| Trying to read between the lines here, I don't think this protest or these arrests were strictly about Afghanistan, but more of a general Euro-anarcho type thingy. |
Several hundred protestors broke through police barriers in downtown Oslo on Thursday evening to demonstrate against NATO's warfare in Afghanistan. 800 demonstrators moved towards Oslo's City Hall. Police field leader Thor Langli| Gotta love a police field leader named Thor. |
said that 260 demonstrators were being held after these broke off from a legal demonstration and tried to breach the barriers. "They are young, but not so young that they cannot take responsibility for their actions," Langli said. Just before 8 p.m. on Thursday evening protestors tore down police barriers in Oslo's City Hall square and began throwing stones and eggs after police fired tear gas. A photographer for newspaper Dagbladet was mistakenly arrested during the uproar. "I was on the way out through the police opening when I was arrested. They twisted my arm and were unnecessarily heavy-handed," photographer Hans Vedlog told Aftenposten.no.| You can show the scars to your grandkiddies, Hans. |
Vedlog said he was given no opportunity to show his press card and was bound and placed on the street alongside the protestors. He was released after some of his colleagues pointed out the mistake to police.| That's the violence inherent in the System, comrade. |
A peaceful protest demonstration began on Thursday evening at 6:30 p.m., with about 800 people and several organizations taking part cooperatively. About 200 of these are believed to be from the radical youth organization Blitz.| And they arrested 260 people (plus one journo). Hmm. |
After about 15 minutes the demonstrators began to march towards the City Hall, where a gala dinner in connection with the NATO meeting of foreign ministers was to be held later in the evening. The protestors carried banners with slogans like "Stop NATO", "Norwegian weapons kill children" and "Norway out of Afghanistan". More demonstrators joined the march as it approached City Hall, and then the trouble started. There had been warnings of illegal action on Thursday night and Oslo police were armed with machine guns and had formed a ring around City Hall. Police also boosted security around the US and Israeli embassies. |