![]() ![]() ![]() They complained that the BBC had reversed footage, to show miners who threw missiles seemingly before the police charge rather than in retaliation for it. The miners always said the police had brutally attacked them without justifiable provocation, and that the attack felt preplanned. The BBC showed miners throwing stones and other missiles at the police, followed by mounted officers charging into them, and then officers chasing miners, some clearly being hit over the head with truncheons. The news footage beamed into the nation’s homes that night is itself central to the continuing dispute. Their official purpose, stated in the police’s tactical manual, was to “incapacitate” demonstrators. The force included 42 officers on horseback and the first units with short shields and truncheons ever used in Britain. On that day in 1984, 8,000 miners who went to picket lorry drivers supplying coke to the steel industry were met by 6,000 police officers drawn from all over the country, commanded by South Yorkshire police. ![]()
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