STORM BREWS AS 10 COPPERS TACKLE TEALADY
Gran Jackie,79 in ‘kettling’ row
A TEA lady last night told of her terror after she was forced to leave a fracking site by 10 police officers.
Great-gran Jackie Brookes, 79, was moved from her month-long post where she had provided both protesters and officers with brews and cake.
Police said she and others were told to leave yesterday because of fears that a nearby 10ft-high tower made of wooden pallets might collapse and injure them.
Shock pictures show the officers trying to coax Jackie from the site in Kirby Misperton, North Yorks. Protesters were heard yelling “this is England, not 1930s Germany” as Jackie was marched off.
The retired nurse had initially been approached by two officers as she manned her stall.
They asked her to move and she told them she would not.
They approached again and said if Jackie refused she would be arrested but the gran would not budge.
Police then surrounded Jackie and ordered her to move but she stood firm.
But the next time they approached they lifted her table and started to move it away – so Jackie was left with no alternative but to move.
She said: “I was prepared for the fact that I might be arrested.
“It was quite scary when I was surrounded by around eight police.
“It’s called being ‘kettled’ where the police manipulate you and move you, and it was pretty daunting. At one point a ® copper tried to touch my arm to lead me away and I said: ‘Do not touch me.’
“It was quite funny in the end because the protesters surrounded the police and started singing.
“They sang: ‘Jackie put the kettle on’ and then, ‘Coppers take it off again’.
“The police maintained they had to move me for fear of my safety but that was rubbish. It was all a bit heavy-handed.”
Protesters were last night demanding to know why so many police were needed to remove Jackie.
County council officials assessed the safety of the tower – where one protester had been sitting for nearly a day – and police were last night moving it.
Supt Lindsey Robson said: “We have a duty to ensure the safety of everyone involved in protests at Kirby Misperton.”