2009-12-12

Police forced 'troublemakers' into mass demo

This Saturday a protest march took place, organised by a broad coalition of groups and NGO's from around 67 different countries. In spite of differences their differences in opinion and politics, they all agreed that yesterdays protest was going to be non-violent; they were not going to provoke the police. In the end 968 people ended up being arrested, as police say they were forced to take strong measures to prevent 'troublemakers' who had been gathering elsewhere from hiding in the big mass demonstration. However, the police might have had a lot more choice in this matter than they dare admit to:

As anyone could have expected, not everyone campaigning against climate change agreed with organisers of the big protest. Activists who weren't keen on the codex of non-violence of the big protest, and the sometimes conciliatory statements made by the organisers, were gathering under the slogan 'Never Trust A Cop'. They decided to have their own protest elsewhere in the city.

Around 1pm these more militant activists had started gathering on Højbro Plads. The police were present and had been frisking people arriving in area. At 13:35, the Danish Newspaper Politiken reported on their internet newsfeed, that the police were telling them they expected the protesters gathered at Højbro Plads to join the main demonstration. When confronted with the suggestion that they were to join the popular mass protest, protesters on Højbro Plads laughed. Never the less, about an hour later at half three, the square had been cordoned off and police were telling protesters to go join the mass demo on Christiansborg Slotsplads. The police were, again according to Politiken's reporter, addressing 'those dressed entirely in black' with the words: "The demonstration HAS left, you have to leave now if you want to make it!"

In this manner, against the will of both the organisers of the non-violent mass demo and, presumably, of the militant activists themselves, they were directed towards the tail end of the mass protest. When trouble did break out shortly before 3 pm as windows were being broken and fireworks set off, the militant activists had nowhere to run but away from the police and into the massive protest march - apparently giving police an excuse to arrest more than 900 people who happened to walk in the tail end of the demonstration.

When the arrested have been released from detention, the organisers wake up and everyone start looking back and evaluating the the events of yesterday, the police will soon have hard questions to face about their motivation and the purity of their intent in creating the circumstances that led to the biggest mass arrest in their history.

Source: http://indymedia.dk/articles/1587