Last
updated: 07/02/08
Police
criticised over union protest
Police
have come under fire for inadequate security arrangements at Oxford
Union’s Freedom of speech forum last term.
The controversial forum, with speakers including BNP leader Nick Griffin
and Holocaust denier David Irving, was surrounded by a protest of over
a thousand people.
On the night, protesters barged in and occupied the chamber for over
half an hour. Once they got past the bouncers at the gate, it was left
to Union Standing Committee members to try to prevent protesters entering
the building.
Police later entered the building to help escort protesters out.
Evan Harris, the Liberal Democrat MP for Oxford West and Abingdon criticised
Thames Valley Police for failing to put a cordon around the Union, allowing
the protestors to barge through.
Harris said, “The police have failed to provide for the safety
of this event; failed to provide for the safety of this going ahead
as planned.”
Mr Griffin said, “I think it’s wrong that the police didn’t
deal with it more effectively.”
Luke Tryl, last term’s Union President, criticised the police
response to the demonstrators in the Oxford Mail.
Tryl later retracted these comments. He told The Oxford Student,
“We feel we worked well with the police and recognise we’ll
have to co-operate with them in the future on a variety of issues.”
OUSU President Martin McCluskey who helped organise the anti-fascist
demonstration, said, “I think the police could have handled the
event far better. The fact that protesters were allowed to crowd around
the gate was just ridiculous. I expected there to be a more controlled,
cordoned area so that those attending the event would not have been
stopped from getting in or out.”
Superintendent O’Dowda from Thames Valley Police said, “The
police leading up to this event had been involved in a lot of careful
planning, including setting out a memorandum of understanding with the
Union particularly on roles and responsibilities for that event. Our
responsibity was for the policing of the external element of the event.”
“We would only intervene if serious public disorder was taking
place inside and we were asked to intervene. It was a private event
for members only.”
Rob Owen of the NUS National Executive was among the protestors who
stormed the chamber.
“It was a spontaneous thing which just kind of happened”
he said. “There were people sitting on top of the railings next
to the gate and right up against the gate when for some reason it opened
for about half a minute and around 30 people managed to force their
way through.
“The security guards tried to grab us but there were too many
and we managed to get into the debating chamber.”
The protest’s organisers insisted that they did not intend demonstrators
to enter the Union building. Martin McCluskey said, “The organisers
of the protest - myself included - never intended for this to happen.
The majority of people who ended up in the Union chamber were not Oxford
students, and represented a very small minority of the thousand or so
people who protested peacefully outside the Union.”
There have been claims that protesters chanted “Kill Tryl”,
to which the Union president Tryl said, “I don’t think they
do their cause any favours by inciting violence. That is my only regret.”
Both Griffin and Irving have claimed the event as a personal success.
Nick Griffin heralded the forum as breaking the No Platform policy,
which the majority of universities and trade unions have held for a
number of decades. He said, “I’ve done a lot of interviews
and the media publicity is just amazing. All it’s going to show
the public is the BNP standing up as a lone voice.”
“The public will see that and a few more people will have sympathy
with us, so in political terms it’s very good for us. In moral
terms we’ve broken the No Platform policy, which has strangled
British universities for forty years now.”
Tryl said, “I think that’s quite an extreme view. It’s
really a matter for other universities to debate.”
Supporters on the BNP message board saw the event as responsible for
a rise in support for the BNP. Mike from Ashfield wrote, “Go for
it Nick! On ITV news they have the latest poll: Con 41% Lab 27% Lib
18% and OTHERS (i.e. mainly BNP) 14%. Onwards and upwards.”
Martin McCluskey responded to these claims, “Throughout the campaign
against the event, myself and a number of others said time and again
that it would achieve nothing but to allow Griffin and Irving a prestigious
forum in which to grandstand and make claims about being part of the
political mainstream. Nick Griffin was never interested in having a
debate about free speech, and his comments before and after the debate
demonstrate just that.”
“The place to fight fascist and racist views isn’t behind
closed doors in a private debating club. It’s on the doorsteps
of communities that are being ripped apart by groups like the BNP. I
think it would do some Union officers the world of good to visit those
communities and see first hand the effect of the BNP’s vile views.”
Some protesters claimed they had been victims of racist abuse while
campaigning in the Union’s poll on whether to hold the forum.
Ruqayyah Collector, NUS Black Students Officer said, “A student
who was campaigning in the no vote was threatened with violence. We
always say wherever racists are, racist attacks rise. Even before these
people came, students were threatened.”
Tryl said, “Obviously we believe all instances of racism are completely
unacceptable.”
by
Hannah Kuchler
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Protestors
outside the Oxford Union
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