By Callum MacRae
Protestors working to prevent progress at an Angus Energy oil drilling site in Brockham, Surrey have been making worrying reports of intimidating behaviour on the part of the local police. Protestors have alleged online intimidation, failure to follow up on harassment reports, and deliberate confusion tactics.
Protestors have been encamped near the site since early December 2016 and have been joined by many concerned residents of the local area. Protestors have been utilizing a number of established anti-drilling tactics, particularly ‘slow walking’ lorries – a method whereby protestors stand in front of access routes, and slowly walk lorries into the site, considerably hindering progress on the site.
The site has been plagued by problems of harassment since its establishment, with BBC Surrey reporting on December 12th that a reporter and a protestor had been threatened by a masked man, who engaged them in an aggressive dispute before driving off with the promise ‘I’ll be back.’
Such reports have continued in recent weeks, and are increasingly implicating the local police force in the intimidation suffered by the protestors, many of whom have faced arrest. These reports include: unnecessary arrests used to frighten local residents; failing to follow up reports of online harassment, including death threats; persistently and deliberately changing their use of warnings in the appeal and arrest process to confuse protestors; and deliberately issuing letters to local residents who participated in protests at unsociable hours.
This comes in the wake of a damning report by the Network for Police Monitoring in 2016, which finds that there is ‘an opaque relationship between the police and the oil and gas industry’ in the UK that is having a ‘chilling effect on the freedom to protest’. In particular, the report finds that the Surrey Police force that is responsible for Brockham has significant precedent when it comes to unwarranted aggression – with reports of needlessly heavy-handed tactics and a lack of concern for protestors’ safety.
Green MEP for the South East Keith Taylor has echoed the report’s concerns, accusing the police of ‘bully boy tactics’ that are designed to ‘squash anti-drilling protests’.
To find out more about the Brockham protests or get involved, please visit their facebook page https://www.facebook.com/BrockhamProtectionCamp/
