GREATER Manchester Police are continuing to appeal for information after a flare was fired at a police helicopter just after midnight on Saturday 4 January.
"The sad fact is that quite often legitimate camps can be a magnet for alcoholics, people with severe mental health disorders, people who have no genuine interest in the issues and people who simply think it funny to disrupt other people's hard work."
Reports from the helicopter suggest that the flare was fired from the Barton Moss anti-fracking protest camp in Salford.
Anti-fracking protesters, lead by the Frack Free Greater Manchester protest group, have denied any involvement, but recent comments on an independent media website appear to implicate an individual from a small faction of more hostile and aggressive protestors at Barton Moss.
A post on the website from an unknown source named Fracking Objector states:
"There are simply too many people who saw it happen to try and claim it was a cop fit up when it wasn't. I'm not in any way defending what the cops did and I was one of those who had their tent turned over by them but in my humble opinion we are better off telling the truth, booting out the t**t who did it (without informing cops of course) and moving on."
While another post on the site by Terri says:
"From talking to people at the camp that I know, it's clear there was a flare, nobody denies that anymore. However, it may or may not have come from the camp but the balance of probability is that it did."
Comments from the site now suggest that the individual responsible for the flare has since left the camp.
However, a post from the Frack Free Greater Manchester protest group made on Friday 10 January continued to deny involvement in the flare incident and suggested legal action against police:
"No flare has ever been fired from Barton Moss Protection Camp and we are now in discussions with lawyers over the actions of Greater Manchester Police."
Protesters
Chief Superintendent Mark Roberts said, "This incident last weekend was absolutely ridiculous and could ultimately have cost lives. Initially a number of people at the camp absolutely refuted that any protesters were involved yet we now have comments left on a website to the contrary.
"We know that there are people within in the camp who have information about this and I would ask that those people now come forward and tell us what they know.
"The policing operation down at Barton Moss is now in its third month and is likely to continue for the next three months. The officers working down there day in day out have built up a good relationship with the majority of the protesters who come and go from the camp but there is a handful of people who seem set on causing as much disruption as possible to local residents and businesses and seeking confrontation with the police.
"The officers working down there day in day out have built up a good relationship with the majority of the protesters who come and go from the camp but there is a handful of people who seem set on causing as much disruption and aggravation as possible.
"The officers are there to do a job and they do that job well. Our job is to facilitate peaceful protest - irrelevant of what that protest is about. A number of protesters are trying to draw officers into this and to make this a fight against the police. This is not our fight and when officers are abused and stupidly threatened with flares this then detracts away from what the majority of the people are protesting about.
"On Sunday we saw around 500, mainly local people, peacefully protesting in the area and not one arrest was made. It is a small number of people, mainly from other areas of the country, who seem to intent on causing this disruption and distraction."
An unnamed source on the website explained that unsavoury and often uninvolved types can be drawn to the camps:
"The sad fact is that quite often legitimate camps can be a magnet for alcoholics, people with severe mental health disorders, people who have no genuine interest in the issues and people who simply think it funny to disrupt other people's hard work."
So far 58 arrests have been made at the Barton Moss site, while according to police figures the policing operation has cost around £330k.
Police request anyone with information regarding the flare to contact 101 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
For a reasoned justification for fracking from Graham Stringer MP please click here.
