List of cases of police brutality in the United Kingdom

This is a list of cases of police brutality in the United Kingdom.

National

• 1984–85: The UK miners' strike led to confrontations between striking miners and police in northern England and south Wales. A widely reported clash at the Orgreave Coking Plant near Rotherham on 18 June 1984, with around 5,000 on each side, was dubbed 'The Battle of Orgreave'. Violence flared after police on horse-back charged the miners with truncheons drawn and inflicted serious injuries upon several individuals. In 1991, the South Yorkshire Police were forced to pay out £425,000 to thirty-nine miners who were arrested in the events at the incident.^[1] Other less well known, but also bloody, police attacks took place, for example, in Maltby, South Yorkshire.^[2]

• 2010: Policing of the student protests included the controversial technique of kettling. At the Whitehall march on 24 November mounted police's use of horses for crowd control was described by others present as a "charge".^[3][4] A journalist at the Parliament Square protest on 9 December characterised the police tactics as "very heavy-handed".^[5] Several police officers were injured during the clashes.^[6]

England

• 1936: the Battle of Cable Street was a major clash between the police, who were attempting to protect a rally by Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists, and about 300,000 anti-fascist protestors. Mounted police charged at the crowd,^[7] and many of the arrested demonstrators reported harsh treatment at the hands of the police. Police were among the 175 people injured in the confrontation.
• 1974: the death of Kevin Gately occurred during the Red Lion Square disorders. Gately and other students were marching with the International Marxist Group when the latter tried to break a police cordon separating the demonstration from a National Front march.
• 1974: the Windsor Free Festival was broken up by police. Nicholas Albery and others successfully sued the Chief Constable for creating a riotous situation in which the Thames Valley Police attacked the plaintiffs.^[8]
• 1979: Blair Peach was fatally assaulted by an officer of the Special Patrol Group (SPG) during an anti-racism demonstration in London. A police investigation into the SPG found that they had a cache of unauthorised weapons.^[9] The Metropolitan Police reached an out-of-court settlement with Peach's family in 1989.^[10] The police eventually published their internal report in 2010, concluding that Peach had probably been killed by an officer, but officers within that unit had refused to identify the culprit.^[11]
• 1985: the Battle of the Beanfield occurred in Wiltshire when police attempted to stop a convoy of New Age travellers from reaching Stonehenge. After a stand-off, police attacked both vehicles and people, smashing windows and beating travellers on the head with truncheons. A court judgement six years later found the police guilty of wrongful arrest, assault and criminal damage.^[12]
• 1994: Richard O'Brien died in Metropolitan Police custody. He was arrested while drunk, and held face down in a police van. An inquest returned a verdict of unlawful killing, but three officers charged with manslaughter were acquitted.^[13]
• 1998: Christopher Alder died at the Queen's Gardens police station from Asphyxiation. He was arrested for breach of the peace at Hull Royal Infirmary. Footage of Christopher, lying handcuffed and half-naked on the floor of a police cell, surrounded by five officers making monkey noises is available online. An inquest returned a verdict of unlawful killing, but the five officers charged with manslaughter were acquitted.^[14]
• 1999: Harry Stanley was shot dead by Metropolitan Police, thinking he was armed, although he was found to be carrying only a table leg. The coroner controversially returned an open verdict. The Crown Prosecution Service accepted the police's assertion that they were acting in self-defence.^[15]
• 2009: policing at the 2009 G-20 London summit protests included the technique of kettling. A bystander, Ian Tomlinson, died shortly after being pushed to the ground by a police officer. An inquest found that Tomlinson was unlawfully killed. An officer in the Metropolitan Police's Territorial Support Group was charged with manslaughter, but found not guilty.^[16]

Northern Ireland

• 1922: in the McMahon murders six Irish Catholic civilians in Belfast were shot dead and two wounded by policemen of the Ulster Special Constabulary (USC) or Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC). All but one of the dead were members of the McMahon family. The police broke into their house at night and shot all eight males inside. It is believed to have been a reprisal for the IRA's killing of two policemen the day before.
• 1922: The Arnon Street killings in Belfast were the killings of six Catholic civilians by USC or RIC police officers, in retaliation for the killing of an RIC officer by the IRA.^[17][18]
• 1969: during intense sectarian rioting, the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), an overwhelmingly Protestant police force, was accused of helping Loyalists and of failing to protect Catholic areas. In particular, the Battle of the Bogside was a three-day conflict in Derry between the RUC and nationalist residents.
• 1970s: During Operation Demetrius, the Northern Ireland government, and then the British government under direct rule, used interrogation practices known as the five techniques. These methods were adopted by the RUC with training and advice regarding their use coming from senior intelligence officials in the United Kingdom Government.
• 1997: mass protests led to fierce riots and gun battles in nationalist districts of Northern Ireland. In the last spell of widespread violence before the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in April 1998, the RUC and British Army were forced to withdraw entirely from some nationalist areas of Belfast. It was sparked by official permission for an Orange Order march in Portadown, and the RUC's aggressive removal of nationalist protesters who had been blocking the march (the Drumcree conflict).

Drumcree conflict

The Drumcree conflict is an ongoing dispute over a yearly parade in Portadown. Inter-communal violence has repeatedly occurred since 1873. Years in which brutality on the part of the RUC has been recorded include:

• 1972: British troops and the RUC bulldozed barricades and used CS gas and rubber bullets on those protesting against the march.^[19][20]
• 1985: police forcefully removed protesters and allowed the march to continue;^[21] at least one man was beaten unconscious.^[20]
• 1986: the RUC banned a march, but rioting flamed between residents and the RUC; locals felt that RUC officers had "mutinied" and refused to enforce the ban.^[20]
• 1996: After some years of relative calm, rioting returned as police violently removed protestors from Garvaghy Road, often after beating them. Nationalist leaders stated that their people had lost all faith in the impartiality of the RUC.^[22]

Wales

• 1911: The Llanelli railway strike was brutally suppressed by the police,^[23] and two strikers were shot dead by soldiers.

See also

• Coking plant

References