[ oct 2004 ]
SCROLL FOR BACKGROUND NEWS STORY
"On 22 March 2003, the police used surprisingly extreme tactics to prevent more than 120 activists from reaching a legally sanctioned anti-war demonstration outside a US Airforce Base in Fairford (Glos ). The people who police prevented from attending were a diverse group with a broad range of affiliations. The main thing that they had in common was the desire to travel from London by coach and the intention of joining the legal protest in Fairford. After the coaches had travelled two and a half hours from London, the coaches were stopped by police just miles from the demonstration. Using section 60 powers (of the Public Order and Criminal Justice Act 1994) police slowly searched the coaches for weapons for one and a half hours.
"The passengers cooperated with this search, and they were invited to reboard the coaches when the search concluded. NO ARRESTS WERE MADE FOR ANY BEHAVIOR OR ITEMS FOUND. Passengers now believed they were going to proceed to the demonstration at Fairford. After all the passengers boarded, the coaches were forced all the way back to London under a continuous 9 to 12 vehicle police escort.
"Currently more than 70 of the coach passengers are involved in an ongoing high court human rights judicial review case against the police. All of these passengers were held against their will on the coaches for two and a half hours and prevented from exercising their right to protest at a legally agreed demonstration which attracted between 2,000-5,000 demonstrators from across the UK. "