SF189 Fighting Talk

When I sat down to write up the Bulldog Bash for last month’s issue, I was all ready to rant and moan about the police presence at the Stratford-upon-Avon event.
However, I quickly realised that this would put the wrong kind of slant on the annual event and that there was already enough media coverage about the Warwickshire police’s bully boy tactics and Assistant Chief Constable Bill Holland’s rabid witterings, so I concentrated on the event itself rather than what occurred outside the show gates. However, the under-hand, over-the-top approach to policing the Bulldog is not to be forgotten. After all, Ass Chief Con Holland has promised to be even more focussed on stopping the event in the future, despite the very vocal public objections to his principles.
As I write this, just over five weeks have passed since the Bulldog, and people have already started forgetting about Holland’s reasoning behind his actions. After all, the event went ahead without any problems, the majority of motorcyclists managed to ride to and from the event without any hindrances (only eleven arrests, three of which were for previous offences, from 448 searches, despite there being 450 officers on duty each day), so there’s no reason to dwell on it. Is there?

Read the full transcript in SF189, in the shops now...