Not backing down (Final update)
After yesterday’s cowardly attacks against nearly 10,0000 people in Sofia as ordered by corrupt politicians in Bulgaria desperate to quash dissent, the coalition of demonstrators led by students, farmers, and environmentalists resumed their protest today in the capital.
Citizen leaders reminded the media that Wednesday’s embarrassing overreaction by the government was a manufactured crisis when none existed, using a handful of masked provocateurs — possibly planted — as a weak excused to attack thousands of peaceful Bulgarians exercising their constitutional rights, injuring an unknown number of persons, and imprisoning nearly 200.
By noon on Thursday, 15 Jan 2009, a crowd of more than 1,500 citizens gathered with people shouting demands for the resignation of the Prime Minister’s Cabinet. And all reports indicated the demonstration was growing larger.
Protesters remain peaceful and, so far, there have been no outbreaks of violence by police. Government public relations spinsters claim their anti-riot guards will be restrained today, but continue to blame the people of Bulgaria for yesterday’s beatings.
Meanwhile, the Bulgarian parliament ignored the public redress for grievances and instead opted to focus on critical issues such as nationally banning children from being out in public after 8pm without a parent. Sorry, Detlev, you can’t play outside this summer. Teenagers are now banned from being out in public after 10pm without a parent. Sorry, Ana, no more dance clubs for you.
By 1pm, media reports currently indicate the protest is over 3,000 and growing, Apparently, some opposition politicians have walked out of parliament and into the streets to join the demonstrations to lend it further support (and no doubt get themselves on camera).
UPDATE: The 3,000-strong protest was carried out successfully and has ended. Participants waved flags and banners, demanded changes in government, and read the Bulgarian Constitution out loud as reaffirmation of their rights as citizens.
Thankfully, there were no further incidents of police violence today. Organizers intend to stage a third and final day of political demonstrations on Friday.
Note: Special thanks to my friend, Виктор Анонимен, who has attended the protest and helped me gather additional information sources.
January 15th, 2009 at 3:55 pm
Here’s an interesting update, via Novinite: apparently, 27 of the 180 arrested yesterday have been charged and sentenced already — 26 were fined between 30 and 200 BGN, and the last one got five days in jail.
Novinite also reported that one of the people detained is underage (17, by my count), and will therefore be having a look at the juvenile justice system.
The interesting thing is the judges got sent out to the police departments to have the trials on the spot, “to save [...] time and effort in transporting the suspects”. Looks like someone wants to end this whole thing as soon as possible.
January 15th, 2009 at 5:15 pm
You have a type-o at the beginning. At the protest gathered something like 2500-3000 people
January 15th, 2009 at 6:14 pm
denitza – Thank you for the follow up. Work is no excuse when it comes to liberty! Heh. Just had to tease a bit.
[Edit: Continues discussion from comments on previous post.]
I’m with you on the avoidance of watching TV. I don’t own one, don’t want to own one. If I stay at a place with TV, I don’t watch it. If I visit a friend who has the TV on, I usually start to go crazy before too much time has passed. There are only a few very rare exceptions to this rule.
I understand what you’re saying about the TV stations, but I’ll have to say that no TV channel will shrink away from recording an event as meaningful as this one. Granted, an production operations manager may decide to go with brief live updates periodically during a regular broadcast instead of a dedicated live feed if the controversy is lower. But to not show up at all? Something nefarious else is going on. Everyone shows up after a “riot” to record the next events for the talking heads of the evening “news” (although they increasingly tend to blather their opinions about news rather than show news). As for the typo, we’ll have to agree that different people report slightly different figures. I’m quoting the source for 3,000 and will leave it be.
I may drop you an email before my next trip to Sofia on the off-chance to meet for coffee or one of those breakfast cheese pastry things. Mmm…
January 16th, 2009 at 10:52 am
You are welcome (: