a rioter during training it was great fun. Chance to get your own back on the OC's and Sgt