Travellers Had To Travel
The following took place at Dale farm travellers’ site in Crays Hill, Essex
“A beautiful family owns this land.” Touching message written in red paint and with a heart as a full stop. Perfect bait that, along with the protesters, attracted the media which are always yearning for a good story that encompasses a wide range of emotions, drama, violence, taser guns and even racism.
The matter of fact is that the public’s attention was slyly pulled in a misleading direction; face book, twitter, media and travelers’ representatives made an effort to equate the kerfuffle with racism against the travelers: “indiscriminate force”, “prejudice against gypsies is prevalent and mainstream”, “we’ll need human rights observers” and all the sensationalism necessary to draw a distorted portrait of the eviction and disregard the real matter of the issue: The Green Belt Policy.
The green belt policy ensures the protection of rural areas retaining them available for forestry, agriculture and outdoor leisure, preventing urban sprawl. If a community settles down without having planning permission, is a constitutional action by the government to litigate on court, something that was done by Basildon Council, and, if corresponds, start out the eviction enforced by the respective authorities. However, the activists and volunteers in favour of the travelers seemed to ignore this fact. To be more concerned about the scuffles which were supposed to change overnight a 10 year battle that has already been settled on court.
When all the procedures were properly done, when the houses of the travelers within the urban areas were respected and when the acts were in accordance with the court’s decision, the racism matter started to have a tang of lame excuse to get around the law and entitle a community to live illegally in a green belt. Definitely is important and worrying the alleged indiscriminate force against some travelers, but those separate deeds were not going to change the odds regarding the inevitable eviction.
28th of October and everything that happened at Dale farm is part of the past now (and of the history as well as it was the biggest eviction in the history of the United Kingdom). Now, protesters, travelers and Media are all gone, the circus¹ left the town and the scenario where the stunts took place is now surrounded by bulldozers, Lorries and flat bed trucks²at the commands of the bailiffs who now rule the place. No traces of the graffiti that captured many people’s attention; it must be shattered between the rubble and other remnants caused by the bulldozers. The families are gone and hopefully they have headed toward a better place or, at least, to a location where this tragedy is not going to occur again.
Sometimes law can be excessively methodical, thoughtless and even pitiless against people that, after all, are just trying to protect the place they call home.
“A beautiful family owns this land.” Touching message written in red paint and with a heart as a full stop. Perfect bait that, along with the protesters, attracted the media which are always yearning for a good story that encompasses a wide range of emotions, drama, violence, taser guns and even racism.
The matter of fact is that the public’s attention was slyly pulled in a misleading direction; face book, twitter, media and travelers’ representatives made an effort to equate the kerfuffle with racism against the travelers: “indiscriminate force”, “prejudice against gypsies is prevalent and mainstream”, “we’ll need human rights observers” and all the sensationalism necessary to draw a distorted portrait of the eviction and disregard the real matter of the issue: The Green Belt Policy.
The green belt policy ensures the protection of rural areas retaining them available for forestry, agriculture and outdoor leisure, preventing urban sprawl. If a community settles down without having planning permission, is a constitutional action by the government to litigate on court, something that was done by Basildon Council, and, if corresponds, start out the eviction enforced by the respective authorities. However, the activists and volunteers in favour of the travelers seemed to ignore this fact. To be more concerned about the scuffles which were supposed to change overnight a 10 year battle that has already been settled on court.
When all the procedures were properly done, when the houses of the travelers within the urban areas were respected and when the acts were in accordance with the court’s decision, the racism matter started to have a tang of lame excuse to get around the law and entitle a community to live illegally in a green belt. Definitely is important and worrying the alleged indiscriminate force against some travelers, but those separate deeds were not going to change the odds regarding the inevitable eviction.
28th of October and everything that happened at Dale farm is part of the past now (and of the history as well as it was the biggest eviction in the history of the United Kingdom). Now, protesters, travelers and Media are all gone, the circus¹ left the town and the scenario where the stunts took place is now surrounded by bulldozers, Lorries and flat bed trucks²at the commands of the bailiffs who now rule the place. No traces of the graffiti that captured many people’s attention; it must be shattered between the rubble and other remnants caused by the bulldozers. The families are gone and hopefully they have headed toward a better place or, at least, to a location where this tragedy is not going to occur again.
Sometimes law can be excessively methodical, thoughtless and even pitiless against people that, after all, are just trying to protect the place they call home.