Peace Signs and Placards, Blue Lights and a “Breach”
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X8706000409 |
| Published date | 01 October 1987 |
| Date | 01 October 1987 |
| Author | Ian Noble |
| Subject Matter | Article |
IAN NOBLE
PEACE SIGNS AND PLACARDS,
BLUE LIGHTS AND A"BREACH"
The policeman was faced with a, by now, familiar Saturday dilemma.
He had followed both 'Hunt' and 'Sab' all over hill and dale. His
notebook soaking up a barrage of complaints being made by
huntsmen and protesters, alike.
He would probably be smiling about this bizarre situation if it
wasn't for the fact that he was by now cold, wet, and extremely
frustrated! Refereeing a contest between huntsfolk and anti-
bloodsports campaigners was a far cry from crowd control duty
during an 'international' at Hampden Park, but was this really what
he had joined the police force for?
Right now, it was "High Noon". The landowner, who had been
called for, had duly arrived. Our policeman took him to one side,
and said:
"I appreciate the fact that your daughter is riding with the hunt,
sir. But I've got 20 men here, two vans parked a quarter of a mile
away up that muddy hill, and 50 hunt saboteurs who are refusing
to leave the fox's 'earth' until the hunt do. Apparently a fox has
gone to ground there to escape the hounds and these protesters
don't want it to be dug out and killed.
If
I have to arrest all of them it'll be a nightmare.
It
would
mean dragging them all up that hill and ferrying them all to the
station, where you can bet your life that they'll all claim to be
called 'Basil Brush' of no fixed abode!
If
you, as the landowner,
were to instruct me to ask everyone to leave, including the
huntsmen, the protesters would all leave peacefully and
We
could
all go home. Now, what do you say,sir?"
This policeman's problem was a "sit in" during a dig out at a
foxhunt, and is, of course, just one of the methods of protesting that
the ever increasing numbers of "non-violent direct actionists" are
utilizing in order to express their ever growing concerns about man's
inhumanity to both his fellow man and his environment.
Whilst the "hunt" has itself become the quarry of nationwide
organizations, such as the Hunt Saboteurs Association (H.SA.),
Greenpeace are setting sail to challenge pirate whalers and chemical
waste dumpers on the high seas and climbing great symbols of our
society such as Big Ben to protest against the insanity of the "arms
race". Vegetarians and vegans are holding vigils outside
slaughterhouses and vivisection labs, whilst Christians and
317 October1987
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