Link to the West

After May 6, a propaganda campaign unfolded in Russia, aimed at convincing the audience that police atrocities during the dispersal of the Million Million is a normal democratic process, that in the West, the authorities are by no means ceremony with protesters, and therefore will rightly tighten the punishment of rebels. How convincing are references to law enforcement practice of democratic countries? Let's start with the story.

At the end of the century before last, when the debate of labor and capital acquired a wide scope and acute character, the US authorities twice used troops to suppress unrest. For the first time, this was done by the government of Rutherford Heis in 1877. For the second time - President Grover Cleveland in 1894. In both cases, railway workers became the outrageous of the “social world”. Heis managed to do without bloodshed. Cleveland showed an example of a strict reprisal. But it is worth emphasizing that the 1894 strike, called Pulmanovskaya, not only paralyzed the railway message throughout the country, but also led to atrocities that were accompanied by the murders and destruction of the property of railway companies.

In 1893, due to the most difficult economic crisis, the businessman-socialist Jacob Coxy organized the march of unemployed to Washington. The march participants were called the "Army of the Coxy". 400 people reached Washington. They arranged a procession, after which the Coxy himself and the other two leaders of the march were arrested and sentenced to 2 years in prison - for vagrancy and damage to the lawns around the Capitol. Damage to green spaces and today remains one of the reasons to hold protesters accountable.

In the winter of 1912, workers of textile factories of the city of Lawrence in Massachusetts announced a strike that went down in history called "Bread and Roses." Pickets that did not let the strackbrachers into factories began to disperse ice water from the corpuscles of the corpuscles. Tekstilshits in response began to throw pieces of ice into the windows of factory administrations. One woman was killed in a clash with the police. For beating glasses, 36 people were sentenced to prison. In order to attract the attention of the whole country to the conflict, the striking organized the march of their children in New York, which passed without incidents. When they tried to arrange the same procession in Philadelphia, the Lawrence authorities decided to prevent this. The police, armed with batons, forcefully pulled out children and their mothers from the wagons, many were injured. In court, the strikers refused to pay a fine and went to the bars, some with infants in their hands. Events in Lawrence really excited the whole country. In support of textile workers and their demands, the first Lady Helen Taft spoke out, public hearings were held in the congress, during which the facts of really monstrous working and life of factory workers were published. In the end, the manufacturers were forced to fulfill almost all the requirements of the lambs.

When Great Depression broke out, the president was an unusually popular Herbert Hoover - a native of social lower classes, who became a millionaire, a talented administrator, businessman, engineer and economist. He was not at a loss and developed an anti -crisis plan. However, Hoover made an irreparable political mistake. In May 1932, veterans of the First World War gathered in Washington. The poor front -line soldiers demanded that the Congress pay them the promised benefits (which, by the way, had not yet arrived). Former soldiers set up a camp on the outskirts of the city, occupied federal buildings, and the president ordered General MacArthur, who then held the post of chief of the United Staff, to cleanse Washington from rebels. The general fulfilled the order too zealously, exceeded his powers and thereby decided the political fate of the president. Herbert Hoover lost the chances of a re -election.

From British history, first of all, the Battle of Cable Street is recalled in London in October 1936. The leader of the British Union of the Nazis Oswald Mosley decided to hold the march of his army. The column of black -browned arms was supposed to walk along the streets of the East End - a poor area inhabited largely by Jews. Three thousand fascists and six thousand police officers arrived at the event, including the horse, who were to protect the manifestants and prevent street riots. The measure was more than appropriate: the anti -fascists and communists were determined to prevent the BSF procession and built several barricades along the column route. Mosley came to the scene in his open Bentley and standing on the supporters in the manner of his idols Hitler and Mussolini; Then he got out of the car and went around the system, taking the parade. The police moved to disassemble the barricades. Bricks and bottles flew in them. The protesters retreated, but instead of disassembled barricades, they hoisted new ones. Throughout the fight, the Nazis did not touch the place, waiting for restoring order. After two hours of the battle, during which more than a hundred people were injured, the boss reported on what the Minister of Internal Affairs John Simon and he canceled the march. Having received the order of the authorities, Mosley, without entering the dispute, turned the column. In December 1936, the parliament approved the law on public order, which prohibited the wearing of fascist form and insignia. Local police chiefs received the right to prohibit fascist processions in the event of a threat to public order. Oswald Mosley lost his main weapon - public manifestations, and the movement gradually fell into decay.

Well, what about this day?

In Washington, the procedure for conducting rallies and processions is not notifying, but permissive. This applies to public speeches, and even to prayers - there is no Hyde Park in the American capital. The organizers of the mass event should (in connection with their large number) submit an application in advance with the purpose, place, route and approximate number of participants and no later than 60 days negotiate with a special group of representatives of local and federal authorities. In total, coordination with 12 departments is required.

If the event is held in the territory subordinate to the Department of Parks and places of rest , officials evaluate the damage caused to green plantations and fined the organizers. Stretches and banners cannot be attached to the trees. In New York parks, similar rules apply.

Based on the number of participants, the number of toilets is calculated (one toilet per 50 people), medical staff, etc. No private initiative in this matter is allowed, the authorities are provided by the authorities, and the organizers pay. For example, nurse services cost $ 70 per hour.

There are no ideological restrictions, but election campaigning is not allowed in the parks. It is forbidden to use alcohol and the use of pyrotechnic agents. The loudspeakers require a special resolution, the sound level is limited by 60 decibels.

The shares of the White House are regulated in a special order: the number of participants is strictly limited, you can not stand at the fence, only through the road from the president’s residence and to the Lafayette Square opposite. Even the size of the banners is stipulated.

The organizers are responsible for all violations.

Responsibility for violations provides for administrative, in the form of fines. For the attack on the policeman - naturally, criminal. The actions of the police in case of unforeseen riots are regulated by special instructions .

A separate conversation is unauthorized events. A recent vivid example is the arrest of George Clooney on March 16, several members of Congress and Martin Luther King III near the building of the Embassy of Sudan. The organizers planned their arrest from the very beginning and even reported this in advance. The protesters occupied the lawn in front of the embassy. This is private property. The secret service agents warned them, they did not obey. The instigators were chopped into plastic handcuffs and delivered to the site. They did not resist. On the same day everyone was released.

Finally, about the dispersal of the “invaders of Wall Street”, which are especially often referred to by supporters of tough measures against the opposition.

The park in Nizhny Manhattan, in which the invaders camp were located, are private property, so the authorities were not required, only the consent of the owner. At first they were not allowed to break the tents, then they were allowed, then they were forbidden to spend the night. On October 6, the park owners said they were worried about the sanitary condition of the territory and that participants in the action refused to clean the park for regular cleaning. On October 13, the mayor Michael Bloomberg and the owner of the company called the deadline when the park should be released for cleaning: 7 in the morning of the 14th. The "occupiers" refused to obey. On this basis, the first clashes with the police occurred. At midnight on November 15, the organizers received a notification that they should leave the park and that after cleaning they would be able to return there, but without tents and sleeping bags. An hour later, the police in complete combat vestment began to remove the inhabitants of the camp. About 200 people were arrested.

It is about these actions that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov angrily spoke : “We will not agree that, having the right to ask questions, our Western partners do not want to discuss their many problems. And there are a lot of them and they are multiplying. The way they treat the action“ occupy Wall Crtit! ”, Give a vivid illustration that a number of colleagues and partners from Western countries confess Double standards ".

This response is still a stretch.

On December 31, the participants in the movement made a repeated occupation of the park. This time they barricaded the entrances. After midnight, having handled the New Year, the bulk of the march on Broadway went out. The police began cleaning. She arrested 68 people, including one (or one), which was poked in the hand in his hand with scissors. Basically, people did not resist - they sat on the ground, clinging their hands.

From all that has been said, it follows that both demonstrators and the authorities need to learn a lot more. The authorities - primarily that restrictions and rules have been invented in order to provide citizens with the right to freedom of speech, meetings and processions, and not deprive them of this right. But this suggestion, of course, makes sense only in a conversation with a sane partner. It is a partner, not an enemy.