Your say / Barton Hill
‘I’m sad and shocked by what happened in Barton Hill’
I woke up around 4am on Thursday because we’re observing Ramadan so we eat early in the morning as we fast all day.
I received so many phone calls and messages from a WhatsApp group I’m in.
The community around here in Barton Hill knows me. I’ve done a lot of campaigning. So I went outside to find out what was happening.
What I saw was shocking because the police were assisting the contractors. The contractors were safe. There were only four of us women and one man. Other people came afterwards.
Most of the people who were protesting know their rights. Nothing else was happening except people were expressing how they felt about the East Bristol Liveable Neighboourhood scheme.
We are in the UK and we can protest. It’s normal.
But one thing I’ve noticed is if you look different – if you are Muslim, wearing a hijab or are Black – if you are at a protest, people say things like ‘You terrorist, go back to your country.’ Those sort of things.
This doesn’t affect me because I’m the kind of person who follows my heart. Anything I can do that helps, I just get on with it.
My community, where I live, it’s so important to me. Whatever they are going through, I like to go through it with them.
View this post on Instagram
One thing I saw on Thursday was the police using their power. We had two drones flying around, two police officers recording us on video cameras. They were recording everything.
There were some 50 police officers standing around. There were massive vans, ready to cart away anyone who disagreed with the scheme.
The police used their power to assist the contractors. They were safe but we knew our rights, we knew what we were doing.
The relationship between the community around the Barton Hill area with the police, Bristol City Council and the people who live in Lawrence Hill ward will no doubt be affected by what happened.
I care about the environment but I care about my community as well.
I want to say good luck to the council for developing relationships with this community, because it’s very concerning coming in the middle of night when everyone is fasting to a Bristol neighbourhood where it is well-known that a large ethnic minority population live.
It’s sad and I’m shocked the way it happened. We’ll see in six months time what will happen.
Fadumo Farah – photo: Leah Hoyle
This is an opinion piece by Fadumo Farah, a campaigner who lives in Barton Hill
If you would like to write an opinion piece to be featured on the Bristol24/7 website, please send an email to [email protected] with your idea
Main photo: Fadumo Farah
Read next:
Our newsletters emailed directly to you
