Alleged context (feel free to correct if you have info in comments):

After Israeli Maccabi hooligans terrorized Amsterdam, the Dutch government demonized the pro-Palestine movement and banned protests. People came to protest anyways (peacefully)

The police arrested peaceful protesters and put them in a bus. They were driven to a parking lot. The police released them from the bus in a parking lot near a station.

While the protesters were walking to the station the police started hitting them. Allegedly for not moving fast enough.

  • Sop@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    36·
    7 days ago

    @lalehamirali on instagram has reported this whole event in their story. But here’s a summary:

    1. There was a peaceful protest on Amsterdam dam square. Due to the events with maccabi hooligans the city decided that protests are not allowed in the city until Thursday (today). Trough court decision the protest of Wednesday evening was allowed after all, but not in certain locations like the dam square. So the police considered the protest illegal.
    2. After a while the police started surrounding the protesters and called on them to leave and go to the assigned protest location.
    3. When the protesters didn’t leave, there were told by the cops to get into a bus that would bring them to the assigned location.
    4. Protesters didn’t comply and were forcibly put into the bus that they thought would bring them to the assigned location.
    5. Instead they were brought to a parking lot in the outskirts of the city. This is a tactic the police uses often to end protests they deem illegal or ‘dangerous’, because it allows them to end the protest without arresting all protesters. It’s on the protesters to get home safely (which can be very tricky because sometimes this happens at night when there is no public transport and not everyone will have their phone/money on them).
    6. There was no police on the parking lot so the protesters thought they could just leave and try to get home.
    7. Laleh says in their story that apparently someone in the bus, when most people had already left, broke a window.
    8. This resulted in lots of police coming to the parking lot and basically hunting on protesters who are trying to run away to safety. You can see in Laleh’s story how panicked everyone is because they don’t know what’s going on and the police just keeps going after them and hitting them, resulting in people having to run into nettle bushes and ditches. This goes on for a while and according to Laleh about 3/4 of the people in the bus were arrested.

    Mainstream news has reported on the violence (one of the rare occasions that they actually do that) and police is ‘investigating’ the incident.

      • Prandom_returns@lemm.eeEnglish
        62·
        7 days ago

        “Illegal protest”

        “Uhm, guys, could you please wait until the war is over to protest against genocide in Palestine? Otherwise we’ll kick your teeth in.”

      • GBU_28@lemm.eeEnglish
        221·
        7 days ago

        Why would violence be the appropriate / expected result in your mind?

          • Prandom_returns@lemm.eeEnglish
            61·
            7 days ago

            The job of the police is to enforce law and government decree without violence. Violence is just a tool they have access to, but it doesn’t mean it should be used for every kid and granny.

            • bestboyfriendintheworld@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
              1·
              5 days ago

              I have been to plenty of protests, where it got rough. I have been arrested several times at protests as well.

              I prefer a shove and a couple of hits with a bat to legs and torso to spending a day in lockup, getting my ID and fingerprints taken, and later a fine on top. Riot cops aren’t gentle when they arrest you.

          • GBU_28@lemm.eeEnglish
            151·
            7 days ago

            That’s a silly way to word it, that normalizes violent behavior. It’s a common tactic / tool they use, but more accurately:

            “enforce the law and government decree is literally the job of the police.”

            Violence, at the most cynical, is a common way they do it.

            In this case, (not discussing the whole bussing thing), if an arrest was required, say, for the bus damage, it should have been completed with the absolute minimum violence.

              • GBU_28@lemm.eeEnglish
                71·
                7 days ago

                Normalizing via speech is entrenching this very problem. I’m not saying this thread is gonna tip the scales, I’m discussing that the above commenter replied as if it’s the right response. They are condoning and almost evangelizing the topic (evangelizing is way too active a word, I can’t think of a better one, but this one is too much).

                I think there’s distinction between your raising the issue that police have a monopoly on violence, and their commenting that violence is their job. Given the context, it comes off as they are saying “it is correct and GOOD that the police met this group with violence.”

                I contend it is not appropriate, but accept that is is common (even systemically so)

            • bestboyfriendintheworld@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
              311·
              7 days ago

              Arresting a person in a pissed off crowd isn’t exactly easy.

              What we see in the video is the end of police enforcing dispersal of the crowd. We don’t see the repeated non violent orders to disperse that preceded this.

              The people in the video participated in an illegal protest and ignored repeated police orders to disperse.

              As far as police violence goes, the video isn’t terrible. You even see the cop help up the guy on the ground.

      • IndustryStandard@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
        142·
        7 days ago

        If Russia outlawed protests and their police came to beat up people protesting anyway, would you say the same thing? Or would you laud those protesters as heroes?

        • bestboyfriendintheworld@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          311·
          7 days ago

          Russia is not a free and democratic country.

          In this case the city of Amsterdam only made pro palestine protest illegal for a few days to protect public order after incidents of rioting. Protesting would have been fine just a few days later.

          Russia is nothing like that.

          • IndustryStandard@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
            102·
            7 days ago

            The temporary ban on demonstrating against the governments complicity in genocide. Out of fear of extreme violence which never manifestaties.

            #JustDemocracyThings.

          • jerkface@lemmy.caEnglish
            5·
            7 days ago

            So when the USA resumes conducting illegal detentions, extraordinary renditions, and mass expulsions in a few months, I guess that’s just the consequence of living in a free and democratic country, and we should just accept it.

      • mhague@lemmy.worldEnglish
        10·
        7 days ago

        Says they stopped the protest and bussed them to a second area, and then beat them.

        What did you think happened?

      • jerkface@lemmy.caEnglish
        113·
        7 days ago

        When you have to work this hard to maintain your worldview, it’s not a good sign.

          • jerkface@lemmy.caEnglish
            42·
            7 days ago

            Utter non sequitur. This is something someone says to bulwark their worldview to themselves, not to convince others of the merits of their view. You’re just proving my point.

            The lies we tell ourselves are not convincing to others.