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Protests and the Hunting Act Print E-mail
Friday, 17 April 2009
Hunt supporters took a hammering in Parliament Square in September 2004Countryside Alliance Chief Executive Simon Hart looks at the politics of protest: Some of you may have seen Robert Hardman’s piece in the Daily Mail on 16th April comparing the Metropolitan Police’s handling of the G20 demonstration to that of our demonstration in Parliament Square on 15th September 2004. We were all shocked by the number and seriousness of injuries inflicted on demonstrators that day, and looking back, it is amazing that there were not more serious consequences. We are the first to echo the view that policing these events is fraught with difficulty, yet exactly one week after this incident 20,000 of us demonstrated in Brighton at the Labour Party conference. Tensions were high and the opportunity for ‘flash points’ even more numerous than before, but this time with real anger added to the mix. Sussex Police handled the event to perfection. It was controlled and peaceful; there were no arrests and no injuries, which suggests a clear distinction between the attitude of rural and urban police officers.

What is most worrying is that despite a detailed investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission’s (IPCC) nothing much seems to have changed within the Metropolitan police.

20,000 demonstrators attended the Parliament Square demonstration, along with 1300 police officers. In the clashes that followed, 40 of our members received serious head injuries as a result of being hit on the head by police officers, against all instructions. There were 425 complaints to the IPCC and 31 officers received Regulation 9 notices. 17 officers had files passed to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) for crimes varying from Common Assault to Actual Bodily Harm.

“  20,000 demonstrators attended the Parliament Square demonstration, along with 1300 police officers. In the clashes that followed, 40 of our members received serious head injuries as a result of being hit on the head by police officers, against all instructions”
Just prior to the IPCC inquiry a Metropolitan Police press release claimed that 60 officers had been injured, and yet none of the local hospitals had any record of admissions or treating any officers, let alone 60 of them. The inquiry involved up to 17 people from the IPCC and took 14 months to report. Of the cases that went to the CPS, there were no convictions, and no disciplinary action was taken against any officer, including those who removed their ID, despite, as the report stated there being “clear examples of some officers ignoring this instruction”.

The Chairman of the IPCC wrote: “the images of injured hunt supporters cast a shadow across the reputation of the Metropolitan Police Service”. That shadow was not removed by the IPPC’s inquiries or its report.

On a brighter note the League Against Cruel Sports formally discontinued its private prosecution of four members of the Isle of Wight Hunt at Portsmouth Magistrates Court today. The case against Stuart Trousdale, Liam Thom, Jamie Butcher and Malcolm Purcell related to allegations of illegal hunting in 2007.

Since the Hunting Act came into force LACS has told us that practically every time hounds leave their kennels an offence is being committed. They have told us that the 'exemptions' are tightly drawn, and that hunting with a bird of prey cannot be done. Well they made the decision to prosecute this case on the basis that it was the strongest they had and yet it has not even got to trial. In following the lead of the Crown Prosecution Service, who have dropped all charges against the Heythrop and Devon and Somerset Hunts, LACS has had to admit what we have known for a long time - the Act is an unworkable mess.

Most sensible politicians have concluded long ago that repeal is the only response to a law as bad as the Hunting Act, but if any need more persuasion then surely an admission that the law has failed from the organisation that wrote it is conclusive.

Simon Hart
Chief Executive
 

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