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Following the eviction of Dale Farm travellers' site, commentators ask whether is was the right thing to do.

that as a gypsy child she faced "countless" evictions. She says more compassion should have been shown:

"For the residents of Dale Farm, and Gypsies and Travellers all over the world, their worst nightmare was finally coming true. 'They're breaking the law,' I hear many of you cry, 'It's green belt land.' And you are right: it is an illegal camp, and if we want to live in a civilised society we must all uphold the law, no matter what background or culture we come from.
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"But the law is not black and white, and these people have certainly been let down by the system. Legal wrangling aside, the reality is that hundreds of human beings are about to be dragged from their homes and forced on to the roads."

But the that the travellers have already received special treatment:

"As for the travellers' claim that they've been wronged because of their ethnicity, this is the opposite of the truth.
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"Indeed, had they not belonged to a minority, they would have been kicked off the land without ceremony ten years ago. As it is, they have been treated with huge tact and patience - often to the immense distress of their neighbours, whose lives they have cruelly disrupted."

In a similar vein, the the community didn't benefit from living outside the law. It argues the eviction was inevitable:

"Travellers do not thrive through their separation from the wider population. Quite palpably they do the reverse. Similar communities, most notably Gypsies from Europe, have been the victims of unspeakable persecution in the past century. A wariness of ever appearing to echo it is both understandable and desirable, but when any section of society is allowed to exist outside the rule of law it is they, ultimately, who suffer most."

The with the Times that the eviction was foreseeable but argues against the way it was carried out:

"Inevitable though it might have been, however, what happened at Dale Farm yesterday - the massed ranks of police, the batons, the riot shields, the Taser-strikes and the bulldozers, and on the other side, the stone-throwing, the iron bars, the fires and the obstruction - also constituted the face of a multiple and egregious failure. While it is unarguable that the law must always be allowed to take its course, this dispute should never have been drawn out as long as it was. Every new delay gave the Travellers additional hope that they might yet prevail. For them, the 10-year fight only compounds the bitterness of the denouement."

Looking at the police's methods used at the eviction, that they should be questioned but can be justified:

"Our society not only tolerates the sort of people who want to wear uniforms and want to use weapons against civilians, it actually employs them to do so. And today some of these people may well be using Tasers against travellers at Dale Farm...
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"The more openly critical we can be of those who have the power to coerce us, the better. And the more the police can explain their decisions and justify their actions, the better. After all, they can have nothing to hide; even the ones wearing paramilitary uniforms and using weapons at Dale Farm."