Miners Strikes 1984/5 - Further Textual Analysis

As known from the time period, the police forces over the country faced heavy criticism for their actions during the 1984/5 strikes over the conditions of UK miners. The idea that the police force was becoming corrupted and political during the eighties was noticeable with the Miners strikes, Hillsborough later in the decade and 'operation Countryman' proving that the Metropolitan police in particular were extremely corrupted by powerful criminals during the late 70's and early 80's.

With this backdrop to the image and the strikes that were occurring as Operation Countryman was being finalised and published this straight away informs us that the Police were in the middle of a period of high scrutiny and lacking support from the people. As the image presents a group of officers detaining protesters and arresting them this would show that the men are just doing their job and arresting people as officers have to do even now. What changes the context and the way the image is being interpreted by the audience is that these arrested men most probably committed no crime that would cause for punishment, they were protesting, as most miners and their families did at the time to get their view across. When this comes into the context the image is viewed differently and the police are seen more dominantly as the 'bad guys', the 'political army' just serving to every whim of the government even if not morally right such as arresting innocent civilians. These events all over the country led to many arrests to which no person ever faced conviction because they had not committed any proven criminal act, they most probably held up signs and walked in the streets with hundreds to thousands of others in the same position.

With the police serving the government and not supporting the miners arguments this lowered the police standing with workers and citizens  this coupled with operation countryman had revealed to the people that the police weren't just other working people, they were involved in much larger issues and many dealt with corruption. With the now known cover up of Hillsborough coming later on in the decade the police standing dropped dramatically and respect and support of them dropped as well.