Who is going to pay for the destruction?
June 6, 2007
This is the third question we have asked ourselves.
Please be patient, our comments on this questions will be published tomorrow.
Your G8 blog-team!
In my opinion, the question is not easy to answer. On the one hand a de-escalation tactic is necessary to protect the majority of demonstrators. They are peaceful and want to present their expectations and demands to the eight richest industrial nations. A defensive police will send the image of a liberal and democratic society to the rest of the world.
On the other hand, however, it is clear that there will always be aggressive demonstrators on G8 demonstrations. The argument that a massive police deployment provokes people who are willing to use violence is senseless. Before the G8 demonstrations had even started, aggressive demonstrators put stones into their backpacks. They are aggressors and their aim is violence.
F.T., 05.06.07
I think that question is debatable. On the one hand, it is quite good for peaceful demonstrators because they can demonstrate without the intervention of the police. On the other hand, the huge deployment of aggressive demonstrators from the “black block” has to be controlled by the police. If the police runs the de-escalation tactic, sooner or later the members of the “black block” will attack them nevertheless. So in my opinion, the police should use a more aggressive strategy regarding violent demonstrators during G8 demonstrations. They could use hard rubber bullets, for example.
F.L., 05.06.07
In my opinion, this tactic is stupid and dangerous. The de-escalation tactic means that the police wait and observe what happens before they do anything.
That means that it could be too late if some violent demonstrators start throwing bottles and stones. The police would not have the time to react and to protect everyone and so peaceful people could be injured. Besides, they wouldn’t have the chance to protect themselves.
In my opinion, the police have to split that violent “black block” very early and take suspicious people into custody. If these groups of thousands are split into groups of hundreds, the violent power of these groups can be weakened. I know that this is not the ‘normal’ way but the police have to use violence to protect other people and to protect themselves.
P.P., 05.06.07
In my opinion, the de-escalation tactic is helpful for G8 demonstrations!
Most demonstrators of the “black block” would feel provoked if the policemen dispersed the crowd. They would say the police have taken away their civil right to demonstrate and the right of freedom of expression. There would be more violence against the government and the police. The reaction of the “black block” would be unpredictable. Violence is the only way they see to fight for their rights. Besides, the presence of the many policemen is a provocation for every demonstrator of the “black block”.
In my opinion, there is no perfect way to protect the rights of demonstrators and to guarantee safety at the same time.
A.N., 05.06.07
I think it is difficult for the police to find the right strategy to prevent aggressive outbreaks on G8 demonstrations in future because people like the demonstrators of the “black block” are mostly not interested in a peaceful demonstration where they can present their political opinions. They often just want to fight against the authority of the state and so a de-escalation strategy might be impossible.
Of course, an appropriate amount of police officers should be at a demonstration to protect the peaceful demonstrators. The police has to find ways to prevent such aggressive escalations like the one last Saturday, for example by splitting the “black block” into groups or by preventing the demonstrators from getting weapons such as stones.
F.A., 05.06.07
A lot of people think differently about the de-escalation tactic of the police, but most students of our group think that it is not good. The police just seem to wait until somebody gets hurt and then it is too late. Why do we have police there if they don’t help in time? However, one good thing about the de-escalation tactic is that the demonstrating people have more “freedom” and don’t feel constricted.
L.M., 05.06.07
I think that’s debatable. On the one hand this tactic is helpful for a peaceful demonstration so that people can demonstrate without the police escorting them with a massive deployment. On the other hand this tactic can be dangerous because of the enormous potential of violence of the “black block”. A small number of policemen is not able to keep these aggressors under control and the situation escalates.
Wouldn’t it be better to use a more offensive strategy against the demonstrators instead of the de-escalation tactic, as for example hard rubber bullets?
S.St., 05.06.07
In my opinion the police should have intervened earlier because of the “black block”. These aren’t peaceful demonstrators. They want to destroy things and the police have to take precautions for the peaceful demonstrators.
Some people think that the “black block” only wants freedom of expression but fighting in the streets, violence and destruction has nothing to do with freedom of expression, I think. The police is like a red flag to the “black block”, a provocation. But why? They feel restricted by the police. In my opinion that is only a pretext to fight.
During the G8 summit the police have the task to protect the peaceful demonstrators. If there weren’t any police forces the “black block” would also destroy things or fight with other protesters and then people would ask “Where was the police? Nobody protected us!”
Everybody has other arguments but I think if you want to riot you have to live with the consequences. The police want to give the protesters a chance to demonstrate peacefully. Those who throw stones and fight with the police have to expect hard consequences.
A.O., 05.06.07
There are some points for and against the de-escalation tactic. On the one hand it helps the protestors to demonstrate peacefully. The police won’t react immediately to the slightest act of aggression. On the other hand it might be too late if the police wait too long.
The riots in Rostock on June 2nd showed that the police were out of their depth. Therefore there must be a bigger deployment, which acts at the right moment to prevent an escalation.
F.H., 05.06.07
The events that have occured in our hometown in the run-up to the G8 summit have raised many questions that we discussed in class.
Here are the questions we have raised and discussed:
1) How can peaceful demonstrations be protected from violent protest?
2) Is the tactic of de-escalation helpful for G8 demonstrations?
3) Who is going to pay for the destruction?
How can peaceful demonstrations be protected from violent protest?
This question was raised months ago and caused a lot of controversial discussions. A lot of politicians demanded that possible aggressors should be arrested in advance. Others said that the police should take smell samples to be able to recognize aggressors.
No matter which solution was offered, it always encountered resistance and now it is too late and the police forces have to improvise their tactics – on Saturday, they failed.
J.M.S., 05.06.07
Some people might say “If you support peaceful and creative demonstrations, there won’t be a need for violence.” But it is not as easy as it seems. Of course, there are ways to improve the support of peaceful demonstrations but there will always be aggressive people who spoil the positive mood and the pictures which go around the world.
In my opinion, there should be more communication between the security forces and the demonstrators. And of course, the demonstrators should have the opportunity to talk to politicians who will really listen to them to give them the feeling that someone cares about these problems. But, as we all might know, the perfect solution does not exist.
M.E.T., 05.06.07
There has to be more communication between the police and demonstrators instead of reacting to tensions with violence. I can imagine that this is very hard to do because there is a lot of anger on both sides and it happens very quickly that people push each other deeper into their rage. So I don’t really know how to solve the problem and I think no one really does at the moment.
U.S., 05.06.07
There has to be more communication between the police and demonstrators. Maybe some demonstrators could form could function as mediators to solve and prevent violent conflicts between the “black block” and the police.
S.D., 05.06.07
