Police Release Me
UNIVERSITY POLICE LOCKED protesters and students inside the Exam Schools for nearly half an hour last Thursday in a brawl that resulted in one person being arrested.
The incident happened when ex-International Monetary Fund (IMF) head Michael Cadessus came to Oxford to give an open lecture. A protest was held outside the building and, in the ensuing confusion, some people were let inside and some kept outside as the doors were then locked. Those inside the Schools were then held for some time - estimates were as high as half an hour, though the university Press Office said it was "around ten minutes" - before being released out of the back exit.
Cadessus - due to speak on 'What the IMF has learnt' - was met by a protest organised by a group calling themselves Oxford Global Action. Their leader, Linden Farrer, had called on people to join the "counter-people's summit" with an aim to "celebrate localisation and call for resistance against economic globalisation."
By the time the lecture was due to start, the doors to the Exam Schools had already been locked and there were only about ten protesters left outside, described by an onlooker as doing "nothing except wearing bright clothes and shouting." Finally, the police outside let the group in, along with students who had been prevented from attending unrelated lectures. One such student told the Oxford Student that at this point "the University police were behaving more provocatively than the demonstrators".
Inside, however, was a different story. Having locked the protesters in, the police claimed that the lecture was full, but refused to open the doors to let them out. The group, which included students that needed to attend other lectures, were held in the foyer of the Exam Schools before finally being allowed out via the back exit half an hour later.
A lack of communication between the police inside and out was blamed for the confusion, with those outside giving the impression that people would be allowed into the lecture once the doors had been unlocked, and therefore causing a crowd to gather.
A spokesperson for the University maintained that the high police presence had been in keeping with the nature of the event. Calling the safety of Mr Cadessus and his wife "paramount" she claimed that the doors had been locked as planned, and the admission and subsequent lock-in of the group had been for "public safety" as they would otherwise have been trapped in the doorway. Denying that the protesters had been held for as long as half an hour, she maintained that the lecture itself had carried on undisturbed, though at the following reception somebody was arrested for attempting to throw a glass of wine over Mr Cadessus. The University also claimed that another man was arrested outside the Schools during the lecture. Thames Valley Police could only comment that one man had been arrested and was currently "helping police with their enquiries" having been released on bail. Neither suspect is thought to be from the University.
The incident, labelled "a difficult situation handled badly" by an onlooker, comes as another indictment of the University Police, following their alleged mishandling of the Sichrovsky demonstration two weeks ago. With the future of the University Police hanging in the balance, it remains to be seen whether their communication failure this time proves influential for their fate.
16th Nov 2000