Brightlingsea Animal Export Protest   - by Rob Kemp
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(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)


