Pro Hunt Protestors Attacked By Police, Parliament Suspended

oops | 15.09.2004 16:34 | Animal Liberation | Repression | London

The big demo in london today (10-20,000) by pro-hunt supporters was attacked by police, with many being injured.

Riot police were deployed after Westminster bridge was blocked by a sit-down protest, demonstrators breaking into and getting onto the floor of the house of commons, and scuffles breaking out in parliament square and traf sq with protesters throwing stuff at the cops.

oops

Comments

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pics from media coverage

15.09.2004 16:51

pics from reuters / ap - for full size originals see:

http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news?c=news_photos&p=fox

info

still kicking off 5.55pm

15.09.2004 17:04

just got a call from someone near there - riot police still trying to contain protesters

update

Fuck the CA

15.09.2004 17:06

Whats the likly hood of it beeing the police that started these riots?

I give the CA there dues they have done a good job at disruption.

But come on 10-20 000 isent big even as much as 30 000 or 50 000 isent big
100-200 000 is getting there when you're in London.the CA demo is just a binch of blood thirsty wankers.

but then look at what diference a small group of animal rights protesters could do or anti-capitalist or any cause for that matter.

We could do better than this for something good not the right to kill defenceless animals.

Angry lady

traffic cam offline - well there's a surprise!

15.09.2004 17:08

http://www.bbc.co.uk/london/travel/jamcams/camloco/546501.shtml

camera for parliament square has been offline - now there's a surprise!

eye in the sky

Fuck the CA

15.09.2004 17:08

Angry lady

BBC coverage

15.09.2004 17:09

BBC radio coverage (radio 4), reporters very quick to ask pro hunt people what it was like being hit by baton weilding coppers....... hmmmm, cant remember the beeb ever mentioning people being hit by cops at anti war demos etc!

Mac Flurry

more pics

15.09.2004 17:09

more pics

http://news.search.yahoo.com/search/news/?ei=ISO-8859-1&c=news_photos&p=hunting

info

BBC 6pm news

15.09.2004 17:18

BBC TV news (6pm) were keen to point out that it was only _some_ of the crowd that clashed with police. but they also gave two interview spots with two bloodied protesters - one man, one womean - who complained they were attcked without warning, hit with batons and pushed to the floor.

hmmm

mmm id rather not fuck em not my style...........

15.09.2004 17:25

ok the ca are a bunch of blood thirsty wankers who deserve all they get and more but, its the pigs that we should worry about they need to be stoped even the ca are humans and nobody should be beten about the head by a fukin pig. hunting is a game for posh twats with no sense and it needs stoping. this ban is probably the only good thing blair has done.

--
anarchkit

anarchkit

re anarchkit

15.09.2004 17:29

I don't think it was "posh twats" on the frontline who were getting batoned by the cops and giving it back now was it? Hunting's not just enjoyed by the toffs.

correction

opps sorry correction

15.09.2004 17:33

opps sorry wanna be posh twats that is u in the ca?

anarchkit

ps. some humor

15.09.2004 17:59

its there own fault these contry folk dont understand the ways of us townies weve been peacfully protesting for years and this stuff always happens these are ancient traditons dating back for hundreds of years............
thanks today program for that.

--
anarchkit

anarhckit ........ agian

re anarchkit

15.09.2004 18:03

am i in the ca?
wot, the cardiff anarchists?

but seriously, will be ineresting to see the coverage in tomorrows papers. The tv is all security breach will change our democracy for ever stuff.

not a posh nob

cardif anarchists sounds good can i join?

15.09.2004 18:12

any change will be following america we can already see our civil liberties beeing wittled away by blunket. actoins are going to have to get more publicity, like farthers 4 justice r doing, but even their actions are being reported as a security threat not for what they stand for.

stop hunting with dogs.

--
anarchkit

anarhckit

HA HA HA

15.09.2004 18:55

BUMPKINS AND THE MET LAYING INTO EACH OTHER!!

I JUST WANTED TO BE UP BIG BEN CHEERING BOTH SIDES INDISCRIMINATLEY

A PLAGUE ON BOTH THEIR HOUSES

SAB 'EM ALL

Good for the CA

15.09.2004 19:06

1. It'll be interesting to see whether or not the CA is treated in the same negative, hysterical manner as the WOMBLES or anarchists are. It looks like the level of violence on this demonstration is much higher than during most of the "left" demonstrations.

2. It surprises me that more people aren't supporting the right of CA to demonstrate without being attacked by the police.

3. Good for the CA for getting people into the chamber and for not taking crap from the police.

4. I know many anarchists are vegan/vegetarian etc, but I don't see why they're so keen to have the government interfere in what is after all a personal decision. The health/welfare of the number of animals affected is far less than if there were some meaningful action by the government on regulating the conditions of animals raised for food-production. Backing the government in coercive and interfering measures on a matter like this is not something anarchists should be doing: by all means hunt-sab, protest and argue, but don't go helping out a repressive government.

an anarchist
mail e-mail: noemail@noplace.net

Enemy against enemy

15.09.2004 19:06

Each drop of blood that a CA 'protester' suffered represents every fox and cub that has been harrased, alarmed, distressed and terrorised by the bastards who have had their victims ripped apart.

JustHowWeLikeIt!

imagine if an animal rights demo had kicked off like that!

15.09.2004 19:08

can you imagine if an animal rights demo had kicked off like that? can you imagine what the media response would have been if the tables had been turned? the huntscum are actually being shown in a sympathetic light for kicking off and rioting, whereas even peaceful animal rights demos are branded as "terrorism". It's amazing to see.

oob

"and now you are blooded"

15.09.2004 19:16

on October 25th 1999, John Jackson addressed the first annual meeting of the CA in London.
There were 300 of them. He made an appeal to fight blair's proposed anti-Hunt legislation, and vowed to use new technology to channel the energy of myriad groups.
By which he meant to use the internet.

he went on to make reference to RTS! 1999-

"That nasty little riot in the City of London some months ago showed us all the organising potential in what can now be done. That was for a bad purpose. The alliance will realise that potential for a good purpose."

he warned Blair that that government plans to ban foxhunting had "lit the fuse" and provoked it into action.

Almost five years later, of all the fuses lit in 1999, that of the CA seems to still burn brightest. And it is indicitive of how prejudiced have been authorities, democratic institutions, police forces and the whole "law and order" brigade have been in so selectivly focussing their not paltry attentions on Social, Libertarian and Ecological protest and pressure groupings who used the internet in 1999 and use the internet in 2004 and more than once reclaimed Westminster Square and more than once have been made the senseless and arbitrary object of the policeman's baton.

I have today looked through the archives of an organisation, with paramilitary assocation, access to firearms, which threatens to undermine the armed forces of the UK, which has secretly planned and carried through multiple attacks on the democratic institutions so beloved of the Englishman and Englishwoman since the restoration of fox hunting to legality by Charles Stuart the 2nd after Cromwell's military dictatorship had proscribed such sports as immoral gaming.

I have seen an orchestrated campaign which has brought hundreds of thousands of trouble seekers onto the streets of Britain, the evidence is there in the archives of their site.
Never once have they desisted from using language is not only violent in intent, but sinister in motive.

This morning's photos show masked protesters "dressed as wild animals", as surely they have proved themselves capable to act.

It is past time, that these reactionary and anti-State forces were seen for what they are, and who they are.

Arrest every single one.
Send them to Guantamano.
You will have my blessing Tony Blair
Wankah Wankah! that you are.

the merrovinginvanjan

some clarification

15.09.2004 19:31

mind that these wankers don't represent people living in the country. The so-called leaders of the CA mostly live in London and only come into contact with the country when visiting their second homes, gained at the expense of country people who can no longer afford to live in "scenic", "idyllic" villages (only idyllic if you can use a car to get to distant shops, employment, post offices, etc. bus services are usually shit) because the rent has been pushed through the roof by these rich townie fucks who feel that this nation is a fucking tourist resort and hunting estate.

fuck them. they don't represent me any more than Blair represents the homeless on the streets of our cities.

another thing, the CA also draws in a lot of otherwise sound-minded people as they see it as the only organisation that gives a single fuck about the appalling breakdown of life in rural communities, with post offices closing, employment moving into the cities, and the aforesaid upper and middle classes pushing up the rent by using the "countryside" (let's do away with the distinction between country and town. people are people. and OUR LAND is OUR FUCKING LAND) as their holiday home.

Where i'm from (caithness, far north scotland) you have to travel over 50 miles to see a (NHS) dentist, who is awfy overbooked with people from this county, the next nearest being in inverness 120 miles away. There is talk of closing the maternity ward in Wick hospital, meaning that if you're about to drop a baby round here you'd better have a midwife handy if you don't wanna have to take a trip to inverness. christ knows how people in the west'd cope, they've got it bad enough as it is.

However, we are lucky with the bus service round here. the last bus out of thurso leaves at 5:30pm. as this happens to be my drinking day (well, my get-proper-smashed day) i'm sitting at my parent's places drinking Special Brew (tm) cause i didn't feel like walking 12 miles home. last time i tried going out for a drink of a night i woke up in a ditch halfway between here and there. then still had to walk 5 miles shivering. but that's just me i guess, can't blame capitalism for my drunken behaviour i suppose.

yeah, this is turning into a rant, but a lot fo these people ARE NOT NAZI SCUM. You might have had unpleasent encounters with hunt supporters, and i'll tell you that i had a fucking awful time in london, but that did not cause me to label all londoners as cold, inhuman beasts with no care for their fellow man. My point is that there are a great deal of concerns people outside of the metropolises have, which are not being addressed by any major party, NGO or campaign group apart from the CA (who only pay lip-service to them, their main concern being the aristocracy's ancient right to ride roughshod, literally, over their lessers).

let's put it this way. Trotsky was a mass-murdering bastard (my opinion, not intended to start an anarcho-trot flame war), that does not make all trotskyists mass-murdering bastard.

finally, the CA encourage the polarisation of town/country. much like black/white, straight/gay and so on. in truth these are on and the same and neither exists truthfully. a town can have many parks, allotments, wilderness ground, trees and so on. the countryside can also, likewise be a barren, lifeless wilderness with barely a living thing growing. see though the subconcious core of their lies. they would set us against each other. they fooled those who turned up at the pro-hunt demo (think how many would turnm up to london mass demos if the anti-war movement could afford to rent a nationwide fleet of buses, the CA practically pay people to go to these demos), they didn't fool the majority of us.

AND DON'T LET THEM FOOL YOU!

-a

not a townie

animal 'rights' and banning stuff

15.09.2004 19:45

Isn't it odd that (some) self-identified anarchists are celebrating the state passing legislation to ban hunting? What else should they be allowed to ban? It's a bit like the concept of animal 'rights' a liberal concept that presumes the existence of a govt/state to enforce them - otherwise they're worthless. What happens when we smash the state, presumably if country people in Lincolnshire (for example) decide through consensus to ride horses and use dogs to chase foxes they can? And if not who is going to stop them? I know from experience they have as many people who are up for a scrap as 'we' do, they proved it today. They're not all posh either as anyone who has been sabbing knows. It's not as simple as they're all scum. A lot of them are angry for a whole series of reasons, some 'good' some 'bad' and this has just catalysed them into action, of course others are there because they have to be (or the gentry kick them out of their tithe properties).

One good thing at least when they're putting their energies into fighting the police and fucking up the M25 they're not marauding around the countryiside knocking hedges down and killing cats (instead of foxes) from the odd council house that still remains in the country. But I have some doubts about all this crap regarding the 'best thing Blair has done'.

sab

Thesesare humans (some of them!)

15.09.2004 21:46

You have to be outraged at the random headstrikes on people

What about the fox?

15.09.2004 21:54

Oh what a shame how the poor filth have been treated today whist they were protesting for the right to chase, hunt down and murder terrified animals and get pissed and fuck each other afterwards ...

These violent filth have murdered two saboteurs in the past and walked away scot free without charge and hospitalised dozens of others.

They know how many paracetamols to take to overdose ...

Shenanigan

all animals are innocent (perhaps)

15.09.2004 22:41

yeah and my cat has terrified and killed one or two mice and the odd baby bird... should I kick it's head in?

is it just that you can think of animals as being all cute and innocent whilst people seem a lot more complicated?

so people who kill animals are scum and animals are somehow intrinsically good, despite the fact they don't always kill purely for food, in fact my cat is positively entertained by a baby sparrow in its death throes. But of course we maybe 'moral', which means we might/should know better, but hey that means we might also be more interesting, complicated and difficult to deal with. So stick with animals because they're just acting 'natural'. Bit like the in-bred idiots with fuck all other than wandering around blowing stupid horns and killing stuff to entertain them.

dave

Hunters show their true colours

16.09.2004 00:15

Some friends of mine in the AR movement suggested we go down for this day for a counter demo. Haha! We were not needed. The Cuntryside Alliance did a much better job in turning the public against them. Their whole slant has been to make people think they are an oppressed minority but instead they have promoted themselves as violent thugs. The BBC reported the demo as 'mainly peaceful.' I don't remember May Days getting such a glossy treatment.

Respect to all those over the last 80 years who have fought this campaign. We're nearly there.

Rubarb Rupert

Parliamentary Editor, PA News on that "terror" word

16.09.2004 01:33

Hunt Supporters Tried to Terrorise My Family - MP

By Trevor Mason, Parliamentary Editor, PA News

http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=3501018

A Labour MP today accused pro-hunt supporters of trying to “terrorise” his family last night.

Phil Sawford (Kettering) claimed masked activists had arrived outside his home with sacks of manure.

But they left when police arrived on the scene and before any criminal act had been committed.

In debate on the Hunting Bill, Mr Sawford said: “I was concerned to learn this morning that people carrying masks were outside my home last night, in a vehicle which apparently contained some sacks of manure.

“Their intent was perhaps some kind of illegal or criminal act around my home. But apparently they saw some police cars and left, which is not surprising since I live two doors from a police station.”

He told MPs: “I was surprised to learn that the local media had colluded in this disgraceful attempt to harass and intimidate my family.

“I was even more concerned to learn from a local reporter that initially they had got the wrong address. It wasn’t my home that would have been targeted but the home of my parents – my 79-year-old father and 78-year-old mother with a heart condition.”

“These masked intruders were planning to intimidate and harass the wrong people.”

Mr Sawford said he suspected the people were not representative of the vast majority of hunt supporters, but a “lunatic fringe”.

He added: “If this is the kind of activity we can expect. If these people seek to intimidate, nay terrorise, the families of MPs, there is a matter of urgency.”

Supporting the Government’s timetable to force the hunting ban on to the statute book, he said: “The quicker we bring this matter to a conclusion the better.”

Mr Sawford said he understood a similar unsuccessful attempt at harassment had also been made outside the home of the Labour MP for Corby, Phil Hope.

FYI

Guardian on coming wave of direct action

16.09.2004 01:37

Challenges ahead as forces prepare for wave of pro-hunting disruption

Sandra Laville and Rosie Cowan
Thursday September 16, 2004
The Guardian

Police across the country are braced for a wave of protests in the wake of the ban on fox hunting.

Hunt followers are planning demonstrations, road blocks and other direct action which could stretch security resources in rural areas.

But police chiefs vowed last night to do whatever it takes to enforce the law....

full article at:

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/homeaffairs/story/0,11026,1305600,00.html

FYI

more pics

16.09.2004 09:40

more pics at:

info

Anarchists provoked the police

16.09.2004 20:02

It is worth noting that rather then the countryside alliance campaigners/pro fox hunting lobby or the police provoking violence at this protest, it was a small number of fuckwits throwing smoke bombs. Those provoking the police were there to try and spark of a riot and cause negative publicity for the protesters and give labour communists more propaganda to get on with their genocide of all that oppose them.
Fuckwits in this instance either being anti hunt anarchists or possibly agents provocateur for the state.

Engager

bias

17.09.2004 10:34

watching and listening to the whole coverage during and since the protest you tell me that their isn't a class system still in place.
why is it middle england get to do what they want? makes me sick.
maybe they won't be so bloody quick to side with the police next time there's a demo other than anti hunt.

daniel gurney

yeah

17.09.2004 12:25

Engager - any argument based on new labour being communists is on pretty shakey ground - they're neoliberals like all the parties that get anywhere near power. Someone always manages to blame anarchists when theres a wee bit of a riot. That'll probably be the official line in a few days lol

neoliberal commie

ha ha laughable!

17.09.2004 12:43

That's uuter rubbish, but funny idea though. There were plenty of people on the tv coverage saying things like "we were pushing at the police lines and the cops beat the hell out of us" - it was an over-reaction on the polices part. Also it was not the smoke bombs that kicked things off.

Just like any demo there were people there more up for having a fight than the majority of the crowd. But the police did go over the top, it's clear from all of the head injuries and blood everywhere.

Get a life! and some perspective!

fair play

what really happened...

17.09.2004 14:20

was a block of around one hundred determined protesters marched up to the police lines, started pulling away the crowd barriers, then throwing the barriers at the yellow jackets police!

then as the ruck expanded others joined in, some got caught up in it, and the police panicked and battered a load of people. bringing in more riot cops just seemed to make the situation worse, and more people joined in and more police began splitting heads.

so yep, sure you can say "Pro Hunt Protestors Attacked By Police", but only after "Pro Hunt Protestors Attack Police".

that a lot of the press has ignored the truth in what happened, and even given tacit support to those having a go at the police, again shows how shite this countries media is.

two sides to every story!