Orgreave Public Inquiry

Dear Ms Rudd,

just a few years ago I saw TV film footage of the police and pickets trouble at the Orgreave coking plant on the Sheffield and Rotherham boundary on June 18th 1984/85. What shocked me in particular was the behaviour of the South Yorkshire Police. It appeared that the whole of the South Yorkshire Police actions were militarily organised. The way the South Yorkshire Police ranks which was several lines deep opened in unison to allow  South Yorkshire Police with truncheon, which on horse back are longer than standard issue so they are able to strike people stood on the ground, to charge in cavalry formation at pickets dressed in trainers, jeans and tee-shirts. The mounted  South Yorkshire Police were not used to prevent the pickets from blocking the lorries from entering the coking plant but a deliberate act to injure the pickets legal industrial action. I’ve spoken to miners who were there on that day they say they were chased by the mounted South Yorkshire Police for  some considerable distance  they’re only escape was to hide behind walls and trees again this can be verified by TV film coverage. I cannot believe the actions of South Yorkshire Police if I’d seen this police action on TV and not known the country it had occurred in I would have thought it had happened in some dictatorial country.

I watched the Orgreave debate in the House of Commons and was extremely please that you  had contacted the Orgreave Truth and Justice secretary Barbara Jackson saying that you would study the IPCC report into the policing by the South Yorkshire Police at Orgreave. I would request that a full public inquiry be set up to investigate the whole of the Orgreave action.

 Yours sincerely

Tom Rowland.