to be horrified by the footage on BBC2 just now from the Battle of the Beanfield?

[qwertypop]

WTAF

I can hardly believe that happened in the UK in my lifetime.

Just... horrific.

Yeah well, they'd got away with vicious, illegal violence during the Miners' Strike and with lying through their teeth re. Hillsborough, at the time I'm sure the police believed they could do what the hell they liked.

The Levellers wrote a song about it. I never realised it was about a real event until about 10 years after it had happened!

I thought it was vile. It actually made me cry to see how terrified those people were.

My DH looked this up on youtube recently after he was discussing it with our DS (17)who was covering protest/police brutality/conformity for school. He already knew most of it but I was so shocked at at the level of violence used for no reason.

I was brought up within the travelling community and my mum was there when she was pregnant with me. It still haunts her to this day, it was horrific. They stormed our caravan, and destroyed everything it only had my pregnant mum and baby brother in it. They even broke his cot.

It is shocking how much the establishment have got away with and hushed up. I didn't know anything about it until tonight although I was well aware of the miners' struggles and Hillsborough. It's a shame that the authorities who thought this was acceptable can't be brought to justice

My friends can remember being in a van all together as young children and hearing it all, it was like being in a war.

They watched their homes get destroyed and their parents beaten up, they took all the dogs and shot them, loads of kids were taken into care

Fucking horrific and destroyed a generally peaceful community. The only travellers left are the really hardcore ones. And we wonder why they are hostile sometimes

It's not like this was even an isolated incident. I have many memories of my mum and dad and even me being pushed, pulled and screamed at by police trying to move us on, or break up a convoy. I'm sure there were many times when some of the travellers were a nuisance but we didn't deserve that treatment. More often than not we were moving from farm to farm where my parents would work but the police were always there being intimidating.

Fucking hell Azurea your poor mum...

My mum didn't even get the worst of it. I have friends who were kids there and remember their dogs being shot and their mums and dads being pinned down on beds whilst the police destroyed their homes. I like to think that they wouldn't get away with it now due to social media making these acts much harder to hide.

Observer article about it here. www.theguardian.com/uk/2005/jun/12/ukcrime.tonythompson
Horrific. I'd never even heard of it.

Yanbu.
More people need to know about this.

azurea
i'm ashamed to say i'd only barely heard of this and i was old enough to know more

Azurea It was shameful.

I was about 14 at the time, and I remember vividly This Picture on the front of something like the NME. It haunted me, even though it's not showing any of the actual violence - the vulnerability of that woman with a babe in arms.

I also read that some of the ITN film footage went mysteriously missing showing some of the worst violent attacks- police beating young men, women holding children, pregnant women... The whole thing, and the lack of justice afterwards was/is chilling.

I'm just glad that finally there is some mainstream coverage. Although there won't ever be justice at least more people will know what happened. It really tore our community apart. A lot of people were left with life long trauma.

Just reading the Wikipedia article about it. So footage of it by ITN disappeared. The negatives of Observer photos taken of it were lost. Reporters were removed from the scene or arrested so they couldn't report on it. Women with babies in their arms and pregnant women were hit with truncheons.

Just read the Guardian article. The Earl of Cardigan (who owned the land) spoke up for the travellers, and (I believe) maintains (and testified in court) that the travellers had permission to be on his land.

The NME front cover I linked to above ^ had the caption "Whose Land is it Anyway?"

I can't believe I have never heard of this!

Sabrina I just read that when the Earl of Cardigan testified in court to having seen the police brutality, the Daily Telegraph accused him of being a class traitor

I believe the argument that the police had been "good friends" to the Thatcher government and helped destroy the miner's strike, and were permitted shocking abuses. hey really did seem very willing to do the bidding of the establishment in a very brutal and obvious way. The travellers were not loved by the right, at all. I'm glad this is getting an airing: the 80s wasn't all Madonna, MTV and rah rah skirts.

I completely agree with edam.

It is disgusting. I'm glad it seems it's finally getting an airing.

Really sad to hear your accounts, Horace and Azurea, but also think it's brilliant that we are able to hear it.

Thank you for starting this thread, qwertypop.

I had never heard of it before this thread and subsequent googling. How appalling, both that it happened and that it is so little talked about that many don't know it happened

Really great that this is getting an airing. Friends of mine were part of that convoy and had horrific stories of police violence towards the travellers. It's also worth looking at the footage of the Poll Tax Riots - actually, the police pretty much provoked the riots by using horses and riot police to frighten what had been a (generally) peaceful demonstration into mass disorder.

Agree with thecat; I hate the way that "The Eighties" are being repackaged as all about rara skirts and Madonna, and all oh-so-jolly after the dreary old Seventies - actually, it was a pretty horrible time politically, and we are reaping the whirlwind now.

actually, it was a pretty horrible time politically, and we are reaping the whirlwind now.

Yes, I remember it as being quite a frightening time in many ways. I recognise that sense of not being able to have confidence in the police that Horrace mentions. I have similar feelings and it stems from that time.

There was a real change that seemed to come over the country after 1979. If you didn't conform you were seen as threatening and you definitely felt threatened.

My brother was there. It was devastating for him and his family.