Czechs In Dublin To Protest Against Police Attacks

by Terry Wed Aug 24, 2005 12:06

This story is being followed further on Portland IMC

For more discussion, some images and links to video follow the link below

by CANDYPOPPIN' Tue Aug 23, 2005 19:41

I was booked to play an event about an hour outside
of
Salt Lake City, Utah. The hype behind this show was huge, they
presold 700 tickets and they expected up to 3,000 people total.
The
promoters did an amazing job with the show.. they even made
slipmats
with the flyers on them to promote in local shops.
So, we got to the show around 11:15 or so and it was really
cool. It
was all outdoors, in a valley surrounded by huge mountains. They
had
an amazing light show flashing on to a mountain behind the site,
the
sound was booming, the crowd was about 1500 people thick and
everything just seemed too good to be true really. Well...
At about 11:30 or so, I was standing behind the stage talking
with
someone when I noticed a helicopter pulling over one of the
mountain
tops. I jokingly said "Oh look, here comes big brother" to the
person I was with. I wasn't far off.
The helicopter dipped lower and lower and started shining its
lights
on the crowd. I was kind of in awe and just sat and watched this
thing circle us for a minute. As I looked back towards the crowd
I
saw a guy dressed in camoflauge walking by, toting an assault
rifle.
At this point, everyone was fully aware of what was going on . A
few "troops" rushed the stage and cut the sound off and started
yelling that everyone "get the fuck out of here or go to jail".
This
is where it got really sticky.
No one resisted. That's for sure. They had police dogs raiding
the
crowd of people and I saw a dog signal out a guy who obviously
had
some drugs on him. The soldiers attacked the guy (4 of them on
1),
and kicked him a few times in the ribs and had their knees in
his
back and sides. As they were cuffing him, there was about 1000
kids
trying to leave in the backdrop, peacefully. Next thing I know,
A
can of fucking TEAR GAS is launched into the crowd. People are
running and screaming at this point. Girls are crying, guys are
cussing... bad scene.
Now, this is all I saw with my own eyes, but I heard plenty of
other
accounts of the night. Now this isnt gossip I heard from some
candy
raver, these are instances cited straight out of the promoters
mouth..
- One of the promoters friends (a very small female) was
attacked by
one of the police dogs. As she struggled to get away from it,
the
police tackled her. 3 grown men proceeded to KICK HER IN THE
STOMACH.
- The police confiscated 3 video tapes in total. People were
trying
to document what was happening out there. The police saw one guy
filming and ran after him, tackled him and his camera fell, and
luckily.. his friend grabbed it and ran and got away. priceless
footage. That's not all though. Out of 1,500 people, there's
sure to
be more footage.
- The police were rounding up the staff of the party and the
main
promoter went up to them with the permit for the show and
said "here, I have the permit." The police then said, "no you
don't"
and ripped the permit out of his hand. Then, they put an assault
rifle to his forehead and said "get the fuck out of here right
now."
Now.. let's get the facts straight here.
This event was 100% legal. They had every permit the city told
them
they needed. They had a 2 MILLION DOLLAR insurance policy for
the
event. They had liscenced security guards at the gates
confiscating
any alcohol or drugs found upon entry (yes, they searched every
car
on the way in). Oh, I suppose I should mention that they
arrested
all the security guards for possession.
Oh another interesting fact.. the police did not have a warrant.
The
owner of the land already has a lawsuit against the city for
something similar. A few months ago, she rented her land for a
party
and the police raided that as well. And catch this, the police
forced her to LEAVE HER OWN PERSONAL PROPERTY. That's right.
They
didnt arrest her, but made her leave her own property!!!
Don't get it twisted, this is all going down in probably THE
most
conservative state in the USA. And this is scary.. a gross
violation
of our civil liberties. The police wanted this party shut down,
so
they made it happen. Even though everything about this event was
legal. The promoters spent over $ 20,000 on this show and did
everything they had to to make it legit, only to have it taken
away
from them by a group of radical neo-con's with an agenda.
This was one of the scariest things I have ever witnessed in
person.
I can't even begin to describe how surreal it was. Helicopters,
assault rifles, tear gas, camoflauge-wearing soldiers.... why?
Was
that really necessary?
This needs to be big news across the USofA. At least in our
music
scene (edm as a whole)... this could happen to any of us at any
time. When we're losing the right to gather peacefully, we're
also
letting the police set a standard of what we can get away with.
And
I think that's BULLSHIT!
The system fucked up last night... They broke up a party that
was
100% legal and they physically hurt a lot of people there at the
same time. The promoters already have 6 lawsuits ready to file
with
their lawyers and the ACLU is already involved.
I'm sure some pictures (and hopefully some video) will surface
soon.
I'll make sure to post them up here on 404, so you can see the
Police State of America at work.[

by correction via contact box Mon Aug 22, 2005 00:46

it was written in this article that Frantisek
Bublan(http://wtd.vlada.cz/scripts/detail.php?id=7939) is Czech minister of justice, but he's an interior minister (with responsibility for the police). Minister of justice's name is Pavel Nemec (http://wtd.vlada.cz/scripts/detail.php?id=7934)

This mistake is perhaps caused by the Irish not having a minister of the interior, our minister of justice does interiors and exteriors.

by iosaf - "boycott Kafka!" Wed Aug 03, 2005 14:11

the site of the festival "c23chtek 2k5" :-
http://czechtek.freetekno.org/
********************

Vaclav Klaus the Czech republic's president has said the incident was "a grave error".
http://www.radio.cz/es/articulo/69173

********************

the former president Vaclav Havel of velvet revolution fame has offered to mediate between the Czechteck organisers and the government.

Vaclav Havel, who appeared at a rally on Monday to lend his support to the CzechTek partygoers, has offered to act as a mediator between the government and the rave's organisers. Police announced on Tuesday that 10 people have been charged in relation to Saturday's events, most with assaulting a public official. At least two private citizens have filed complaints against the police. Meanwhile, according to a lightning poll conducted for the daily Mlada fronta Dnes, seven out of ten Czechs believe that the police action to shut down CzechTek was 'too severe'. The Czech police used tear gas, stun grenades, batons and water cannons to disperse the CzechTek crowds, whom the government says were trespassing on private property.

http://www.radio.cz/en/
***************************************************
Senate chairman Premysl Sobotka (ODS) wants PM Jiri Paroubek (CSSD) and Interior Minister Frantisek Bublan (unaffiliated, nominated for CSSD) to explain the weekend police action against the participants in the CzechTek rave, he told journalists yesterday.

"I will write a letter to PM Paroubek and Interior Minister Bublan to give an explanation of the steps taken against CzechTek since Friday," Sobotka said after his meeting with David Cermak, one of the organisers of the demonstrations protesting the police action.

Sobotka also met with Vaclav Sroub, who leased the meadow in Mlynec for the technoparty. Sroub is the first CzechTek organiser who started negotiating with top politicians.

According to Sobotka, the organisers did not violate the lease contract. Sroub criticised the police action.

"It seems to me that my rights were limited and nobody gave me any explanation. I insist that a proper investigation of what happened there [in Mlynec] is carried out," Sroub said.

Josef Pavlata (ODS) from the Senate's human rights committee said he will ask the committee to discuss the violation of law in connection with the CzechTek technoparty.

Pavlata added that he thinks that the committee should also demand the opinion of Paroubek and Bublan.

A demonstration protesting the police action was held in Brno yesterday and another one is to take place outside the Interior Ministry in Prague today.

About 1,200 police intervened against 5,000 young people participating in the rave at Mlynec, west Bohemia, during the past weekend. Several people, both festival-goers and police, were injured.

Bublan said the intervention was necessary and Paroubek has backed him. But President Vaclav Klaus said the action was a big mistake and other politicians criticised it as well. Demonstrations protesting the police action were held on Sunday and Monday outside the seat of the Interior Ministry.

http://praguemonitor.com/
*********************************************

there is a 2006 elections issue:-

Noted Political science professor Tomas Lebeda said that the police took a strong action against CzechTek, but when skinheads hold their actions, they are not hard enough.

"The social danger the skinheads and neo-Nazis represent is however substantially bigger," he said.

Kucera also said that the police ponder too long during skinhead concerts over whether the law was breached, but they acted very quickly against CzechTek.

Dolezal said that it is difficult to compare a skinhead band's concert and CzechTek.

"The skinhead actions have much smaller dimensions. It is true that they have a sort of perversed semi-ideology, while this (CzechTek type actions) have no ideology, but it is simply a sign of complete decay," he said.

********************************************************
Comment:-
I almost went to this year's czechtek, as "a nostalgic exercise", a bunch of my friends here in Bcn suggested we go and see was that vibe which existed in the 90s still to be found in a Czech meadow. The vibe I was referring to was that of the first countryside parties in ireland which saw the youth of all traditions for the first time - come together and party, in the same way as any generation in any time, (not completely with the approval of their parents), but that is how youth parties.
I know, that the parties which occured complete with excess alcohol, popping of pills and really loud music and big starry eyes and hugs in the summers of 1990-1994 in Ireland played a part in the creation and consolidation of our peace process, those who organised such "raves" will always take deservéd credit for the first inter-community inter-ethnic hugs and cuddles.

I know because I was there, and many of you readers were too. I also know that our movement, our emergent political class and media organisation owed much to the *class-less* phenomona of parties and what was once termed "temporary or transitory autonomous zones".

What has occured in Bohemia in this summer of 2005 is utterly shameful and must be condemned, by those politicians of Europe who thought to welcome such regimes into union with us. The facts speak for themselves, one death, hundreds wounded and hospitalised and thousands on site are now criminalised and hundreds of thousands more are criminalised as a result. There can be no attempt to describe hordes of anarchist huns, that's crap, there's no political agenda to such events, there are no czech catholics and protestants to bring together under a strobe in the sweaty heat. So then was this attack over a criminal matter? was it meant to publically punish suspected users of ecstasy? The Czechs like all EU states are party to the UN declarations on the control of psychoactive drugs, no other state has thought to set riot police on suspected users. That's not how it works. Or perhaps it was to make a point on litter, hygiene and the environment?
The more one considers what occured the more extreme the level of state brutality.

Central Europe and the Czech republic sees constant mobilisations by the extreme right with impunity, every weekend sees rock concerts by the true voices of hate and anti-semitism and anti-migrants, every weekend sees those groups recruit. If the dead man had been a policeman's son or a politician's son, as he might easily be, we would see a proper international reaction.

one of CONDEMNATION.
& I for one condemn.

by iosaf Tue Aug 02, 2005 18:12

seemingly the police raid on the Czechtek event saw one man die when teargas canisters were fired ahead of baton charges. The event was legal.
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/08/320214.html

by d'other Tue Aug 02, 2005 18:05

How can the law stop young people having fun, fight this bollix.