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Protestor Ray Davies outside Burghfield
Burghfield protestor planned arrest
Wed, November 14 2007

A 77-year-old anti-nuclear protestor arrested on Monday was warned not to block traffic by police
 

THE 77-year-old anti-nuclear protestor arrested on Monday for blockading the missile assembly plant at Burghfield said he knew he would be arrested.
Pensioner Ray Davies, of Caerphilly, South Wales, was one of 13 protestors arrested for obstructing roads leading to Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) laboratories at Aldermaston and Burghfield.
He claimed police had searched their vehicles the night before the protests, warning them not to use locking devices to stop AWE employees getting to work.
“The police followed us, so we twisted and weaved our way all around various lanes. We knew we couldn’t get to the entrance of Burghfield, so we stopped some half a mile away on the main feeder road,” he said.
At around 6:30am four protestors, all retired, leapt out of their minibus to lock themselves together, preventing police from easily removing them. They blocked traffic passing the site, causing long delays to rush-hour commuters.
“At first I didn’t feel the cold at all,” sa

 

The young protestors are not so enthusiastic about breaking the law

Ray Davies, anti-nuclear protestor
id Mr Davies.
“After the first hour I was looking at my jacket and I could see frost was actually forming on it.”
He said that after three hours, when police cut through the locking devices and arrested them, the group were suffering early stages of hypothermia. After being carried away by police officers, Mr Davies was leant against a police van.
“I think if I hadn’t been against the van I would have fallen over, I was so stiff with cold,” he said.
“I knew I was going to be arrested. The young protestors are not so enthusiastic about breaking the law, but we know the only way to make our voices heard is direct action,” he said.
“For us, our future’s really coming to an end. We want our children and grandchildren to have a future as well,” he added.
Mr Davies was previously arrested in 2003 for cutting through the security fence and entering AWE Aldermaston in protest at the Iraq war. He was also arrested on October 1 at an anti-nuclear protest in Faslane, Scotland.

 
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