Orgreave Revisited!
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X9106400408 |
| Date | 01 October 1991 |
| Published date | 01 October 1991 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
ORGREAVE REVISITEDI
Alan Eastwood, Chairman of the PoliceFederationof England and Wales,
today condemned the out of court payments of over £400,000 to pickets
who took part in the mass demonstration outside the Orgreave Coking
Plant near Sheffield during the 1984 miners' strike.
"Taxpayershave been landedwith a massive bill as a resultof haggling
behind closed doors between the lawyers for the claimants and the
Police Authority. Seven years after the event, the Authority, not the
police or any of the officers against whom allegations may have been
made, have decided to use public money to settle the matter.
The public shouldremember that the so-called mass picket was
a totally illegal gathering. Hoards of demonstrators besieged the
Plant for many days with the intention of forcing its closure and thus
cutting
off
fuel supplies to steel plants.
Theirtactics were not peaceful. They were intimidatory. Stone
walls were torn down to provide ammunition to hurl at the police,
who were there to protect the Plant and people who were going about
their lawful business.
On the day when themost violence occurred, the police withstood
asustainedbarrage for more than an hour before mounted police were
used to disperse the mob. Policemen as well as pickets were injured
that day and only the fact that the police wore protective equipment
prevented many more from being badly injured.
We rememberthat even as this was happening the then chairman
and members of the South Yorkshire Police Authority publicly
supported the "mass pickets", although they knew that it was an
illegal secondary picket.
We are not surprised, therefore, thatthe present Labourcontrolled
Police Authority has seen fit to settle these claims rather than have
them tested, as they should have been, in open court. The decision
is a calculated slap in the face to the members of the police service,
who stoodup to the rioters and ensured that they did not achieve their
declared, and illegal, objectives.
The peopleof South Yorkshire will remember that it was not the
police who were sent en masse to force a shutdown of a lawful
business. It was not the police who tore down the walls to arm
themselves with missiles.
It
was not the police who threatened the
drivers of the coke lorries.
But it was the police who ensured that anarchy and mass
defiance of the law did not succeed, and it is the police who feel
betrayed by this extraordinary decision not to have the claimants'
allegations tested in court".
October1991 331
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