Floyd protests DK: BLM’s problematic “antiracist” policies

As noted a few days ago, after the demonstration to protest racism and police brutality in the US last Sunday, many people wondered that the large crowd had ignored the precautions (DK) against the coronavirus. Regarding the debate about the risk (DK) of the infection spreading at the demonstration, Bwalya Søren, the spokesperson for Black Lives Matter Denmark, which arranged the protest, asked, “Are you so afraid that black people can get a little bit of rights?"

Since then, other questions have arisen about  BLM Denmark's management of the demonstration. When Sørensen spoke to the 15,000 people gathered in front of the Parliament building, she told the white attendees to move out of the way and let the blacks stand in front of the banners. 

Before the event, BLM Denmark had posted a series of rules on Instagram about “Protest etiquette for white folks” (DK). The rules state that whites should not talk to the press, they should not start chants, and they should not join in certain chants. For example, they should not chant, “I can’t breathe” because “Being choked and shot are not things happening to white folks in the same way as they are to black folks. . . . The black power fist falls under this too. These . . . are not for appropriation.”

Defense of segregation and unreported fundraising 

Making special rules for whites at the demonstration strikes some people as discriminatory itself and against the basic principle of the protest for equality. “I’m deeply shocked, and I think it is very un-Danish," said journalist Jeppe Søe. "It argues against its own cause.” When asked about that reaction, Bwalya Sørensen responded, “If you are dissatisfied . . . you should stay home. It is white supremacy.” 

Later, in a radio interview, Sørensen was asked about BLM's fundraising for the event. She acknowledged that the organization had not registered the money it had collected (DK) with the Danish Fundraising Board, that donors could not see what the money was being used for, and that the collection was therefore illegal. “But should I stop a movement to protest about George Floyd because I have to follow some rules?” she said. “Have you heard of civil disobedience?” she asked the interviewer and emphasized that the Danish government must say something about the killings in the USA.

Systematic white supremacy

Problems also arose planning a demonstration (DK) on Tuesday in Aalborg, a smaller city in northern Jutland. Other groups had arranged a demonstration to support the one planned by BLM – high school students, day-care staff students and the local office of Amnesty International. BLM objected that these groups planned to hold a demonstration in Aalborg on the same day that BLM wanted to hold one. Amnesty had already received permission to hold the demonstration before it knew that BLM also wanted to on the same day. It invited  Sørensen to speak at its demonstration and asked whether BLM could postpone its demonstration until the day after. 

Sørensen was insulted by the offer: “And so white people will drive us away. It is ‘white supremacy,’ racism and misogynistic garbage, to put it mildly. . . . That man is racist,” she said of Hans Hyttel, the Aalborg representative of Amnesty International. When asked what Hyttel had said, Sørensen replied, “Why should all of you at B.T. [the newspaper] be white? How many people of color are employed there? Why should you kidnap the agenda?”

Amnesty International canceled its planned demonstration and expressed its support for the BLM demonstration.

A passionate activist

Bwalya Sørensen, who is 53, came to Denmark from Zambia 34 years ago. She has been active in protest movements (DK) since the refugee and migrant crisis in Europe in 2015. She has campaigned for various causes, for example against poverty, for LGBT+ rights and in the debate on rape laws. Perhaps the first time she came to prominence was in a demonstration against the anti-Islamist Pegida organization at a train station in 2017. She can be seen protesting against the “Nazi pigs!” in this video (DK).

Coronavirus DK: Growing chorus: LIBERATE us from red tape

Some people are getting impatient with the government’s “gradual and controlled” reopening. That has led to a reversal of the so-called “midnight rule” (DK) for large parties at hotels and restaurants. According to the government’s plan for the relaxation of pandemic restrictions, restaurants and bars were allowed to open but must close by midnight. The rationale was that if people keep drinking into the night, they will be less careful about observing social distancing and good hygiene. The rule was extended for the sake of consistency to cover private gatherings held at these locations and other rented premises for wedding receptions and other large parties.

Cinderella versus the Nanny State

The right-wing opposition parties, along with the Social Liberal Party, thought this was going too far. They called the rule an expression of a “nanny mentality” and said that during the summer, the high season for such gatherings, the parties would just migrate at midnight to private homes and continue in the yard. This faction constituted a parliamentary majority and threatened to overturn the rule, but the Social Democratic government acceded to their wishes. Now parties can continue through the night as long as the gatherings involve people who know one another and others are not allowed in, they sit down, and they observe social distancing. 

When Justice Minister Nick Hækkerup was asked what this concession meant about how much the government has regulated things, he replied, “Although it resembles a small problem, it is a problem that has received much attention and therefore shall have this solution.”

European hordes clamoring at the gate

On Thursday, the EU Commission recommended that member states open their borders (DK) to other EU countries on June 15. Denmark’s plan is to keep its borders closed to all but a few countries until August 31. The EU cannot force individual countries to open their borders, but almost all the member states are planning to open their borders by June 15. The EU Commission also recommends that member states open the borders to countries outside the EU that have the pandemic under control as well as the EU countries. 

The European Commissioner, Ylva Johansson, happens to be Swedish, and Sweden has been pressing Denmark to allow its citizens access to Denmark. Sweden has a much higher infection rate than Denmark and its other neighbors, Norway and Finland. “There are perhaps 20,000 infectious Swedes,” says Christian Wejse, a specialist in infectious diseases at Aarhus University, “and with open borders they could quickly start new cases here.”

Bureaucratic jungle

On Friday, the left-leaning daily Information published an editorial calling the government’s reopening policy a “farce” (DK). The government has been preoccupied with small distinctions in detailed rules about hotel stays, high school graduation celebrations, reunifications with partners abroad, and arbitrary closing times for restaurants. Freedoms that people had taken for granted have been passed out in small bit after political negotiations, and it has created a bureaucratic jungle of arbitrary, special laws. People have difficulty understanding them and will stop following them instead of focusing on the crucial factors of social distancing and washing their hands.

Coronavirus DK: Backlash against packed demonstration

After seeing news reports and video clips of thousands of demonstrators crowded together on Sunday to protest against racism and police brutality in the US, many people reacted with outrage and criticism (DK). In comment fields and on social media, they expressed surprise that so many were indifferent to the risks they ran for both themselves and others. Government officials and healthcare researchers were also concerned. 

“After we kept the elderly in nursing homes isolated, people have gone bankrupt, children have not been in school, 15,000 people run out and rub against one another just when we are about to get control of the infections. IT IS INSANE,” tweeted former Minister of Justice Søren Pind. 

“Grotesque!” concurred Kristian Thulesen Dahl (DK) from the Danish People’s Party. “I think it’s unbelievable that people were not able to keep their distance,” said Karsten Hønge, political spokesperson for the Socialist People’s Party, who attended the demonstration himself.

On Facebook (DK), people wrote that they were angry that while they unable to visit sick relatives and there was a strict limit on how many could attend the funeral of an old friend, there were apparently no rules or common sense at the demonstration. “It shows a lack of respect.” 

“‘But what about corona?’ asked my four-year-old child when she watched the news,” a parent tweeted (DK). “She is much wiser than about 15,000 grown-ups.”

Quarantine yourself and get tested

Jesper Petersen, political spokesperson for the Social Democrats, said that the participants should be tested for the coronavirus. People were within their rights to exercise their freedom of assembly for a political purpose and there was no law that said they had to be tested, Petersen added, but they might as well use the testing capacity that has been set up and is available to everyone.

“If you know someone who is in a high-risk group, you should be responsible and go into quarantine in order to make sure that you haven’t become infected,” said Thea Kølsen Fischer, head of research at North Zealand Hospital, warning that such events were prime occasions for superspreading. MP Rosa Lund from the Red-Green Party, who took part in the demonstration, said she will be tested.

Health minister less concerned

Minister of Health Magnus Heunicke (DK), on the other hand, did not think that everyone necessarily needed to be tested. “It depends on who you are in contact with on a daily basis and what you have done at this demonstration. . . . If you have kept your distance from others and been calm, then you should just be aware of symptoms.”

Leaders of Black Lives Matter Denmark, which arranged the event, did not respond to inquiries from reporters. One of the speakers at the gathering, Roger Courage Matthisen, said that the organization encouraged demonstrators to wear face masks and practice social distancing. “Afterward, it is up to citizens to take responsibility for how they will behave at this demonstration.” The organization is planning to hold demonstrations in two more cities, and more than 2,000 people have indicated that they will attend. 

Anyone can register for a test at coronaprover.dk (DK). The Health Authority recommends that people be tested on the fourth and sixth days after they have been exposed to a potential risk of infection.

(Coronavirus DK will be back on Thursday. Stay safe.)

#ICantBreathe DK

Yesterday in Copenhagen, like hundreds of thousands of others around the world, some 15,000 people took part in a demonstration to protest the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and generally against police brutality and racism (DK). The demonstration, which was arranged by Black Lives Matter Denmark, began across the street from the US Embassy, and the attendees marched to the city center and gathered again in front of the Parliament building. 

The marchers chanted slogans such as “No justice, no peace. Prosecute the police!” But in contrast to developments in many American cities, the protest remained peaceful. It did not appear to contain radical elements from the Autonomous movement, Denmark’s equivalent of Antifa, which have committed vandalism in past demonstrations in Copenhagen. The police tweeted their thanks to the participants for not going amuck. The protest was also aimed at racism in Denmark. Its manifestations may not be as bad as in the US, said some participants, but it also exists in here. One participant spoke of being bullied and harassed and of receiving mail every week with messages such as “N****r pig, go home!”

Systemic racism in Denmark

In the Deadline interview program (DK) yesterday evening, Moussa Mchangama, the chair of Mino Danmark, an organization that promotes opportunities for ethnic minorities, noted that Denmark doesn’t have the same problem with police violence as the US but Floyd’s death has raised awareness that the racism it exemplified is a global phenomenon. Mchangama said that the wave of protests has taken off internationally and in Denmark because such incidents have occurred so many times that people cannot ignore the structural, systematic racism that exists here as well as in the United States. 

Also on the program was Vincent Hendriks (DK), Professor of Philosophy at University of Copenhagen, whose father, a black American, immigrated to Denmark in the 1960s. Hendriks observed that the demonstrations have grown very quickly after this instance of police abuse partly because people have been subjected for months to the coronavirus pandemic, which has hurt minorities and poor people more than others and which has exposed and exacerbated the inequality of wealth and income that have been growing for years.

The virus is still out there

With such a large gathering, healthcare researchers worried that the event could lead to a rise in coronavirus infections, noting that in such situations, a single infected person can pass the virus on to many others. Political events are exempt from the limit on gatherings because freedom of assembly is considered a fundamental democratic right. Today, which begin phase 3 of the reopening of the economy, the limit on gatherings was raised from ten to 50.

Officials hoped that participants would follow the healthcare guidelines and keep a distance from one another. A few of the marchers wore face masks, which have never been mandatory in Denmark. Some appeared to try to maintain one or two meters’ distance from the others, but most of them walked and stood very close to others and did not seem to worry that their chanting also increased the chances that the virus could spread. The only mitigating factor was  that the great majority of the participants were young people, who are relatively resistant to the coronavirus. 

#ICantBreathe demonstrators in central Copenhagen

Coronavirus DK: Reopening the risk of superspreading

Tomorrow, June 8, begins phase 3 of Denmark’s reopening schedule, and the government is recommending that indoor sports and exercise facilities can resume activities (DK). Fitness centers, swimming halls, children’s indoor play areas, and the like have been closed since mid-March. Earlier, this step had been scheduled as part of phase 4, which would begin in August. But since the spread of COVID-19 infections has been low for some time, the government has decided to accelerate the timetable. 

The other political parties agree with the move. “Sports and clubs are bleeding, so it is fortunate that we have reached this stage,” said Orla Østerby, the sports spokesperson for the Conservative Party. “It is good for all age groups that they can move around again.” The various organizations must prepare guidelines for their facilities based on the Health Authority’s general recommendations. The step comes at the same time that the limit on gatherings is being increased from ten to 50 persons.

Health Authority abstains

Concerning the proposal, SSI, the agency responsible for preparedness against infectious diseases, has stated that it is “impossible to make quantitative model calculations (DK) for indoor sports,” partly because there are large variations among different types of sports: for example, the degree of physical contact, the intensity, and the opportunity to clean equipment. Officials from the Sports Federation of Denmark have been impatient to reopen facilities. Morten Mølholm Hansen, the director of the organization says that studies show that the closing of the facilities has had serious consequences for the population: 40 percent of the people who were active in sports have stopped during the coronavirus crisis.

Researchers are doubtful

But some experts are warning (DK) that not everyone should rush back into crowded fitness clubs. Maybe it is better to “wait until the virus is hopefully completely gone before you join a zumba or spinning class if you are elderly or in a high-risk group,” says Thea Kølsen Fischer, head of research at North Zealand Hospital. The problem is that when your pulse speeds up, you breathe deeply, and the infection can easily spread in group activities. Other researchers agree. “It’s hard for me to see how you can make an infection-free fitness center,” says Christian Wejse of Aarhus University Hospital, adding the reopening offers especially good conditions for superspreaders.

Potential antiracist superspreading

Health researchers are also warning about another activity that will take place today, a demonstration against police brutality (DK) in the US occasioned by the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Some 8,000 people on Facebook have indicated interest in attending the event, which has been organized by Black Lives Matter and will begin at the American Embassy in the Østerbro district of Copenhagen. 

With a large number of people close together, chanting or yelling, “It is actually a type of activity that we should avoid completely in order to prevent another outbreak of the epidemic,” says Allan Randrup Thomsen, Professor of Virology at University of Copenhagen. But according to Danish law, political events are exempt from the ban on large gatherings, so the police cannot stop or break up a group of demonstrators unless the event becomes violent. Similar demonstrations against racism in the US took place earlier in the week. Some 2,500 people gathered in Aarhus on Wednesday, including the mayor, and demonstrations have also been held in smaller cities around the country.