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From: Kelvin Mason [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 15 December 2009 12:47
To: Stuart Hodkinson
Subject: FW: Police Violence in Copehnagen
Hi Stuart, could you forward this to Crit Geog and PyGyWg lists, I can’t access them from here. Cheers, Kelvin
Hello from the streets of Copenhagen
You will doubtless hear a lot of news about what is going on in the Bella
Centre at COP15, waiting for ‘our leaders’ to make decisions on climate
change that they can never make because doing the right thing would mean
the end of all the structures of which they themselves are a part.
You may also hear a little about the earnest debate going on in
Klimaforum09, the alternative people’s forum, wherein we convened a Participatory Geographies Research Group workshop on Transition, Climate Camps, and Community energy projects.
What you will probably not hear much about – or at least only biased ands sensationalized
coverage of – is the institutionalized violence here. The Danish police
are provocative, aggressive and routinely use disproportionate force –
even by what should be their own standards.
Hundreds have been arrested arbitrarily and detained in awful conditions,
caged in the freezing cold and pepper sprayed into silence; tear gas and
water cannon have been used on peaceful demonstrations…
Here is a link to just one tiny example, the arrest and physical
mistreatment of a Clown demonstrating peacefully outside the French
embassy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNoXsLFkhnE
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