I See A Darkness

This is from an article in the Guardian by ( my new hero ) George Monbiot. I've been hearing and reading about so many instances of those on badger patrol being persecuted by the police, of the farmers and the NFU abusing and committing crimes against those on badger patrol and the police completely ignoring them. It makes me so angry, what Monbiot says and the conversation he reports says it all.

 

the whole article is here :

www.theguardian.com/environment/georgemonbiot/2013/sep/19...

 

As I've suggested in a couple of recent articles, the National Farmers Union (NFU), which tends to be dominated by big landowners, possesses an inordinate share of power in Britain. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs ("Deathra") gives the NFU everything it asks for: resisting European attempts to cap the amount of subsidies a landowner can receive, scrapping the Agricultural Wages Board, trying to prevent a partial ban on neonicotinoid pesticides, commissioning a badger cull that flies in the face of scientific evidence.

 

Large landowners still throng the benches of the House of Lords and are over-represented in the Commons. They still tend to dominate local government in the countryside. But until now I hadn't realised that the police might act at the NFU's behest.

 

The conversation, recorded on 6 September, involves the police and a group of men and women monitoring the badger cull. By the time it begins, part of the group (but not the man who made the recording) have been detained by the police but not arrested, on suspicion of aggravated trespass. They deny the charge, insisting that they had stayed on a public footpath. Here are some excerpts from the recording. The man with the recorder asks the police why the cull monitors are being detained:

 

Officer: "The NFU are coming down to give them an official warning because they committed aggravated trespass."

 

A few seconds later a different officer explains: "The suspicion is that you've committed aggravated trespass. It's a suspicion at this stage and we're detaining you under 117 of Pace [the Police and Criminal Evidence Act] … It's suspicion, reasonable suspicion. OK? So what we've got to do, someone from the National Farmers Union is coming down –"

 

Questioner: "So are you acting on their behalf? Are you acting on behalf of the National Farmers Union?"

 

Officer: "No, I'm acting on behalf of our Silver Commander."

 

Various other issues are raised, then the police return to the point:

 

Officer: "Someone from the NFU could speak to them, OK, ascertain what's happening, take the details –"

 

Questioner: "Will they be allowed to move on when the NFU have spoken with them?

 

Officer: "That's up to whatever the NFU's got to say."

 

Questioner: "So it's up to the NFU whether they get arrested or not?"

 

Officer: "No, it's up to what the NFU – [drowned out by other voices]"

 

Again there are various distractions, then the conversation resumes:

 

Officer: "We're waiting for somebody to come along to give you an official warning – "

 

Questioner: "To give them."

 

Officer: "OK, them. An official warning –"

 

Questioner: "From the NFU."

 

Officer: "From the NFU. Yeah."

 

Eventually, after arguing with the police for a while, the people were released before the NFU arrived.

 

I've checked the relevant acts, and can find nothing in them that empowers the NFU, or any other such body, to issue official warnings and to decide whether or not people detained by the police can be released.

 

 

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Too often in this country, policing appears to be conducted for the benefit of in-groups at the expense of out-groups: victims of racism, the homeless, gypsies and travellers, activists and protesters.

 

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The establishment of official police forces, whose purpose was to enforce laws passed by parliament, was supposed to have replaced the doctrine of might with the doctrine of right. But the psychological legacy persists. The police often appear to work for those with money and power, protecting commercial interests from peaceful and legitimate protests, while failing to investigate crimes committed by corporations, executives and landowners.

Done