by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
Copenhagen, DK, 12-12-2009, around 1345GMT: Around 200 demonstrators are currently being forcefully held in the street by Danish police near the American Embassy in Copenhagen.
The group had assembled as part of the "Hit the Production" demo. Without any provocation, the police charged violently at the crowd and began arrests, forcing people to sit on the ground in 2 degree temperatures while cuffed. The scenes seem to be an exact repetition of the human rights violations from yesterday.
Ed Thompson, a climate justice activist from the UK, who is at the scene, says: "I came here to show that the UN talks don't represent me, that big business and rich governments can't solve this crisis, and that it's going to take all of us to avoid climate catastrophe - and the police are responding with pepper spray, batons and indiscriminate arrests."
50 climate activists have been arrested as of 1340, and there are reports of the use of batons and pepper spray on journalists as well as protesters. One journalist from Danish news outlet Ekstra Bladet has reportedly been arrested.
As I have said already yesterday it would very much appear as if the Danish police went for lessons to the Met in London. The actions of the Danish police during the COP15 appear, from reports, worse than the way the G20 was being policed here in the British capital.
Welcome to Europe of the Fourth Reich, methinks.
© 2009
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