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Legislation gives police more power
A new law passed specifically for the upcoming climate conference gives police pre-emptive powers of arrest
Legislation giving police the right to pre-emptive arrests in connection with the COP15 climate conference was passed by a decisively split parliament yesterday.
With the support of the Danish People’s Party, the government’s Liberal and Conservative parties were able to push through the controversial ‘agitator package’, aimed at limiting violent demonstrations by protesters at the upcoming summit in December in Copenhagen.
The new legislation allows police to detain those arrested for up to 12 hours under the premise that they ‘might’ take part in civil disobedience. In addition, protesters can be jailed for up to 40 days if police determine the activists have ‘hindered’ their work.
Fines for civil disobedience were also raised to 5000 kroner through the new package.
Parliament’s remaining parties continued to slam the proposal yesterday prior to its passing, calling it anti-democratic. They pointed to the very broad language that ‘persons who do not directly take part in protests but are in the area can be arrested and sentenced to up to 40 days in jail’ as being especially worrying.
‘I think it’s a very serious broadening of police authority that’s been approved,’ said Line Barfoed, legal affairs spokeswoman for the Red-Green Alliance. ‘People who live in the area and have just stopped to talk to their neighbours risk being arrested if there are any disturbances nearby.’
The package had earlier been criticised by the Danish Judges Association in an official hearing response to the Justice Ministry. The judges believed that a ‘considerably clearer legal basis’ needed to be shown to justify the broadening of police power proposed.
The Prison and Probation Service and Institute for Human Rights also expressed their opposition to the legislation.
But Brian Mikkelsen, the justice minister, said the government had a responsibility to ‘crack down hard’ on those who attempt to sabotage the police’s work.
‘We’ve seen in the media recently that activists are consciously planning illegal activities to hinder the police at the conference. We want to ensure a strong and consistent legal practice in cases of gross civil disturbance,’ Mikkelsen told Politiken newspaper.
Per Larsen, superintendent of Copenhagen Police, added that it would only be in ‘completely uncontrollable situations’ that the new legislation would be used.
Although the legislation was passed with an aim at COP15 protesters, it was passed as a permanent law that will remain in effect after the conference is over.
Source: http://www.cphpost.dk/climate/91-climate/47625-legislation-gives-police-more-power.html