Policing of the anti-WEF demonstration in Davos

This logic came to dominate summit policing from the moment that people started expressing their dislike of the decisions made by heads of state through mass demonstrations that are felt not only outside but also inside of the meeting rooms. This logic also dominated the Swiss government’s policing strategy in January this year, at the annual World Economic Forum (WEF) in the ski resort of Davos, which accommodates several thousand politicians and industrialists from around the world.

Protests against the event took place on 19 January in the Swiss cities of Bern (500 people) and St. Gallen (150 people), with protesters arguing that the WEF is an undemocratic event where economic decisions are made by industry and governments that have disastrous consequences on billions of people world-wide. For instance, this year’s opening speech was provided by the American secretary of state, Condoleeza Rice. This year’s topics were climate change, terrorism and the global credit crunch [2].

Alongside the 5,000 Swiss army soldiers supporting police forces on the ground (AP 18.1.08), “regular” policing consisted in particular of preventative arrests and the use of water cannon, tear gas and rubber bullets [3]. Two hundred and forty two people were arrested in Bern alone; they were detained for hours in abysmal circumstances, allegedly in order to “ascertain their identity”.

The tone of the demonstration was set by the late approval for it by the municipality, and their even later withdrawal of the same on grounds of media-generated scaremongering fed by the security service (Dienst für Analyse und Prävention) that predicted that “militant” demonstrators from all over the country would come to riot. With the announcement the regional police (Kantonspolizei) claimed to be unable to guarantee public safety, a pressure to which the municipality gave in.

In a manner similar to the G8 summit, the police predictions were simply false. In total three incidents of damage were detected in Bern, one of which caused by a violent arrest by the police. Undercover officers swarmed amongst demonstrators and the public, pointing at alleged offenders who were accosted by arrest teams [4].

Powers for preventative policing under Article 32 of Bern police law form the legal basis for the majority of these arrests. Preventative policing is supposed to be invoked to apprehend a person who is about to commit a “serious crime” but is typically applied against demonstrators before they have even reached a demonstration. Invariably, demonstration bans by the civic authorities or courts are used as an excuse by the police to arbitrarily arrest citizens who have nonetheless decided to exercise their constitutional right to protest [4].

In Switzerland, the arrests specifically targeted journalists as well. Dinu Gautier, a journalist from the Swiss weekly Wochenzeitung (WOZ), together with a colleague and another journalist from the Swiss daily paper Courier, were arrested the moment they left the WOZ editorial office in central Bern. They were greeted on the streets by Kurt Trollier, chief of the security service of the Bern regional police force, who informed them they were arrested to ascertain their identity under Article 32. Ten riot police shackled the journalists. The head of the police unit, when shown a letter by the WOZ confirming Gautier’s journalistic role, said :”I might as well wipe my arse [with the letter]”. Another journalist was searched and on finding his press card the officers shouted: “Arrest him – we can deal with that later” [5].

These blatant violations of press freedom are a worrying development that could also be observed at the German summit protests, where a bus hosting dozens of journalists and their equipment (laptops, photos) was confiscated by police. Although the bus was released a day later by the regional court who ruled the confiscation unlawful, the police continued to protest its release with the argument they had not had enough time to copy all the computers’ hard drives [6].

Alongside the violation of the fundamental right to freedom of the press, those arrested in Bern received degrading treatment at the hands of police: people were stripped-searched in sight of others, one person reported he had to spread the cheeks of his buttocks. People were kept in outside cages, made of cement walls with a roof, where people were forced to urinate in a corner after having been detained for hours without being offered access to a toilet. When people protested the police sprayed liquid CS gas into the cell.

Police further denied medical treatment to a haemophiliac who suffered internal bleeding in his leg. When he showed the officers his medical pass, he was told:

“Then you shouldn’t have taken part in a banned demonstration”.

A doctor was called when the people in the cell started panicking, shouting that there was a medical emergency. Only when the doctor on duty said that he could suffer kidney failure and die, did the police finally release him.

[1] International Herald Tribune, 19.1.08, “Swiss police temporarily arrest 200 in illegal anti-WEF demonstration”: http://www.iht.com/bin/printfriendly.php?id=9341475

[2] Komitee für Grundrechte und Demokratie (2007): “Gewaltbereite Politik und der G8-Gipfel. Demonstrationsbeobachtungen vom 2-8 Juni 2007 rund um Heiligendamm” (The G8 summit and violence-prone politics). Demonstration observations from 2-8 June 2007 around Heiligendamm)

[3] Indymedia: “Protests in Switzerland against the World Economic Forum” http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/01/389914.html

[4] Heiner Busch & Carlos Hanimann: “Papi, was macht die Polizei?” (Daddy B, what are the police doing?)

[5] Dino Gautier: “Anti-WEF-Demo – Augenzeugenbericht aus dem Berner Waisenhaus-Knast” (Anti-WEF demonstration – eye witness report from the Bern prison)

[6] Indymedia: “Media Bus confiscated”: http://de.indymedia.org/2007/06/182874.shtml

[http://www.statewatch.org/news/2008/apr/02policing-protests.htm]