Staffordshire Police carry out 'spurious' stop and search on hunt saboteurs
Sabs believe it was really to "gather intelligence" on actvists.
On 21st December 2020, hunt saboteurs attended a meet of the Staffordshire Moorlands Hunt. Manchester Hunt Saboteurs (MHS) – who had joined West Yorkshire Hunt Saboteurs and Staffordshire Hunt Saboteurs – reported that police stopped and searched its vehicle at the meet. And it claims the stop and search was carried out on “spurious grounds”.
No records available
The saboteurs had followed the Staffordshire Moorlands Hunt to the village of Longnor, near Buxton, in the Peak District. Images posted by MHS on the day show two police vehicles stopped on the road in front of the sab group’s car. Video posted on 23rd December shows a male officer arresting a saboteur (3:00) in what the sab describes as “deliberately playing [them] for [their] details” (3:02).
On 1st January 2021, Staffordshire Hunt Saboteurs posted a freedom of information (FOI) request on Facebook that asked for the “Total number of reported vehicle thefts” and “Total number of reported vehicle burglaries” in the Longnor area between 1st and 21st December 2020. The police response said it “does hold the requested information” but that it could not “retrieve any records which fits the criteria” of the request.
In other words, there was no record of recently reported thefts or burglaries before police stopped and searched members of MHS. This appears to contradict the officer’s statement in the video that he’d had reports of “vehicles broken into by people wearing balaclavas” (0:39).
Reacting to the FOI, Staffordshire Hunt Saboteurs described the arrest as a “mis-use” of power.
“Balaclavas”
The Citro contacted Staffordshire Police about the incident. It said that the FOI is genuine but that the response was “was specific to Longnor, not the wider Staffordshire Moorlands.” It went on to say:
A number of thefts had been reported across the Staffordshire Moorlands, including one occasion where suspects wearing balaclavas committed a vehicle crime offence and fled from the scene.
And when asked why officers were in the area and whether they’d been called by people associated with the Staffordshire Moorlands Hunt, the police responded:
It was alleged that a group of people wearing balaclavas had entered private land. We do not provide details about the identity of callers.
Meanwhile, MHS told The Citro:
Despite consenting to a search, which proved we were not involved in any criminal activities, we were still threatened with arrest for declining to provide our personal details - something we were well within our rights to do.
We have no doubts that the real reason for the stop & search was to gather intelligence on local activists.
Past and future encounters
MHS stated that Staffordshire Police “are no strangers” to the group, the two having encountered “many times” at meets of the North Staffordshire Hunt. While this doesn’t necessarily preclude all suspicion in the eyes of police, it’s appears that the entire stop and search incident was built on the precarious association of ‘balaclavas’.
This isn’t the first time hunts appear to have fed “spurious” allegations to the police as a disruptive tactic, and it’s unlikely to be the last. There is a popular perception that police act as informal security for hunts, and that impression is unlikely to go away as long as incidents like these happen with regularity.
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Headline image via Manchester Hunt Saboteurs