The day started with between ten and twenty gather down at the lab itself with the usual entourage of cops. Meanwhile a sole protester was sitting calmly outside Vodafone in Cornmarket, keeping four other policemen gainfully employed. He was subsequently joined by the other protesters who stood in front of Vodafone and called for the Xmas shoppers to boycott the firm because of their involvement in funding Oxford University.

It did not take long for a large circle of shoppers to gather around, clearly interested in hearing what the people on the megaphone had to say. They were told about the scientific fraud of vivisection, of how Oxford University had been exposed for abusing the animals in it's care, of the sickening experiments involving sewing up the eyes of six week old kittens and about the vivisectors' involvement in clinical trials for Vioxx the drug that has killed over 50,000 people despite being tested on animals.

Clearly the truth began to bite, or else the police got very nervous at just how interested the public were getting, for they introduced a s.14 order and forced to move them around the corner in an attempt to take them out of sight of public. The excuse was that it was obstructing the shoppers and a danger to their health. Odd, that while the Oxford Xmas lights were being lit, the Fox FM music truck was able to part all the way across the road leaving only a ten foot gap without endangering any one according to the police next to it. No, only the animal rights protesters are capable of obstruction in Oxford City Centre it seems.

The constant use of megaphone and banners meant the police's efforts to hide the demo failed. A large crowd gathered around the entrance of the street – even more of an obstruction than the previous place! - to listen and take leaflets. The line of eleven cops added to the demo's impact and anyone going up and down Cornmarket could not have missed the side-street protest.

Several people from the crowed expressed their outrage at the police's attempt to suppress the right to protest even if they did not agree with the protesters view point.

Several people were given warnings by the police for shouting abuse at the protesters (the normal level of debate among pro-vivisectors it seems sometimes). However, this only happened because some protesters vigorously complained and threatened further action – had a protestor used the the same language they would have been immediately arrested. The police also threatened to arrest people for giving out leaflets but this was ignored.

It would appear that the police are following in the footsteps of their masters at the University in their efforts to deny free speech. It has subsequently emerged that staff in the Dept of Experimental Psychology have been threatened with loss of their jobs and/or tenure if they dared criticize the building of the new laboratory, even internally. This is despite the University declaring it was all for freedoms of expression and protest while applying for an injunction against the protesters.

Revenge came for the protesters half way through their demo when it was learned that another group of vivisectors had their Xmas dinner canceled when Cafe Rouge learned just who they were suppose to be hosting on the 16thDecember. This time it was staff from the Dept of Clinical Neurology and the FMRIB Centre (involved in animal experiments despite their name) who lost out.
The huge waste of police resources on peaceful protesters will not go down well with the public following recent news reports that Thames Valley Police are having to cut back bobbies on the beat. It will appear to the local public that protecting a wealthy institution like the University and it's funders are far more important than responding to burglaries and muggings else where in the city.

Links: SPEAK Campaigns – www.speakcampaigns.org.uk
Oxford University – www.ox.ac.uk (though not much to be found about the new laboratory)
Earlier stories -  http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/12/329487.html

To complain about the waste of police resources please get in contact with Thames Valley Police Authority at the addresses below, and ask how dozens of officers can stand around doing nothing at peaceful protests but are not available to answer more urgent 999 calls. Ask what Oxford University, who are demanding the heavy policing despite having their own security employed, are contributing to the wasteful costs.

Thames Valley Police Authority
The Farmhouse
Oxford Road
Kidlington
Oxon OX5 2NX
All correspondence should be addressed to: Jim Booth – Executive Director
Telephone: 01865 846780
Email:  tvpa@thamesvalley.pnn.police.uk