Travellers, up to fairly recently, have always walked away from trouble, realising only too well that there is no justice for them.
We know the people concerned, as did many on the folk scene in London. They, like most of the other Travellers we met over the thirty odd years, simply wanted a quiet life.
One incident we did get to witness up close was the one I mentioned at Mitcham Common, in South London.
A group of Travellers moved (illegally) onto the common because there was nowhere else for them to go. I had been told by somebody I was working that his brother-in-law and a few other 'respectable householders' in the area planned to firebomb the site in order to drive them off. I went, along with one of the Travellers, to the local police station and gave the information I had, and was made to feel like a criminal myself by the police, for associating with such people. Whether it was our making it known that we intended to report the incident to the police or the fact that the Travellers themselves mounted a guard on the site, the raid didn't happen - certainly no help was forthcoming from our 'guardians of the law', who got round to interviewing us over a week later. That one didn't make our 'free press' either, despite the local paper having been given the relevant information by the Travellers.
You may remember the Tony Martin incident in the British press fairly recently, when a farmer was acquitted for killing a young Traveller.
We had a fairly similar, and certainly far more open-and-shut case here in Ireland.
A farmer came home to find two Traveller men in his yard. He went inside, brought out a gun and shot one of them in the back, (they were both leaving the premises at the time). He proceeded to beat the wounded traveller with a heavy stick, then went into the house, reloaded his gun and administered the coup-de-grace to the Travller, John Ward, who was lying on the ground, killing him. No dispute of the facts of the well-reported case during the trial of the farmer, who had quite resigned himself to prison. Jury's verdict - NOT GUILTY.
Two years ago an argument broke out in our local market town between two groups of youngsters, Travellers and settled. One of the settled lads produced a knife and stabbed one of the Travellers, killing him instantly.
When arrested, the killer said "He was only a knacker (the Traveller equivilant of 'nigger').
During the trial, the charge, for some strange reason, was 'manslaughter', and the perpetrator, A POLICEMAN'S SON, was found guilty.
The judge said he would pass seentence at a later date - to my knowledge, sentence still hasn't been passed and the killer A POLICEMAN'S SON, still remains free.
Now tell me again about the 'good sense' that Teribus makes Villan!
Jim Carroll