The first round in the battle for Dale Farm has gone to the police, writes MARK HENNESSY, London Editor
BY MID-AFTERNOON, a day that had begun with considerable violence took on an air of farce when one of the protesters occupying the scaffold arch marking the entrance to Dale Farm called on his audience below to be quiet.
The youth was one of dozens of activists who gathered at Dale Farm to offer support to Irish Travellers in their bid to oppose Basildon Borough Council’s eviction plans.
Clutching an electricity pole 20 ft up, the youth declared: “I want you to know that I am fully prepared to die, I am fully prepared to pull the line,” he said, pointing to the electricity cable just feet away from his hands.
It was one of a number of speeches from the dock during the course of the day from the youth, who bears an uncanny resemblance in looks to comedian Peter Cook and in voice to another comedian, Rik Mayall.
Once the camp had been fully occupied by police by late morning, they moved to clear those occupying a gallery atop the scaffolding, where they had food supplies for days. Before ascending, the activists had put on nappies to help with calls of nature.
One by one they were removed with the help of a giant cherry-picker and a crane-lifted cage. Police came silently, strapping each in and removing them. Every time they did so, ear-piercing screams rendered the air.
“They are torturing people up here,” shouted one protester. “They are using pressure-points to cause pain when they are moving people.” He was buoyed by supportive calls from the grounds of “Shame, shame, shame.”
Undoubtedly the protesters, visitors at the site, have given the Travellers confidence, with one of their leaders, Kathleen McCarthy, saying: “There is no way that we could have done this without them.”
The value of that help has been negated by violence led by the supporters, however.
Last evening, the police and bailiffs finally removed the last of the scaffolders, leaving the bailiffs free, unless something untoward was to happen overnight, to bring on the first of the heavy diggers needed to begin the projected eight-week clearance of the site.
As night fell some of the protesters prepared for new confrontations, creating an ugly mood and leading to mutterings from Traveller men that they would be “sorted out” if they did anything to endanger their caravans.
Despite being expected for weeks, police won the advantage of surprise on the day.
The bailiffs had been expected at 8am by the front gate. Instead, the police were at the vanguard, and they came at 7am, as dawn broke, by the fence at the back.
Within seconds a line of 20 riot police was met with volleys of half-bricks and bottles. The volleys increased in intensity within minutes, smashing down on the police officers’ transparent circular shields.
The Travellers had told the protesters at a final meeting they did not want violence, but this request did not survive the sight of the first fences collapsing against the weight of police truncheons and boots. By 7.05am one Traveller woman several rows back from the front line was urging a protester to set alight two caravans marking the perimeter of Dale Farm. “Torch them, torch them,” she screamed, “It’s the only way.”
The day began, as it would continue, with protesters alleging brutal police violence, while the police themselves maintained a stony silence, refusing to be baited as they were met with screams of “You’re a Nazi”.
Once they were inside the site the police reformed their lines and advanced in surges, brandishing their truncheons and driving the Travellers and protesters back.They gained precious yards through this tactic.
One of the Traveller women was hysterical, clutching her breast for air. Bystanders shouted, “Medic, medic, medic.” Within moments she was back at the barricades throwing an outsize brick at the police lines.
Police used taser weapons on two men during the melee, one of whom was on the front line. In the view of police he was obstructing a legal entry. In the eyes of the protesters he was “doing nothing” and was merely singled out for abuse.
Even if some of the injury claims were exaggerated, and they were, there is no doubt the day impacted heavily on the elderly residents, particularly after two run-down caravans were torched by protesters, billowing noxious smoke for hours.
Once they had burned out, the protesters, who have run a green-friendly vegetarian-only canteen in Camp Constant for weeks, set rows of tyres alight, sending a new stream of fumes towards the sick.
Cornelius Sheridan had refused to leave “my own plot of land”, but was eventually taken away by ambulance shortly after noon when he had been made ill by the smoke. but, also, by the loss of electricity, cut off by Basildon Borough Council.
Generators for medical emergencies such as nebulisers were eventually supplied by the council shortly after 2pm, seven hours after the operation began. None of the Travellers’ generators worked: “Sure, we haven’t needed them for 10 years,” said one resident.