Rant...

Mar 03, 2007 06:59

Danish police braced for more street protests in Copenhagen
(http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2323408.ece)
Danish police expect more clashes
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6411559.stm)

And then one from "the other side":
Pics of the brutal eviction of Ungdomshuset, Denmark
(http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/03/363903.html)

The eviction was hardly brutal, by any standards. One person injured out of the 35 present in the house when the police entered can hardly be described as "brutal". What was brutal was the following riots that we'll probably see for more days to come, with the destruction of private and public property and attacks on the police who are, of course, only acting in accordance with the court's decision.

One person so far has been seriously injured since the riots began Thursday, and that was an activist who was hit by a flying paving stone, thrown by other activists. "Police brutality"? I think not... During the riots in 1993, Danish police were not well enough prepared to handle such riots, and excessive force (police shooting at demonstrators) was used. This time around, however, it seems the police is prepared and know what they are doing. During the violent protests on December 16th last year there was no examples of such excessive force, and in these past couple of days it also seems the police are doing a very good job at trying to contain and - as much as possible - stop the violence.

I loved Ungdomshuset and the Otherness it represented, and in my opinion the city of Copenhagen is the poorer for not having this place any longer, but that is no excuse for barricading roads, burning cars, sacking schools and whatever else we see these days.

If anybody is showing brutality, if anybody is impinging on my freedom, if anybody is behaving in a totalitarian manner, then it is the violent protesters who take a city hostage to further their own, narrow interests. It's not acceptable, and it infuriates me.
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