Police defend officers after revellers injured during raid on MoD land illegal rave

A police chief has defended officers who staged an illegal demonstration on land used by the Ministry of Defense as a shooting range, amid accusations that they injured some revelers by beating them with batons.

One of the participants accused the police of being harsh and claimed that they ‘attacked’ people by dragging them on the ground and shooting them while they lay on the ground.

Footage of the big incident in East Lulworth, Dorset, apparently shows bloodied faces on some revelers.

But Dorset Police and Crime Commissioner David Sidwick defended officers and said they used proportionate force after coming under ‘intense attack’ from the crowd.

Riot police officers intervened to disperse the 24-hour unauthorized demonstration, attended by 2,000 people, and had bottles thrown at them.

Mr Sidwick said: “This was a well organised, nationally organized illegal act. It was an illegal event with no security restrictions.

“The police were absolutely right when they did it and they made the police do it in a strong way.

“The police tried to shut it down peacefully. They were heavily attacked with bottles.

“The reason they closed was because there were a number of illegal activities, drug use, but the massive inconvenience to the surrounding community, you could hear it for miles.

“I had members of the community come to me absolutely distraught at the noise, people standing in their cars defecating, they were absolutely distraught, there was a lot of anti-social behavior going on.

“The police were right to close the door.

“I am confident that when examined it will show that this was a proportionate response.”

The demonstration began late on Saturday night when revelers entered MoD land used as a shooting range.

Residents five miles away were kept awake by ‘pounding’ bass music that continued all night and into Easter Sunday.

The police intervened and told the crowd to leave the area, but to no avail.

Riot police, supported by colleagues from neighboring forces, entered and physically dispersed the crowd, which became ‘violent and hostile’.

While 11 people were arrested for various crimes, one person was accused of attacking a police officer.

However, attendee Zak Hanman, from Swindon, Wilts, told the BBC the event had been “very peaceful” so far and there had been no violence against police.

He said: “Everyone was having fun but the police… started dragging people to the ground, hitting, attacking people, although there was no violence.

“The violence they used was unethical, inhumane and unnecessary.”

He admitted to experiencing violence from partygoers towards police officers, but said it only started after the officers entered.

He said: “Towards the end, yeah, people were throwing things at them [the police]But it wasn’t until he started hitting and attacking people.”

In one case in particular, he said he saw officers “hit this guy with a baton even when he was on the ground.”

He added: “Yes people were doing drugs, yes people were drunk but that doesn’t mean they were going to beat them up.”

“Any sane person can see that this is undesirable.”

In a statement, Dorset Police said: “This incident has caused significant disruption to local communities and we have taken appropriate and proportionate action to bring it to a safe conclusion.

“While responding to an incident involving a large number of people, our police officers were attacked by missiles and encountered a violent and hostile reception.

“Violence will not be tolerated in our communities and against our officers.”