Democracy.

This is what democracy looks like?


Following yesterday night's post, we attended the march to the Bella Center this morning. I can say with total honesty that I did not see one agressive or violent action on the part of the demonstrators. The police were a different story however. We had a demonstration permit that allowed us to go right up to the fence surrounding the Bella Center and to legally occupy space on the street outside the center, despite this, the police started pushing in on the crowd almost immediately upon our arrival and crowding people into the center for the intersection from all sides, pushing them up against police vans so they had nowhere to move, and then beating the people on the outside of the group for failing to move. I was among the many, many peaceful, law-abiding protesters who were cornered by police in this fashion - having no where to go even if I wanted to leave and was then pepper sprayed while in the middle of this police-created mob. Unable to see anything, I had to rely totally on Steve to guide me out of the crowd (after the sprayed everyone they had cornered, they backed up to let us move); had we somehow lost hold of each other at that moment, I don't even know what would have happened - it was absolutely a recipe for disaster. I would like to mention, however, that everyone took great care of each other, with those the spray had missed guiding others out of the central area and offering water and calling the volunteer demonstrator medics over to put eye wash that neutralizes the effects of the spray in peoples eyes.

After this initial rush, it seemed the police had backed off a bit and might allow us to hold the 'people's assembly' we had planned in the street (which, once again, we had a legal permit entitling us to be in), as it was announced that many delegates from inside the center were going to come out and meet us. Soon after, however, they announced that these delegates were actually being prevented from leaving the Bella Center (we also later learned that (this is a quote from an email I was forwarded by one of our contacts working in the BC): "Norwegian govt delegate prevented from speaking to FoE Norway representatives at protest and all media banned from speaking or interviewing any FoE members. Any FoE members on the premises of the Bella Centre are being physically escorted out the premises." FoE is Friends of the Earth, and unbelievably popular and well-respected international NGO.

After this, we noticed that the police were lining up along the road, near where we (and many others were standing) and then they started walking in towards us, herding everyone into the center intersection once again (on the other side of which was the Bella Center along with a fence and several police vans). This made no sense - they were forcing us all into the center, where the mix of pepper spray and tear gas was so thick, clouds were actually visably hanging in the air, as you can see here:

with no way to get out - not exactly an approach designed to calm down a tense situation. I actually asked one of the officers where we were suppose to go and how they expected people to get out and he told us to go around a corner that was almost totally cut off the people were packed so tightly.

Eventually we made it around this corner. On the way, we passed an individual crumbled on the ground, as a medic tended to him or her, along with several people running in the opposite direction from us, coming from a group on the other side of the wide road, yelling that they needed medics. Again, I'll point out that the only medics on the scene to anyone who had been sprayed or gased, beaten by police, or otherwise injured in the crush of people were demonstrators themselves who had voluntarily worn medic armbands and brought first aid supplies. At this point, we agreed that with such a large (but still peaceful crowd) being forced into such a small space, and with the police behaving so recklessly, it was best to leave. We came prepared to be arrested, but seriously injured is a whole other ballgame. As we broke free of the crowd, we could see a police line down the road, but as the crowd had thinned a bit in this area, we thought maybe they were letting people through.

As we got closer, we saw a line of people on their bicycles across the street facing a line of police vans. Again, we were still in the area where we had a legal demonstration permit. We then saw the police vans drive forward and run into the line of people on their bicycles. Then, so fast I didn't even see where they came from even though I was standing right there, a group of officers with dogs appeared and the people from the bikes started running with the police dogs chasing them. We then learned that the police were not letting people out this way either - the way that the police on the other side told us we could go to get out - the police had surrounded the demonstrators on all sides and were moving in, pushing everyone to the centre of the intersection. Ultimately we got out (along with many others) by making our way through some undergrowth and wading across a brook and walking through a parkland area.

If the police's goal is to dissipate the demonstrators I really don't understand how they thought what they were doing would be at all effective. I also don't understand how people wanting to have their voices heard (freedom of expression? democracy? anyone?) is so dangerous that such violent action was necessary against peaceful individuals? Again, I can say with absolute truth that I saw not one demonstrator engaging in a violent act; it was clearly our presence alone that was enough for the police to act with such force against us, despite our legal right to be here. Right now, I am mostly hoping that the combination of force outside the bella center on such a large group of peaceful people, combined with the actions inside the center of revoking accrediation for respected NGOs, forbidding anyone (including press) from speaking with certain groups and essentially holding parties captive in the building so that they couldn't join demonstrators outside will be enough to ensure that this gets widespread and accurate coverage in the mainstream media. People have to know what certain state's are willing to do in order to convince themselves and others that everything is fine and they are in control and they are handling the problem, even when the people who are already suffering the impacts of climate change show us we are not fine, and the science tells us that things are not being handled appropriately (current targets would mean a ppm of CO2 of 770 in 2050, even though we know 350 is the upper limit for healthy life on earth) and their reaction shows that they are not actually in control of the process, because in a democracy people are not treated like criminals for simply attempting to share a point of view and leaders LISTEN to their people, they don't try to intimidate them into silence.