World Month For Lab Animals
SAVE THE NEWCHURCH GUINEA PIGS NATIONAL
SATURDAY, APRIL 28th
2001 : DERBY City Centre
...................A report by the Newchurch Guinea Pigs Campaign . . .
A perfectly timed demonstration in the ideal location! There had been a workers' rights demo in the morning, the football was on in the afternoon and an internal investigation was about to sentence 8 Derby policemen for drug dealing!! The Derby cops were in complete disarray and WE (as usual) had the upper hand all day!
We had chosen two meeting points to gather the hardy, faithful souls who had come out on this celebrated day. By 2pm at least 150 eager protesters had arrived at the market place to join the party. We were ready to start, ready to let the cops know we meant business and understand that we were not going to be intimidated by another poxy Section 14. Everybody who did turn up were so obviously disappointed by the dismal attendance but did not let the apathy of others spoil this intense day. Robin Webb was quick to the mike and rallied us together with a rousing castigation of vivisection and Jonny from the campaign localised the issues of the day, describing the brutality that goes on at Newchurch every single hour.
Right at the end of the speeches, when the cheers were filling the square and the cops had finally realised where the demo was taking place (DOH!) a humungous 40ft banner was dropped down from some huge, ugly bank - the cheers hit the roof of the sky! Most excellent timing, thank you boys!
The guinea pig costume was unleashed and the march quickly got under way! Perhaps confused by the giant guinea pig approaching them, the gimpish cops just had to kick off didn't they! They senselessly tried to contain us from entering the "Pedestrianised Zone" and their true colours were soon violently displayed. The Thugs in Blue tried to literally stamp their authoritarian feet on anyone that wanted to simply walk down that street and then they lost it completely by assaulting one of the protesters! What complete w@****s!!!! These morons can and never will contain us, however many there are and however big they think they are with their inflated jackets and their inflated egos!
This wonderful chaos continued all day but sadly their savageness as well! We charged over to the main road out of Derby and split up into two groups - one spilling off down the main highway, the other crashing noisily under the bridge and back into town. Just when the cops thought they must have had one over on us and could successfully block our path the other group came strutting down and we all just piled through the flimsy police blockade! So much for keeping us out of the pedestrianised centre; so much for keeping our message hidden away from the public! Loads of the locals got involved, grabbing banners and shouting at the police - fully aware that we had a perfect right to hold this demonstration and fully aware that the cops are antagonising bully-boys. With everyone regrouped we headed back for a full road block of the main Derby highway and back under the bridge for a quick sit down - we were tired! By this time forces from Staffordshire, Leicestershire and Cambridgeshire had joined the Derby cops and descended upon us, coshes waving and a 'copter buzzing overhead! Here another protester was assaulted! Their heavy-handed harassment and brutality was just sickening. They penned us in for what seemed like an eternity, at least 2 or 3 cops per person, filling the air with their fists and their stench. Then they marched us over to a pathetic strip of common land where we were told we could hold our demonstration!! Pathetic!! Perhaps the saddest realisation was that if just one or two hundred more people had bothered to come down, none of this would have happened!
It's getting to the point where one day they'll lead us to some lonely field, hand us spades with Jack Straw's insignia on and ask us to dig our own graves! That's what these puppets would like, to bury truth and justice once and for all!
Unperturbed however, we stood our ground and they eventually got bored of standing in the rain - it was probably seeping through their PVC skin and damaging expensive circuit boards! Remember, this is where they would have loved to have penned us in ALL day - so you can imagine after all the chaos we created how utterly pissed off they were! So we carried on our march back through the pedestrianised zone and back to the market place where the banner was still triumphantly waving! There were more fascistic arrests of innocent people who were all just strolling back to the market place or just packing away valuables! Another indictment of the sinister Section 14; a shocking and sick abuse of power - especially since the last activist was not released until 4am!! Those that had already left proceeded to some excellent home demos at Isotron plc, Midas International, Darley Oaks and Carol Heathcote's shabby shack.
And that's not it! At Newchurch the demented Staffordshire police were obviously expecting us to descend upon Darley Oaks. They'd tried to block off the roads around the area with straw bales and had erected huge metal cage-like barriers running along both sides of the A515 to the end of Darley drive and proceeded to shout "Get in the corral NOW!". The cunning protesters who arrived there at noon braved the weather to make a mockery of this pathetic stunt, posing for photos around their pathetic "corral" and generally making a laughing stock out of the police presence; which happened to include one chief inspector, five inspectors, seven sergeants, forty very un-pc PCs, eight security guards and another hugely expensive helicopter - all for just 19 activists!! No space was allowed for protest at Ivy Bank lodge, but John Hall was seen leaving his dingy house looking very distressed indeed. Excellent!!
A superb day, a fantastic display of a morally powerful few, running rings around a bunch of uniformed oppressive amateurs. Won't these lardy cops ever realise that they can never contain what is just and what is right - they've been trying for centuries, they always resort to violence and they have always failed!
Please contact the campaign with any info., either video or eyewitness accounts that you have concerning the draconian police brutality and assault on protesters on the day and we can all demand some justice and some big fat cheques! Yummy!
And for all those absent - well, what a great day you so sadly missed!!
Remember the forthcoming demos and remember the guinea pigs:
Thursday 3rd May @11am - RS Biotech demos
(supply disinfectants & sawdust and irradiates material for full barrier guinea pigs)
Tower Works, Well Street, Finedon, Northampton.
Tuesday 8th May @11am-2pm - Isotron plc (HQ)
(irradiates substances for pathogen free guinea pigs)
Moray Rd, Elgin Industrial Estate, Swindon, Wiltshire.
Wednesday 23rd May @11-2pm - Isotron plc (Halls’ local supplier)
Brunel Close, Drayton Fields Industrial Estate, Daventry, Northamptonshire.
IT’S UP TO ALL OF US! ......................... Our 1st visit report . .Our 3rd visit report.... home