Police using ‘excessive violence’ against peaceful protesters in Poland amid abortion row | Euronews
Police in Poland are using increasingly violent tactics against peaceful demonstrators at women-led protests over abortion rights, according to activists.
Authorities have thrown protesters on the ground, hit them with telescopic batons, and used kettling — a tactic that involves employing blockades to contain a crowd within a limited area — a human rights lawyer who has been representing the demonstrators told Euronews.
Witnesses said plainclothes officers, not all of whom were donning armbands identifying them as police, beat demonstrators with batons last Wednesday night. Authorities also reportedly used tear gas against protesters.
At least 60 protesters, including one as young as 17, have been detained in recent weeks, according to human rights lawyer Eliza Rutynowska. …
Poland’s abortion protests: A fight for democracy? | Poland | Al Jazeera
27 Nov 2020
Mass protests in Poland over the tightening of an already restrictive abortion law are showing no signs of easing.
Since October 22, hundreds of thousands of people have rallied across the country over the Constitutional Tribunal’s ruling, and their grievances are now morphing into a broader rejection of the country’s governing conservative party.
In this episode of UpFront, we debate the abortion ban and the protests it has triggered with Poland’s deputy foreign minister, Paweł Jabłoński and Karolina Wigura, political editor of the Polish weekly Kultura Liberalna.
And in a Special Interview, we discuss climate justice and Indigenous rights with activist and economist Winona LaDuke.
(Source: aljazeera.com)
(via horror-heks)
Poland crackdown on Women’s Strike protests continues unabated | Amnesty International
20 November 2020, 14:11 UTC
The Polish authorities are using a raft of heavy-handed measures to crack down on peaceful protests against a constitutional ruling which severely restricts access to abortion in Poland. Amnesty International has documented the authorities’ excessive use of force including pepper spray, the criminalization of peaceful protesters, and incitement of violence against protesters by public officials.
In a sign of escalation, on Wednesday, [18 Nov] while Women’s Strike protesters peacefully gathered in front of the public TV building in Warsaw, the police ‘kettled’ them, together with the journalists covering the event, and used pepper spray.
Facing a near total ban on abortion, people in Poland have mobilized impressively. However, not content with violating their reproductive rights, authorities have used this opportunity to also crack down on their right to peacefully protest.
– Nils Muižnieks, Europe Director at Amnesty International“Women of all ages, from girls to grandmothers, have joined overwhelmingly peaceful protests to reclaim their rights.”. We are therefore horrified to see excessive use of force by police, disproportionate charges used against protestors, and speeches from public officials that could encourage further violence toward them.
“On Wednesday and Thursday [18-19 Nov] police detained dozens of peaceful protesters including a 17-old boy, who spent a night in detention for showing up at a small peaceful solidarity demonstration.”
Draginja Nadazdin, Director of Amnesty International Poland added: “We call on Polish authorities to put an end to the use of excessive use of force by police and to drop the disproportionate criminal charges against peaceful protesters. The right to freedom of peaceful assembly must be protected, and the assault on sexual and reproductive rights must end.”
(Source: amnesty.org)
Escape from New York (1981)
This is me now. lol
[video]
[video]
[video]
