2009-10-21 

Copenhagen: Danish government will adopt "riot law"

The Danish government is presently preparing a proposal turmoil/riot law package in order to change the legislation which – if it is passed by the parliament – will have serious consequences for people participating in the actions during the COP15.
The content of this law package was announced Sunday the 18^th October, less than two month before COP 15, and will be tabled for the Parliament within the next couple of weeks. It is obviously ready before the COP.

The idea is not to scare anyone with this article as it is not even sure that this law will be adopted. Even if it is adopted, its hardly realistic that it will be used against big groups of people. But it is important for all of you to be updated on the Danish situation and because it is necessary to establish international pressure and attention in the media on the issue. It is crucial to bring forward that its not only danish activists who is against this legislation but also international community groups and social movements whom are fighting for a fair and just climate agreement.

a short update on the content of the package,

• a run through of what the Danish part of the CJA media group have been doing so far, and what will be done in the near future in relation to the law package.

• an overview of relevant actors who have been commenting against the law package

• And urge all of you – who have any time on your hands – to speak against this law being adopted because of all the consequences the enactment will have.

The content of the law package

The overall content in the suggested so-called riot package is:

• Preventive arresting: The police already have the legal means to detain people for up to 6 hours, if they assess that someone is about to break the law. In the new law package the time limit will be increased to 12 hours for preemptive arrest . (Its just confirmed with the minstry of justice that its the same time limits for international activists)

• Hinder the authorities (police, fire brigade or ambulance service) from doing their job: Normally the penalty is a fine if it’s the first time a person is convicted. However one can be punished with up to 1½ year in prison. In the riot package the punishment will be increased to 40 days in prison as the norm even if it is the first time you are convicted for this crime. The maximum punishment will still stay the same.

• Vandalism in a situation where the public peace and order is disturbed (meaning during demoes etc.): Currently the penalty vary from a fine to 1½ of imprisonment. In the new law package the punishment will be increased with 50 % compared to the penalty before the package.

• Breach of the peace/disorderly behavior and staying around after the police have broken up a demo: today the fine for staying in a demo that the police have broken up is 600 kr. (80 euro), if you at the same time are showing disorderly behavior, the fine will be 1000 kr.(134 euro). With the new law package the fines will be increased to respectivly 3000 kr. (403 euro) and 5000 kr.(671 euro).

Its worth knowing that most often the police in Denmark do not charge anyone after mass civil disobedience actions, as they often don’t have sufficient evidence against the demonstrators. To show an example from a recent action against a coal power plant, 177 people got detained preemptively after the action had been going on for 4-5 hours, out of these only 12 got charged. Most of these were charged for masking themselves or for using abusive language against policemen. No one got any serious charges.

What have we been doing so far in DK:

There have been talking against the law package in most of the big Danish media’s. Activist’s from CJA have been among the most quoted persons talking against the law package the last couple of days. Today we are calling around to trade unions, big NGOs etc. who this law package could potentially also affect, and persuade them to speak out against the law package. The focus is to show that a broad part of the Danish population will be hit by this legislation, and that it a limitation of peoples democratic rights in general. If we get a lot of positive responses, there will suggest to either do a open letter together with as many groups as possible, or doing a demonstration of some sort.

Who else have been speaking out against this law package:

So far, it have mainly been relevant experts (layer associations and university professors) and environmental groups that have communicated against the law package. Of other environmental groups PCA (Peoples Climate Action) have been among the most quoted, arguing that this law will scare people from participating in any type of demonstration, and that it will demonize demonstrators. The Climate Movement and the people behind the 12^th December Demonstration have said something similar and so have the Danish Action Aid.
So far neither Greenpeace, WWF, Amnesty or any of the other big NGO’es existing in Denmark have done any active press work against this law package.
Of the political parties only the red/green party are purely against the law package. The Socialist Peoples Party are sending mixed messages, and all the other political parties are in favor of the law package.

What would we like all of you to do:

Create international attention about this matter, to show that the danish government do not want people to demonstrate in Copenhagen and will try to punish any demonstrators coming to Denmark to have their voices raised. To portrait Denmark as the police state its becoming and not the peaceful open democracy that we like seeing ourselves as.
Do whatever you can come up with that can put some sort of pressure on the danish government to not decide on this law package!