since everyone has had their day in Court and there is no way whatsoever the 6 chaps arrested can be implicated in the injury of the cop (I know some of them and none of them would have wanted things to go this far) I’ll add some more details

the incident is actually from summer 2004, the first season after the long hot summer caused a massive backlash.

what happened is that out of some of the local crews in my area, some went to Nottingham (mansfield desert) whilst others went to this ill-fated party.

I have spoken to people who were there and will try and get someone else to discuss, although sadly I think people are too ashamed of the whole affair as however you spin it it looks bad on the so-called “party people”. Unfortunately the papers can’t really be accused of lying when 3 or 4 people from separate backgrounds have told me pretty much the same thing as what happened in the newspaper reports.

From reading both the articles and the comment from the Welsh lady on this thread it looks like the venue was ill-chosen, particuarly as people parked their cars in farmers fields or blocked access (which has been avoided at the last few parties recently)

The party was s63’d – but allegedly given some time to carry on until Sunday Lunchtime and pack up. the crews refused to accept this, (unlike those in Nottingham who accepted they’d had a night and moved on…) so some bobbies seized the generators.

They were then followed by a large crowd of ravers, who tried to get the gensets back, so the cops threw the gensets over the mountain!

As a reprisal, they were then pelted at which point the officer sustained a serious eye injury. This would also show the cops were in normal uniform, a TSG copper wears a very robust helmet with a face-shield!

Cops then retreated (probably to ensure the injured officer got medical treatment) so the crews occupied the land and tried to set up again (one genset was still working!) ; only to be properly evicted by a full TSG (riot squad) deployment and all the equipment to be confiscated. Hardly surprising really, or the locals would eventually have gone apeshit and the chance of a full-on riot…

Although the cops throwing gensets of a cliff was clearly wrong, it does come across like an action carried out out of sheer panic and fear that their authority broke down, coupled with the typical British stubborness that “we won’t let them win”. you also have an equally stubborn crowd ; where one angry young man acting totally on his own yet “acting for everybody” causes a cop serious injury.

Now if cops dragged out a young girl from the crowd and beat her with batons I could understand an amount of violence; – but from what I have been told most violence was merely a reprisal over the gensets. I can’t see any excuse for causing a public service worker permanent disability, over a few hundred quids worth of iron and steel, even if you don’t agree with his or her actions at the time.

Especially when it could all have been prevented by packing away and regrouping.

Someone has wrecked a life for a couple of pieces of machinery; and quite frankly the action smacks more of someone “wanting to be the hard man” than helping the crews – I’m not surprised the cops went in heavy afterwards.

It in fact worries me more that such violent peopel are to be found at parties; look what the culture of violence has done to London raves. where could it go next? if someone thinks its OK to blind a cop; then they may think it OK to use violence against someone from a “rival crew” at raves. Come to think of it, even outside London raves violence has escalated in the last few years….

there has been more violence amongst ravers in the last two seasons in my area than from the cops, even with the cops’ increasing use of TSG formations!

Worse still, why didn’t people contact the Welsh raverS? there are loads on PV and other rave boards; with local knowledge, perhaps even contacts in areas where raves could be tolerated.

Everyones lost now, whether they are locals or ravers. Locals will be paying for the cops pension in their council tax for 40+ years, I would expect the cop is now put on a desk job of watching the internet to stop raves, and community relations between Wales and England in this area have been irretrievably damaged.

In some ways this comes across as “drugs tourism” in the same way as people invading Asian countries to hold parties because their enforcement authorities can’t cope…

at least Storm has got their rig back… I hope the other stuff that was taken is returned (I reiterate that this kit, and the people involved had no part in the injury to the cop, and now the Court has made its decision that this is the case…)