On that day in 1984, the NUM had decided to have a large picket at the Orgreave coking plant. They wanted to disrupt the supply of coke from Orgreave to Scunthorpe.
To the miners surprise, the police on this occasion were over the top helpful and friendly. Ushering them to where to go, this was not the way the police normally behaved, quite the opposite. The miners were dubious. The Police were directing the in particular to the ‘topside’ a field south of the plant. At the bottom of the field there six deep of police, at the top was a railway embankment and to the sides were police with dogs. They were virtually penned in. Their only way out was a small railway bridge that took you to Orgreave village and a small industrial estate.
In a lull from the miners ritual but ineffectual pushing the Police, the officer in charge of the operation ordered the Police to make an opening in the line through which came mounted police with long truncheons and shields and behind them followed other police in riot gear and short truncheons.
The police charged after the miners, hitting those who hadn’t escaped viscously over their heads with their truncheons, dragging them to a temporary detention centre opposite the plant. There were several more charges where the miners tried to find safety in the village. There was incident that was covered by a tv station where an officer was seen straddling a defenceless miner on the ground and battering him repeatedly about the head with his truncheon. Nothing happened to him.
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