This film, made by West Yorkshire Metropolitan Police, documents their operations during a May-Day demonstration in 1978. As a chronicle of the event, the filmmaker follows the fairly small demonstration from Woodhouse Moor to Leeds Town Hall. A group of police officers gather round a senior officer on a gravelled area by a police coach. There are then views of other police vehicles parked on site, including squad cars, vans, and a land rover modified for surveillance purposes. A police...

This film, made by West Yorkshire Metropolitan Police, documents their operations during a May-Day demonstration in 1978. As a chronicle of the event, the filmmaker follows the fairly small demonstration from Woodhouse Moor to Leeds Town Hall. A group of police officers gather round a senior officer on a gravelled area by a police coach. There are then views of other police vehicles parked on site, including squad cars, vans, and a land rover modified for surveillance purposes. A police caravan is shown with a sign on its roof that reads, 'police control', and officers chat with one-another around the entrance. Preparations for the march then get underway; officers check radios, tie on a horse coat, and an officer leads a horse out from a horse box. There is then an expansive view of the green with the protestors just starting to gather in the centre. Shots then show equipment such as video cameras, boxes of radios and several megaphones laid out on the grass. More foot constables begin to arrive, exiting from police vans and walking in a line along the pavement by the green. Officers then begin to take up positions; a line of officers runs along the edge of a green, while a tightly organised group march away. A panning view shows the protest starting to gather in numbers on Woodhouse Moor; the protestors huddle together in the middle of the green, with several banners held above their heads. Shots then show protestors banners, some of which read 'Greater Manchester communist party', 'C.M.W.U. Yorkshire region unity is strength', 'Leeds trades council', 'Halifax district trades council', 'York and district trades council', 'Huddersfield trades council' and 'Workers revolution party'. Views then capture some of the more homemade plaques that a few of the protestors hold: 'Save your bus services' and 'Reorganization means cuts' are among a few of them. An elderly gentleman wearing a leather coat - clearly of senior stature within the trades union - addresses the protestors, while being filmed by another cameraman. Shots from a protestor's perspective then capture the man talking from a raised position, before a close shot shows the speaker talking with a couple of senior police officers. Men, under duress, are then led through the crowd, with photographers scurrying after them. However, shots of the offenders are obscured by the protestors. A good shot captures a woman in a leather trench coat being led towards the camera by a police officer, and she has a civilian helping her, who also carries her bag. The next sequence begins with officers gathering in formation outside Leeds Town Hall. The protest is then led by several officers down the pavement. The protestors arrive and gather on the steps of the Town Hall. A shot captures several policemen and a mounted officer waiting by the steps, before officers are shown in a protective line, watching as some of the straggling protestors pass. The final shot in this sequence shows an expansive of the protestors gathered on various tiers of the steps. The final sequence returns to the beginning of the protest, this time using different camera angles. The action returns to the Town Hall again, with a lead protestor addressing the crowd on the steps with a megaphone, and shots show the crowd with their banners listening. A helicopter is briefly shown flying overhead, before another shot shows the town hall clock tower. An expansive view captures the protestors who fill the entire steps to the building. The final few shots show a female protestor yelling animatedly into a microphone.