COME AND WET THIS
TRUNCHEON –
DAVE DOUGLAS
Following the result of
the Hillsborough enquiry in 2016, there's little wonder why Home
Secretary Amber Rudd refused to hold an enquiry into the great
miner's strike of 1984 and the battle of Orgreave. Quite simply,
there wouldn't have been anything to gain from it – for her, her
Party and her government. Though it was over 30 years ago now, the
impact from the defeat of the strike still resonates to this day with
privatisation, job insecurity, zero hours contracts, and the
devastation of working class communities being among the many
outcomes. These things, however, are now a given, it would seem, and
the real elephant in the room is the conduct of the police during the
strike and to what extent were they used as the paramilitary wing of
the Thatcher government?
If only a fraction of
what Dave Douglas describes in Come And Wet This Truncheon is
true then it's disturbing but if all of it is true then it's fucking
despicable. But then why should anything of what Douglas describes be
disbelieved? Like Amber Rudd holding an inquiry into Orgreave, if he
was to be making it all up what would there to be gained for him?
“Come and wet this
truncheon” was one of the taunts thrown at the striking miners
from officers of the Met, brought up from London to police the picket
lines. It was, however, just one of many, others being “We've
come 200 miles to sort you bastards out. Who's first?”, “You've
come here for bother, now you're going to get some”, and “My
kids getting one of these, what's your dad getting you?” whilst
waving toys at miner's children at Christmas time.
All just robust banter
between grown men (and children), you might say? And you might be
right? But what about the violence meted out not only to the striking
men but to their wives, children and grandparents? What about the
wholesale, full-scale attack upon villages and communities by police
armed with batons, shields and axes? What about the wanton
destruction of miner's homes by rampaging police described as going
berserk? What about the mass arrests of strikers and non-strikers
alike? What about the mounted police charging full-pelt into lines of
unarmed pickets? The gangs of police charging down garden paths and
smashing their way through back doors into kitchens? The fingers of
arresting officers being jabbed into the eyes of arrested miners so
as to incapacitate them? The burning down of picket huts? The setting
of police dogs onto miners? The leaving of calling cards and stickers
saying 'You have just met the Met'? The waving of money by
police at miners, boasting of the overtime they were being paid? The
tapping of telephones and the opening of mail? The use of crude,
plastic tie-bands in place of handcuffs? The use of soldiers to
bolster police lines? Police breaking bones and smashing teeth and
then charging the victims with assault? The 'take no prisoners'
tactic of police laying into miners and seriously injuring them with
no attempt to then arrest them? Cars stopped at road blocks and
having their windshields shattered by police, the doors axed off and
the boot smashed open? The total disregard for civil liberties and
civil rights? The deliberate removal or non-wearing of police
identity numbers? And then there was the blatant political agenda on
display and the sudden availability of massive police resources, all
blatantly pre-planned by a government intent on taking on and
breaking the miners? And so on and so forth, ad infinitum. All ably
described and conveyed by Dave Douglas, who at the time was himself
an NUM Branch Delegate based in Hatfield, Doncaster.
Just a few months after
the defeat of the strike, in a field in Wiltshire, the police brought
to a halt a convoy of festival-goers on their way to the Stonehenge
Free Festival and with absolute and extreme prejudice smashed the
living daylights out of them. Without fear or favour they inflicted
unforgiving violence upon men, women, pregnant women, women holding
babies, teenagers and children alike. They destroyed the vehicles
they were travelling in – effectively their homes – took away the
children and handed them over to social services who then shaved
their heads, and impounded the pet dogs and had them put down by the
RSPCA. With total impunity.
The tactics used against
the festival-goers were the same as those used against the miners -
if not worse – and it made sense. These were tactics that had been
tested and proven to be effective, so why wouldn't they be used
again? Having labelled the miners as 'the enemy within', the police
had essentially been given political backing to break them by
whatever means necessary. And so they did. At Orgreave, at the coal
pits and in the mining villages, the police had been let off their
leash and revelling in their newly-given freedom, acted as unlawfully
as they wished without fear of any consequences. At Stonehenge, they
pushed their freedom further and acted even more so like rampaging
Nazi stormtroopers; the footage of the event still to this day
remaining distressing to watch.
According to Amber Rudd,
policing has changed sufficiently since the miners strike to mean an
enquiry isn't merited and it would only be used as a stick to beat
the Thatcher government with. It's a nice, comforting idea that
policing has indeed changed and one that probably a lot of people are
only too happy to believe but of course, it's simply not true. Who's
she trying to kid?
Since the miners strike,
among many other events we've had the Poll Tax riot in London where
mounted police charged full-square at crowds of people before
repeating the trick but with police vans. We've had the May Day
demonstrations where police battered and battoned people mercilessly.
We've had the G20 Climate Camp protests in London where police again
smashed peaceful protesters mercilessly. We've had the Occupy
protests where police happily battoned defenceless people. We've had
the student protests against increases in student fees where police
with great and violent enthusiasm attacked teenagers. All putting
paid to the idea that if you remain within the law and protest
peacefully then no-one will get hurt.
Internationally, we've
seen people absolutely traumatised by the violence meted out by
police in Genoa during the anti-G8 summit demonstrations there.
Likewise in Gothenburg, Prague, Davos, and Barcelona. More recently,
we've seen people in Catalonia - men and women, young and old, even
firemen - violently attacked by swarms of Spanish special police with
not a word of condemnation from the British government. And why might
that be? Why the silence from Amber Rudd and her ilk?
Having experienced
similar violence from police unleashed by the British government
during the miners strike, Dave Douglas can tell us why. Dave Douglas
can tell us all about State violence, as he does in Come And Wet This
Truncheon. He's not concerned, however, with trying to convince
anyone of anything because at heart he knows there are many who would
never believe the British police could act in the way he describes.
At heart, he also knows there are even more who are fully aware of
police violence, many through having witnessed or experienced it
themselves though they refuse to acknowledge it, talk about it or
even to think about it. Perhaps from fear? From resignation?
Hopelessness? Despair? Whatever, it's the elephant in the room.
Dave Douglas wrote Come And Wet This Truncheon not only to record the
things he witnessed but also as a warning that police violence isn't
going to go away – and it hasn't. It's still there, waiting in the
wings to be once again unleashed when required and even when not
required.
“If they come for you in the night, then they will come for me
in the morning,” he quotes black activist Angela Davies as
saying. There is, unfortunately, very little to be done about it. We
can't just ask the police to be nice. We can't just wish State
violence away.
So what can be said? That we can refuse to be intimidated? That we
can at least know the police for what they are? And what can be done?
What can be advocated? That we fight back? That we box clever? That
we not play them at their game? Have trust in the police? Have trust
in the government?
Dave Douglas certainly doesn't offer any answers and that's no slight
on him because I'm not sure if there really are any? Except perhaps,
even if it is a cliché, the old adage that goes: 'They've got the
guns – but we've got the numbers...'
John Serpico
We know the identity of the woman in the photograph and we know the
identity of the person who took the photo. It's there on the Internet
if you google it. But why hasn't the fucker on the horse ever been
identified? It says it all, really.
