Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Copenhagen Police Accused of Violating Human Rights at UN Summit

forwarder | 12.12.2009 22:04 | COP15 Climate Summit 2009 | Climate Chaos | Repression | Social Struggles | World

Danish police have indiscriminately arrested hundreds of climate justice activists during a climate change protest made up of 100,000 people that took place today in Copenhagen. Questions have been raised about the fact that the arrests occurred in a different time and place to where some trouble had momentarily flared earlier in the day. Journalists have been restricted from reporting at the site of the arrests since 1800hrs.

aerial view of lines of people arrested
aerial view of lines of people arrested


CLIMATE JUSTICE ACTION
12 December 2009
Contact: 0045 5066 9028 (International)
0045 4129 4994 (Danish)

 media@climate-justice-action.org

__________________________________

COPENHAGEN POLICE ACCUSED OF VIOLATING HUMAN RIGHTS AT UN CLIMATE SUMMIT

Danish police have indiscriminately arrested hundreds of climate justice activists during a climate change protest made up of 100,000 people that took place today in Copenhagen. Questions have been raised about the fact that the arrests occurred in a different time and place to where some trouble had momentarily flared earlier in the day. Journalists have been restricted from reporting at the site of the arrests since 1800hrs.

It’s estimated that 100 people are still being held on the road in extremely cold weather, cuffed and forced into seated positions in lines (1). They have expressed severe physical discomfort and have no access to water, medical attention or toilet facilities since 1530hrs. Many activists are reported to have urinated themselves while detained on the ground.

An estimated 200 have been removed from the site and taken away in coaches. Several people are reported to have fainted around 1945hrs.

Helga Matthiassen, who was detained for an hour before being released due to an injury she had recently sustained, said, “Of course we’re angry – people all over the world are angry about being lied to by governments who are making a corporate deal at the climate talks, and now when we try to protest against this on the streets we are randomly held by police.

“Not only have we been denied the right to protest, but our basic human rights have also been ignored in this ludicrous, staged police exercise. It seems Danish Police have a new motto: why just criminalise protesters, when you can dehumanise them too?” (2)

ENDS

Contact: 0045 5066 9028 (International)
0045 4129 4994 (Danish)

 media@climate-justice-action.org

_______________________________________

NOTES TO EDITORS

(1)  http://twitpic.com/t7dts

(2) See Helga interviewed on TV2 News, 2015 broadcast
 http://news.tv2.dk/?channel

forwarder

Comments

Hide the following 5 comments

futk the pigs

12.12.2009 22:22

Pigs are just showing again that they are fascist stromtroopers of governments, pretending less and less to care about your "right". Fuck 'em!

ACAB


it will

12.12.2009 23:27

not cease to amaze me, as usual, if i turn on the lying-box and see NO coverage of this atrocious police state-styled round up of our comrades.

i bet they are saying it happened because of "trouble causers"?

typical.

it really is orwellian now, seriously.

all coppers are bastards

astounded friend


no surpise there

13.12.2009 00:41

its the same about whats going on in greece if the boys upstairs dont wnat you to know they hardly going to broadcast it on tv

anon


arbitrary arrests

13.12.2009 08:10

Mainstream lazy bastard media report police line that 'the arrests were made AFTER windows were broken' - 10 minutes after? 5 hours? 2 days? a week?

What they indicate to the casual viewer is that there is a connection, ie after = BECAUSE OF, whereas is is true to say the arrests took place SOME TIME AFTER. but now the connection is made and to the casual viewer those arrested 'deserved' it.

You would hope by now that the mainstream media would question why innocent people are arbitrarily arrested. Fat chance.

The police get new toys to play with, new powers of 'preventative arrest', and what do kids do when they get new toys? They can't wait to play with them of course. They know that the Danish government will allow them to do whatever they want during the Climate Talks, and will deal much later with the Human Rights abuses and the resulting money pay-outs of those abused. This is an acceptable cost to the state to show they are 'in control', (and it's only tax-payers money after all).

The pictures are shown around the world, as a way of putting off people going to Copenhagen, as you can be arrested just for being there.

Also the police know that the subservient media will accept their version of events, and when people are provoked into fighting back, the media will have the riot porn pictures they crave. The truth will come out months later, but the media will not spend any time reporting that.

Remember the media story that was being established after G20 in London, pictures of windows being broken at the bank, and they reported without question the police line that the death of Ian Tomlinson was through 'natural causes' and he had no contact with the police. This only changed after an independent video came to light that showed the cops hitting him and pushing him over, and only then did this become a story. But not one mainstream media reporter bothered to question the police line before the video came to light.

Remember you innocents who were arrested, an INDIVIDUAL took the decision to use mass arbitrary arrest in which you were caught up. So go after that individual, name rank number etc and WHY they took that decision. If we can get to the individual concerned and they are outed, and shamed, lose their job or demoted or whatever, other individual high ranks may be less willing to do the same and carry the can in the future.

So hey you media reporters, WAKE UP and seek the truth! Do the words 'Fourth Estate' mean anything to you? You could be helping to bring the powers that be to account instead of cravenly accepting their spin. But your expense accounts and warm beds mean more to you than reporting the truth.

Solidarity with those arrested, now and on the future.

observer


prisoner exchange

14.12.2009 09:26

grab a few of the filth and lock 'em up in secret locations until all our comrades are released ...

if they have committed violent acts against the people - kangaroo courts are good enough for us, they can be good enough for them

fight back, untie you other arm, resist

... or die

shalit


Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech