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Brightlingsea Animal Export Protest - by Rob Kemp ----------------------------------- (taken from Park Life, Essex University Paper) It was a chilly January evening when the first sheep lorry passed along the winding road to Brightlingsea. What thoughts were going through the driver's mind as he negotiated the junction at Thorrington Cross, as he passed the church that marks the boundary of the small Essex port, as he came to the first few houses? Did he think that the fury and determination of the people of Brightlingsea would have faded during their long day's vigil? Many of the 1000 people who faced him on that first evening had been on the streets since before dawn, resolved to give the exporters no chance to elude their vigilance. Many were pensioners, many were children, most had never before ventured out to protest about anything at all. As the lorry edged towards the wharf it was clear that the protesters had plenty of fighting spirit in reserve, even after all these hours of waiting. Eggs and nails flew at the lorry, someone tried to break the cab window, others lay in the road. A disabled man threw himself in front of the lorry's wheels. That was enough for the police; they told the driver to turn back. As the 11 o'clock deadline approached, after which no lorries could legally enter the road leading to the wharf, a senior police officer gave his word that the sheep lorry would not be allowed to return that day, and the crowd finally dispersed, claiming a significant victory. But had it all been too easy? Perhaps the first consignment was never meant to get as far as the wharf. This lone lorry with its bleating cargo may have been meant as a trial run, to test the resolve of the protesters. If the blockade was successful on the first day, the exporters may have reasoned, numbers might gradually drop off as people became complacent about their victory. If that really was their hope, the events of that first day must have prepared them for disappointment. Gales stopped the shipment the next day, but the day after, Wednesday, saw the most extraordinary scenes the sleepy riverside community had ever witnessed off their television screens. Hundreds of police wearing full riot gear literally threw people out of the way of a rather more purposeful four-lorry convoy. There were more than 200 complaints about police behaviour on that day alone. "We have seen mothers being pulled away by their hair with their children still clinging to them, by the people we tell our children to go to for protection," one resident said. From that point on things started, as they inevitably would, to go the exporters' way. Their trade is still legal, and it is incumbent on the police to protect it -- even if it means, as it has in Brightlingsea, that relations between the police and the local population slump to an all-time low. Just days after promising at a public meeting that no lorries would be allowed to break the law by driving to the wharf after 11pm, the Assistant Chief Constable, Geoffrey Markham, gave his permission for one convoy to do exactly that. This action is now being questioned in the courts, but it is typical of what many in Brightlingsea see as the police's lack of fairness in dealing with the live export protests. Other factors have strained relations between the police and protesters almost to breaking point. In April, the police invoked the 1986 Public Order Act to restrict demonstrations -- effectively stopping protests from blocking the road. Calling on this piece of legislation broadened the issue in many people's eyes to include civil as well as animal rights, because of its restrictive effect on the way people were allowed to demonstrate. The police, however, view the matter more as a problem of keeping the peace and protecting the public. A spokesman said: "We aim to be fair to both sides: the exporter has the legal right to trade in the town and to pass his lorries through the town. It is a legal trade. "At the same time, protesters have the right to demonstrate peacefully, but lawfully. The two coming together, there will be confrontations, and the majority of the restrictions that we imposed were for public safety reasons." But arguably the most serious breakdown in relations with the police followed the publication in September of a Police Complaints Authority report dealing with complaints relating to the first week of protests. If Brightlingsea residents expected some kind of acknowledgement from the police that they may have overstepped the mark in the early days of the protest, they were disappointed. Instead much of the blame was laid at the doors of the media, whose reporting was criticized as irresponsible and deceitful. In early October a meeting to present this report to the people of Brightlingsea ended in angry scenes as protesters vented their frustration. One man, Derrick Day, collapsed following a particularly vehement outburst and subsequently died. The protests later that week saw a resurgence of violence, attributed to mounting anger over the report and its tragic sequel, the death of Mr Day. Lorry windows were smashed, and cars belonging to the chief exporter and to Trading Standards officers were also damaged. In mid-October vandals broke down a 6ft fence to enter the wharf and wreaked havoc, smashing windows and spraying graffiti directed at the exporter, the wharf owner and Essex Police. The wharf owner has estimated that since the start of the live export protests #80-90,000 worth of damage has been done to his property. The ten months during which animals have been exported through Brightlingsea have seen many reversals of fortune for both sides. There have been acrimonious exchanges between protesters and exporters -- one livestock exporter, Richard Otley, was bounced around in his Range Rover by protesters just for showing his face in the town. Television images at the time had a disturbing resonance with the last pictures of the two soldiers whose car strayed into the path of an IRA funeral. No such fate befell Mr Otley, but he was lucky he managed to keep his doors shut. Since then, relations between the two sides have hardly improved. In August exporter Roger Mills began legal proceedings against the so-called "Brightlingsea 14" for damage to his business, and also sought injunctions to stop them from protesting. In the most recent development, Roger Mills himself appeared in court last week on a charge brought by the RSPCA of causing suffering to sheep. Since the early days of the protests a small but determined contingent of students has supported the Brightlingsea residents. Some have been arrested -- including Louisa Newell, currently chair of the university's Animal Rights Society. Another, Simon Brunner, a second-year history student, recalls his own contact with the police: "It took six of them to get me off the road, and I got hit in the stomach a couple of times." A number of prominent people and celebrities have visited the protests since they began, including Labour MP Tony Banks, writer Carla Lane and pop star Billy Bragg, who narrowly avoided arrest after sitting down in the path of the lorries. Such events have given a welcome boost to the solid core of protesters who return week after week. But what hope is there that their cause will ultimately succeed? Local Tory MP Bernard Jenkin attempted in March to introduce legislation to ban live exports, but his bill was blocked by the government. The Labour party has pledged to ban the trade if it comes to power, but that may be a long way off. While exports continue, there is little doubt that the police will do everything they have to to protect the exporters' rights. For the moment, it appears that an uneasy stalemate has come about: the exporters admit that their trade is being damaged by the protests, but seem determined to exercise their right to carry on with it. The overwhelming mass of public opinion may be against them, but the law is on their side. (ENDS)