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City police admitted that they tolerated Saturday’s closing demonstration for too long. Under security chief Karin Rykart (gp.), The police do not have much confidence to deal with the protests.
Inconsistent: While all political protests were halted immediately on May 1, the police tolerated a protest by prison opponents and allowed the organizers to get away with it.
What happened on Saturday at the Sechseläutenplatz in Zurich is questionable. For more than an hour, the city police granted protesters to organize the shutdown. This is not a cause for concern because some of the protesters alleged obvious nonsense, for example when speaking of a coup d’etat by the Federal Council: they have the right to do nonsense. Something else is worrisome: that the police handled the demonstration in a completely different way from that of May 1.
Voices are already being heard suspecting a connection between the content of the two unequal protests: the concentration of the May Day left is being repressed, closing protests that are difficult to locate are tolerated. That is Mumpitz. Rather, it is surprising that city police have not followed a clear line in dealing with protests since the start of the Corona crisis and fluctuate between repression and tolerance. It fits this bad pattern that the strict May 1 procedure was followed by reluctance on Saturday.
The way in which the city police treated the women’s demonstration on March 8 was strange. Although it was an unauthorized demonstration (and although the maximum number of 1,000 participants was probably exceeded at the time), the police unequivocally expressed their solidarity with the female protesters through a megaphone. When left-wing autonomists staged a car show in District 5 in mid-April, the police held him back, but refrained from prosecuting his fellow travelers. The prosecution allegedly followed an order from the Attorney General’s Office to implement the Covid regulation 19. Finally, on May 1, the police intervened quickly and decisively against protests of all kinds and also prosecuted people.
Meanwhile, city police have distanced themselves from lax operations on Saturday. The responsible operations manager had not correctly implemented the commander’s guidelines. This self-criticism is commendable. On the other hand, it’s strange that the chief operating officer is blamed so clearly and publicly through a press release. This is unlikely to be particularly well received in the police force. Chief of Security Karin Rykart (gp.) And Police Commander Daniel Blumer threaten to lose acceptance among people in their own department.
Rykart is politically responsible for the recently inconsistent course. She may have contributed to the unfortunate assignment at Sechseläutenplatz with her appearance in the city parliament during the week. He was under pressure from his own party, which harshly criticized the police operation on May 1. Rykart described the procedure as correct, but “tough on the border.” Words like this from the boss are not without effect. A clear commitment to the chosen course sounds different.
It is good that the police clarified on Monday that the same rules should continue to apply to everyone, namely the regime that came into effect on May 1. Equal rights, that is, the same rules for everyone, is a key asset. However, it is certainly debatable whether these rules should be adapted, which, of course, would not be a matter for the police, but for politics. The argument of the right and left protesters that they exercised a fundamental right is justified. New rules are quickly needed to define the possibilities of protest. Demonstrations must also be possible in times of pandemic, naturally with a concept of permission and security.
