Pride was born as a protest
Forgive an ignoramusbut when did it become illegal to hate the police?
I seem to have missed the exact moment when everyone agreed touchingly that no dark feelings were to be harbored towards the Authority. For several years, I have heard protesters in Malmö chant that they hate the police, but it was only after Saturday’s Pride parade that this led to outrage and condemnation. Sydsvenskan chose to write an article about the slogan – something that perhaps should not surprise anyone after they have spent the last few years scrutinizing opponents of genocide – but which must nevertheless be underlined as remarkable. Since when is the media’s task to nail slogans?
Just as quickly twitched Gunnar Strömmer out to do what he does best: prompt The left party to distance oneself from the left. “Step forward, explain yourselves, take responsibility,” said the moderator, emphasizing that the context was particularly poorly chosen, as Pride stands for the opposite of hate.
Here I guess that I, as custom dictates, need to remind how Pride was born: with stone-throwing at the police, after the police terrorized and harassed LGBTQ people – above all sex-working trans women. It is therefore more adequate to say that protests against the police form Pride’s very foundation, rather than to throw around like Gunnar Strömmer with a few meaningless words about love.
But even if we overlook this history lesson – rehearsed into depravity – it is worth dwelling on what is really being said here. Who exactly is to take responsibility for what? What is it that the protesters, according to the Minister of Justice, are not allowed to do? Feeling particular emotions? Express them? Mind you, no one has expressed that they will do anything to the police. In short, they have said that they dislike them – yes, even hate them! Some will probably find it objectionable. But what is the alternative? We can of course line up all the protesters along the wall and force them to say nice things about the institution that also happens to have a monopoly on violence. It would have sounded much the same as the apologetic Facebook statuses I’ve seen leftists write in the past 24 hours, where they compete in condemning the Malmö protesters and telling me how much they love the police. Fun for the police! Less fun for democracy, which we know fought for precisely by saying things that the powers that be didn’t like to hear.
I want to remind about something else that seems to have been forgotten. The police are a professional group that by law can stop people, subject them to coercive measures and use force. They should not be confused with a discriminated minority. Both this government and the previous one have indeed pushed through legislation that may give the appearance that this is the case. Anyone who is arrested by the police and speaks hatefully must behave, because both sabotage against blue light operations and insulting an official are now crimes punishable by imprisonment.
But even in these times, when it has become criminal to call the police a potato pig, it is not yet forbidden to dislike the police. So before more reporters, hobbyists, politicians and loose people fall into Gunnar Strömmer’s trap, and distance themselves from the Pride parade, it may be time to stop and question why we are talking about this at all. One answer might be that we got used to this dramaturgy: protesters protest, media reports, moderates react and the left prays. The Palestinian movement has been allowed to function as a test rocket for the curtailment of our rights, where we are expected to be more outraged by what people say when they protest an unjust order, than the order itself. And so suddenly here we sit, with further reports from yet another protest where the powers that be once again dictate what should be said, while the Left Party obediently notes; well, now it’s forbidden to feel things too, then we’ll know it for the next demonstration!
If Strömmer gets as he wants, only state-sanctioned protests remain, where protesters take to the streets and spread messages of love for power. Hey police! Hello government! Long live Gunnar Strömmer!
