Still makes no sense to me after all these years. I was only 8 at the time but still don't understand why the police went in hard (and seemingly revelled in it)
To me it's quite simple, Thatcher politicised the police force and the SY Police hierarchy in particular, revelled in it. In that respect it made sense then and makes even more sense today, especially after the Hillsbro' disaster enquiry.
I get the political viewpoint but I still don't understand the mentality of each individual member of SYP. Personally speaking, given those orders, I would've ignored them - what did anyone have to gain from GBH?
No accountability, just do us over & sweep under carpet, Thatcher's a monster & should be remembered as one.
it was a set up,simple as that,designed solely to smash the moral and mindset of striking miners..it was a peaceful event to start with,but what the lads didnt know was that it was all a front,so the pigs could get them all in one place,ready to have their heads kicked in.
I was there, and not a young kid but a 36 year old, I hope there will be a investigation. That ******* on't white horse wants charging with attempted murder he nearly took my head off, he hit one guy who got carried off always wondered if he was O.K.
What you have to remember is they were continuously briefed on how the miners were the enemy and it's an us and them situation . Imagine Hecky giving a team talk in dressing room to rouse em up for the event ahead,well that's how they will have approached this , All this alongside a continuous political and media message of lies that the striking miners were wrong and democracy was at stake , The political messages were corrupt and untruthful which is all coming to bear on them now and some police officers who were on duty at the time are seeing what the truth is and coming forward with evidence against the corrupt system just as the Hillsborough enquiry did
Irrespective of any outcome I will never ever trust the police again, I am 67 and an ex steel worker, we were on strike for 3 months and I was at a local picket for nearly every day of that 3 months, we were a small ( between 2 and 12 depending on the day), mostly peaceful picket, there was usually a small police presence who let us approach lorries and talk to them, sometimes with success other times without. Every so often a mini bus full of SPG used to turn up kitted out in what you could call "semi" riot gear and the usual police would disappear and the SPG take over, they came to cause trouble, pushing,shoving, kicking our shins with their steel capped boots all designed to cause a reaction so they could kick off with us. All this in my opinion was just a dress rehearsal for the big one, the miners. We were out 3 months, we went back on the first day of the financial year, a union official told me in the February that it was all political and had been set up by thatcher and predicted to the day when it would end. When the miners strike started it was obvious to me they were using similar tactics as with us but the longer it went on the more proficient in subtle violence they were becoming but then that all changed and it became severely overt in nature and culminated in Orgreave. *******s the lot of em, in similar circumstances today they would act the same.
there was usually a small police presence who let us approach lorries and talk to them. *******s the lot of em Erm?
Yep and that small presence ****ed off out of the way while their bully boy mates got stuck in then came back and took the ****. It was all orchestrated. erm erm erm.
The strike did not consist of one day at Orgreave. So why all the media attention to just one day? If there is an investigation then that investigation should compromise of events over a period of years (like t'owd man as eluded to) and not just one day at Orgreave
The Orgreave investigation is about what happened at Orgeaves on that day if you was there then you would understand. I'm a man with no fear, but that day.
Ergh ,is it because the people who were arrested,/injured at Orgreave want answers as to why the police acted as they did on that day? They haven't called for an inquiry into the miners strike as a whole ,just as the Hillsborough victims/families didn't call for an investigation into other near misses at the football ground of which there were many.