22.12.2009: whilst the climate talks were coming to end, way past the point of possibly achieving what was required of them (and you call these people 'leaders'?), we were having a great time.

on thursday, 140 world leaders were gathering in christiansborg. the whole area was blocked off and emptied. it was an eerie sight, there weren't even any police. these so-called leaders were to eat and talk shite and be disturbed by greenpeace (love). meanwhile, on the other side of the city, a political rally was being held for ALBA, a people's meeting, with performances speeches by none other than hugo chavez and evo moralez themselves. it was quite the spectacle. i mean, did you know that capitalism and imperialism are bad? and that socialism is the only solution to the world's problems? and that hugo chavez is a feminist? he said it himself. the whole thing was fun, in a rock and roll kind of way, but i do wonder how much of it was just button pushing. after two weeks of serious climate talks the speeches seemed somehow superficial. moralez was brilliant though. he was even wearing a jumper.

cycling over and through the snow, my mind almost blanked out the entire journey there. round and round in circles we went. how hard can it be to find a giant hall?

and then the final day of COP15. just fuck it. we went to hang out in the student house with amy goodman instead. amy goodman in studenterhuset. it just doesn't make any sense. but she was awesome, still smiling as she told us how horrible the world is, and of her experiences at COP15. on wednesday, rather than worrying about her computer equipment, the security guards at the bella centre had been interested in her notes instead. when questioned they'd admitted they were looking for anti-COP15 material. she's a journalist. not only are these people morally bankrupt, they're fucking idiots as well. but anyway, we all got our books signed and were totally not starstruck at all. i wish her inspiration stuck to me faster.

it's a great book for reading on the toilet, btw. the articles are just the perfect length.

oh, and then there was the crazy party at the music school that we crashed. i was off exploring the building like i used to when i was six years old. except back then i'd never have carried around the paint bucket of punch i'd found discarded on the top floor. but this is how we 'improve' with age. and alcohol, of course.

i hope you're enjoying the snow.

20.12.2009: the hangover from COP15 is going to be a long one. people wont recover from this planetary sized fuck-up any time soon. and whilst it's been a complete disaster for the whole world, it's been especially embarrassing for the danish. the incompetence of the danish government has been evident for the whole world to see, and policing of the summit has fit us neatly into every definition of "police state" you can care to google.

there's been a lot of noise surrounding the mass arrest that happened saturday afternoon, when almost 1000 demonstrators were detained, with the vast majority of them being completely innocent. i want to add more to the noise, because i think there's been something missing from the 'critical appraisal'.

but firstly, i wasn't there. naomi klein was there and i like what she wrote about it. emily apple (a guardian journalist) was also there, except she was actually arrested (a must read). secondly, please don't mistake this as me defending the police. if anything this is a criticism of what the media decided to call the 'black bloc'. i'm not condemning their actions (or attire), if anything what they didn't wasn't enough. condemning the police operation and behaviour is of primary importance, but when you're doing such actions you need to consider the realities of the situation and act accordingly.

the black bloc tactic is tried and tested. people know what does and doesn't work, and people know what it's capable of, including the police. what works is having a target, being inconspicuous, then moving, attacking and dispersing quickly. what doesn't work is following a peaceful demonstration, all dressed in black, and hurling the occasional stone.

the group on saturday had publicly announced civil disobedience, made no mention of being non-violent (we all know property damage isn't violence, but that's not how the police see it), and some of its participants were obviously willing to cause trouble. whether the 'troublemakers' had left the march or not, by the time they reached amager it was a large group looking very much like a black bloc. given the history of black blocs, and that this group had already thrown rocks at cops and smashed a couple of windows, the police could only assume they were going to continue. yes, that's a wrong assumption. but it's a very predictable one. the police couldn't know how unorganised the group might have been, nor that they didn't have a target further down the road they were planning on attacking with more conviction. futhermore this is an international summit, and the police would have had no idea whether the group was danish or italian or greek (the difference being degrees of hardcore). it's also worth noting that the road gets narrower further down and the police would have had a much harder time stopping an actual riot if it had broken out.

the actions of the police were wrong. that's not debatable. but they did what they thought they had to do to contain the group, based on a threat that i'd argue to be reasonably realistic (or is that just wishful thinking on my part?). i'm sure most danish people agree with how the police handled themselves. not necessarily the conditions the demonstrators were kept in, but the overall plan. that the vast majority of those arrested had broken no law, and weren't about to, just comes down to collateral (apparently). we don't accept that. but the fucking police do. arresting almost 1000 people to stop four is preposterous.

again, i have no answer to what i think the police should have done. but it's not a question i should have to answer either. i'm anti-police and fundamentally disagree with their overall existence, they shouldn't have been there to protect the criminals that people were fighting back against. but it's not a very practical way to analyse the situation we saw on saturday. we need to deal with the reality these wannabe-fascists have supplied us with.

my point is that you can't do these things by half measures. either look as threatening as possible but show zero intent of 'causing trouble', or do it properly. please.

i do have one question though. people further up in the demo could have clearly seen what the police were planning. are we all so unorganised or thoughtless that the message couldn't have been passed to the people at the back of the march?

anyway. in retrospect i'd call the bloc action a success. it received huge global coverage and highlighted the horrors of the danish police state (all depending on the political slant of your media, of course). i'm sure their plan wasn't to cause a mass arrest, but if it was they were very successful. but don't call it a black bloc, because it wasn't.

following from this is another important point. there were two demos the next day, one was a civil disobediance style demo (hit the production) and the other was a peaceful demo organised by la via campesina, which we attended and i've already written about. even though our demo was as large as some of the others, and wasn't police authorized (or controlled for the longest time), it received zero media attention. the other demo was shut down before it even got started, with the familiar long string of arrests and detentions, and the media were all over it. what does this tell you about civil disobedience? what does it tell you about our sensationalist media? the media rewards violence, therefore encourages it. and if you want to get your voice heard you have to cause trouble. i think that's a point i can end this long ramble on, thanks.

19.12.2009: this poll shows the scariest set of data i've seen since i managed to understand the science behind james hansen's 350ppm and CO2 accumulation. please look at those statistics. they make painfully clear the scale of the problem ahead.

on wednesday night we saw chris mooney speak about the unscientific trends in the american population (yes, it was a very busy day, and what a contrast to be all of a sudden sitting in a posh lecture hall with all these smart people, free fruit and beer). it's terrifying. we're on the brink of absolute disaster and none of them know how long it takes the earth to orbit the sun (ignoring the 18% who believe the sun orbits the earth, please note that the english and german stats aren't much better). science huh what?

the last offer from the american delegation at COP15 was to reduce their emissions by a measley 4%. the figure george monbiot calculated, based on the necessity of not exceeding a two degree rise, and also balancing carbon emissions equally across the whole world on a per capita basis, was over twenty times this.

pledging aid to foreign countries is all well and good (how about cancelling their debt at the same time?), if obama can get it through congress. but the problem needs to be tackled at its source. it's like repeatedly punching someone in the face whilst between every blow you offer to pay their dentistry bills. or promising to pay for someone's funeral before starving them to death (and drowning them at same time, why not?).

either way, with the public so far behind the science, what can you do?

18.12.2009: we are witness to the prettiest summit protest of all time. soft flakes of snow forming gentle whisps around police batons, settling on riot helmets, twisting and turning through the chaos, completely oblivious and apathetic to our rage at the debacle being played out infront of the the whole fucking world (sound familiar?). we fill the streets with all colours and passions on the grayest day of the year, the world's darkest. marching up to the gates, nerves racing, this really is the edge of the abyss. the start of the final war. and if you think it looks bad now, just wait for the millions who will die before this is all over. what is teargas and pepperspray in the face compared to the fate of 6.8 billion?

we'd woken up at 6am. eaten porridge and listened to senser ("no more of settling for what they feed the time has come to put the pressure up against the greed"). we walked the 6km down to the meeting point in the dark, passing other activists being thoroughly searched by the police. our bloc assembled at 8am, a group slowly growing with the lightening of the sky. after a cold hour of waiting, the police induced delay was finally over, the truck was released, and in the distance a group of somewhat intimidating looking individuals is heading our way. they're italians and they escaped the teargas and arrests that the second bloc had already been subjected to. they're hardcore, and i love them, all of their italian chants, but i'd rather they didn't assemble directly behind us. before long they all run off and get arrested ahead of us anyway (this is me piecing information together). so it goes.

the march is tight. tighter than any other march i've ever been on. everyone is linked in chains. everyone is beautiful. everyone is shouting. everyone is jumping up and down in unison when we stop. everyone is fucking ready. everyone cares about this more than you can possibly imagine. we are an ocean of integrity. and no matter how crazy the suggestion is that on the count of ten we will all suddenly run en masse towards the barriacades, these people are going to do it. fuckhead police or not. some things you just have to do.

courage, confidence and legitimacy come from the hundreds of delegates mobilizing inside the belle centre. they're organising and coming out to meet us. bullshit to the fences and barricades that seperate us. but these official representatives, people invited by the summit, the police are refusing to let them exit. if they try to leave they'll be arrested. and so they're peppersprayed along with the rest of us.

on the outside the police trucks roll in, seemingly oblivious to the people infront of them. an avalanche of cops. one of our friends is hit on the top of the head from behind by a police baton. people are running out from the crush with their eyes streaming. journalists scrambling everywhere. civilian police everywhere. fucking helicopters buzzing overhead. the cops are scared, and that's never a good sign. a guy climbs on top of a police van and is hit repeatedly until being pushed off. things are on the brink of getting out of hand. constant announcements play over the police PA system, in danish, english and german, telling us this is now an illegal demonstration and we're all going to be arrested if we don't immediately leave. all 3000 of us? we are international civil society. we have nowhere to go. this is the end of the world.

toes numb outside the COP15 summit..

the police push for their final assualt and we take a step back. i have no excuse. i am meek. i need the toilet too bad to get arrested. any excuse. my throat is hoarse from shouting "skam jer". the police line is five cops deep and they push the group further and further down the road, on one side is the fortress of the bella centre, UN soldiers with their guns, on the other side a large watery ditch. more cops approach from the other end of the road. the people are trapped and being slowly pushed away from the eyes of the press, who are too scared to be where they need to be (kudos to the BBC for the video footage directly infront of the police line, unfortunately no longer online, and rene fredensborg for his excellent article). i have so much respect for those amazing protesters it brings genuine tears to my eyes.

did someone shout "this is what democracy looks like"? if you want a picture of the future, just open your eyes. this is the way the world ends. behind me a journalist is applying makeup. in the distance the samba drums still beat. orange smoke fills the air.

and all of a sudden we're out of the game, walking back into town, being searched ourselves. the person ahead of us had a pedal and crank in his bag, now being heavily scrutinised over by five cops. i resist the urge to go over and tell them "it's for a bicycle".

back home, half of the minute-by-minute news sites are constantly going down, hit too hard by people who are too scared to be down there themselves. i drink some hot vegan cocoa. i notice my leg muscles are growing. i almost fall asleep following the demo online. and then i can hear the chants from our apartment (i've gotten too used to helicopters to even notice them anymore). so i'm back on my feet, running to its last known location.

it's still standing outside the radison hotel (ugliest building in the whole of copenhagen, if not denmark). here is your perfect picture of oppresion. your police state. the one photo i wish i'd captured all week. rows of riot police and riot vans. endless twinkling blue shooting through the grey to offend your retina. it's cold and getting dark, and in the middle of all this hate is a group of tired and beaten people, most of whom who have been on their feet for ten hours straight, under extreme conditions (for some the harsh weather, for all the police), and they're still all full of love.

but having been seperated from it for so long, and being greeted by this horrific vision (i'm not even exaggerating), i was hesitant in rejoining it. i didn't know the current situation or where the police were herding them. when they started crossing the bridge towards the town centre the police swapped their helmets for caps, presumably not wanting to terrify all the happy shoppers, so i decided it was safe enough to rejoin. we reached the city hall, where the ugly tentacles of capitalism have erected a green wash so large you can see it from space. i'm surprised any of us have energy left to shout "a anti anticapitalista", but that's rage for you. we all see through the gash that is 'hopenhagen'.

and from there i stumble off through the wet streets of copenhagen. still being surprised by the enormous barricades littering the centre. who the fuck do they think we are? shame on you. all of you. your children will never forgive you.

17.12.2009: so the danish people like the lommelpakke, the new laws giving police massively disproportional power for dealing with riots (although isn't it mostly deterrent based?). apparently the events of the last two weeks have shown two thirds of the (what the world now know are) useless danish people that the laws work well. the only problem is that they haven't been used against riots, in the same way that pepperspray hasn't been used in situations where the police would previously have had to resort to firearms.

using the saturday's demo as an example, the only violent people on the street that day were the police. if you disagree then you need to seriously redefine your understanding of what violence actually is. and under no definition was any moment of that demonstration remotely riotous. i counted three windows that had been damaged (you couldn't say "smashed"), thanks to a very small group of individuals. not a riot. very much a peaceful demonstration. and you don't arrest almost 1000 to stop five.

wednesday's demonstration was also 100% peaceful on behalf of the protesters, even more so than saturdays. what the danish public perceive as images of violent protesters are nothing but peaceful demonstrators protecting themselves in a peaceful manner against continual police brutality. you can't present a single example, be it photograph or video, of protester violence. and if you think you can you're not looking carefully enough. perhaps this is the media filter, witnessing events second or third hand. perhaps if you weren't so scared or obstinate you could go out and see for yourself. go and expose yourself to some doubt.

one of the daily free papers did a survey asking danish people whether they have sympathy with or could understand protesters resorting to violence. predictably 94% of people said no. if we ignore doubts about their sample group, the only real answer to the question, one not summed up by their yes, no or don't know, is "mu". there was no resorting to violence. the question is bullshit. this fucking media spin makes me so angry. all the pre-summit hype, the fear mongering, wanton sensationalism of possible violence, and there was nothing, but you just can't help but write what you wanted to write anyway.

and you weren't even there. ask emily apple or naomi klein and they'll tell you how it was on the streets (at least cops don't differentiate between innocent demonstrators and guardian journalists when they decide to punch someone in the face).

there was only one cop hurt on wednesday, and he was peppersprayed by another cop. i think that says it all.

14.12.2009: there's been too many moments in the last couple of days, i'm losing track. it's impossible to tie them together and tie them down. and i can't believe it's only been two days. so much crazy shit is happening in our city. it's like being at a festival.

so, after everything i wrote on saturday night, i feel the need to say that my experience of the police has been much better since. they know the world is watching, and they're being very careful. the nicest of the cops are smiling and being helpful, joking around with the clown army, taking cigarette breaks. but the worst of them are still just around the corner, decked out in full riot gear, with their malice contorted faces of hate. don't forget that. they're always there, just waiting for the journalists to disappear. then it's all about hassling activists, stealing equipment, making more mass arrests, and torturing prisoners.

we will not be scared away by you fuckers. we will be there on wednesday morning.

and you have the cops wearing santa hats. which is somewhat hilarious. i don't know.

on sunday we played it safe and attented the via campesina demonstration infront of the danish agriculture building. as much as i love fighting the cops, this was much more my kind of thing. international peasants, indigenous and landless people, small farmers, denouncing the industrialisation of food, specifically the pig orientated danish with their massive reliance on GMO soya grown on deforested land in south america.

a drum group began playing and walked off around the block, slowly accumulating more and more people as they went. we joined them and all of a sudden we were a spontaneous march right besides radhuspladsen and tivoli, and with an ever growing police presence. but it stayed friendly, slightly timid, and was led away from town towards the klima forum, where it was happy to disperse. it helped that the police were constantly being asked for reassurance by foreigners that they weren't about to be arrested.

then today was the no borders demo. on arrival i asked one of the cops whether the demonstration had been authorized. he smiled whilst telling me he didn't know, but that it was allowed. it was extremely unprofessional that he didn't know the exact status of the demo, but nevermind.

it was a slow march, with massive caution and mistrust coming from both sides of the line, but with lots of dancing and shouting ("anti-capitalista", it's so refreshing to be in more multinational demos), there was plenty of reggae and dubstep. the whole crowd moshing through the high street. funny looks from shoppers, frowns through their protective reinforced plate glass. we were obviously a group with intent.

the demo ended at the ministry of defense, with more shouting and swearing. the plan was to force entry into the building, but with the enourmous police presence there was zero chance of it happening. instead the demo turned into a giant party outside the parliament. until some genius/idiot managed to untether the giant orange globe that was positioned there. it rampaged around the square before being dragged off down the street towards the national gallery, taking a streetlamp down with it. everyone loved it apart from the police, who were thrown into momentary terror and confusion.

we played it cautious after that, keeping a safe distance, although still needing to move quickly a few times. the police had the whole crowd trapped at one point but everyone was able to push through their lines. what they couldn't see was the number of police vans and trucks (i shit you not, check this bastard out) just down the road. the demo began to wander, bravely crossing the bridge, closely followed by a wall of flashing blue. that was a sight. everyone disappeared into christiania, the best possible end, and we walked home through all the rows of cops. a city of twinkling blue lights.

of course there are burning barricades and molotovs during the night.

i'm almost getting used to the constant sound of helicopter. lulling me to sleep.

meanwhile the G77 walk out of negotiations, accusing the danish presidency of being undemocratic. two thirds of the NGOs aren't even being allowed into the bella centre. see a pattern emerging?

and not to mention all the talks and workshops we've been to, with time's up,marina silva (great but speaking portuguese) a crazy french guy who seemed to be very famous (jose bove), christine milne and elizabeth may.

last night on the live TV climate debate, one of the climate 'skeptics' (like naomi klein said, they're denialists, don't give them the credit of calling them skeptics) had a heartattack. that was horrible. i'd much rather watch berlusconi getting punched in the face again. and again. and again and again. etc.

and how the fuck does bjorn lomborg dare call his economic-centric bullshit project the "copenhagen consensus centre". his banner hanging in the centre of copenhagen reads "trying to cut CO2 now isn't going to work".

sleep is calling my name.

12.12.2009: it's a bit strange sitting here, feeling sunburnt (of all things), whilst people just outside our apartment are being forced to sit hand cuffed on the freezing tarmac for hours on end. take a close look at the people in these photos. do they look like violent hooligans to you?

i wasn't there. i was near the front of the march when the police cut into the back, trapping the last 900+ demonstrators. you can see in other photos that it included a large number of people clearly participating in a black bloc style action (i can only assume they didn't have a substantial plan or target, or else they wouldn't have been so visible, surroundable and arrestable). but most of the protesters clearly weren't. they were your average peaceful demonstrator. and they can now be held in cages custody for 12 hours, even though they've done nothing wrong.

so, question - what should the police have done?. apart from fucking right off, i have no answer. i'm not saying it was an uncomplicated situation. i'm just saying it was wrong.

when we arrived on the scene, a few hours later, the street was completely full of cops. there was at least 30 police vans, probably more, and they were completely blocking the view of the arrestees, from all sides. we stuck around until the newly arrived buses began taking the unlucky people out to the cages. it was only fair that they could see people were still there in solidarity.

i spent a few moments talking with two journalists, one indy and one from the mail on sunday. i was eavesdropping, trying to figure out what happened, but when they started talking about the new laws i had to join in their conversation, explaining how this indiscriminate arrest has nothing to do with those new laws (literally translated as "hooligan package"). this isn't a novel approach to policing, this is business as usual for the danish cops. but this smarmy journalist, from the fucking dailymail, he was trying so hard to link the arrests to violent actions, to christiania, any kind of sensationalism. and now i feel dirty for helping him, telling him to spell christiania ("that's what google's for you know") and such. he asked me if there was anything special about the road they were arrested on, but didn't believe when i told him it was the longest shopping street in denmark. "you're shitting me", is what he said. yep. he didn't even know it's the same area that the bella centre's in. here in copenhagen with zero research.

anyway. not to focus on the bad aspects of the demo, as the media often does (nice one BBC), but there are massive anti-democractic human rights issues that desperately need to be addressed. the second enormous failure at COP15 will be when the policing of the summit is deemed succcesful. if there isn't massive global criticism and condemnation of the new powers that the police have been granted, and the way they've been used, we're going to see this abuse more and more. when a country systematically arrests law-abiding people at legal demonstrations, terrorizing their own citizens away from protesting (which is what's happening here), you have to start questioning their democratic process.

but yes, we had a great day. we started at the klima forum where we saw vandana shiva kicking some serious ass. then to christiansborg to meet up with more people than i've ever seen in one place. and we all marched down to the bella centre (well, some of us). estimations between 30 and 100 thousand of us. 438 organizations from 67 countries. 2km of dense protest. when the front of the demo was halfway to the destination the back still hadn't left the meeting point. and we went right up to the gates, to where we'd taken a late night stroll last sunday night, only now it was buzzing with people. there were some police, but not as many as there had been protecting the fragile glass windows of mcdonalds (that's your danish tax money well spent).

anyway, it's about time amager got some action. go us.

just now we had a quick walk around the block and the police have left such a mess. you may not consider the discarded placards and broken bottles their responsibility, but there are also masses of plastic cuffs littering the pavement.

11.12.2009: i feel like i was a bit drunk last night. that'll be hjortene's fault. or more precisely, the jagermeister. i can still hear the stoner rock in my right ear. truck fighters were blinding. squashing crowdsurfers against the basement ceiling. fucking brilliant.

and we had a small amount of magic at the christiania market (or was that glogg?) it's one of those markets you go back to the next day, but now it's a haybarn and there's no sign that it was ever there. all those chandeliers and wild smells, now just pig shit and hay. except it was still there, and was just as pretty.

it's been a disaster of a day though. the first lecture we went to was awful (we didn't check what it was about, only who was talking) and then we couldn't get into any of the others (fire regulations, because thirty people trying to get into a hall that can easily accomodate them isn't a fire hazard). we fucked off to the stupid house for bad coffee. it really was bad.

then we tried the climate meeting in christiania. in a circus tent, far more apt. but no one knew what was going on and we left, no matter how fun it looked. i just needed to sleep.

and now i need to go play some spirit lifting reggae.

08.12.2009: it's not all about the climate. we've also been playing a lot of bingo. at cafe retro and studenterhuset. although i had to miss last night's bingo session in christiania to attend the opening party of the klimaforum ("the global civil society counterpart of the official UN conference"). it's a great thing they've got going on, the program is massively overwhelming, with two weeks of solid talks, workshops and events. and they're all free for everyone. last night there were some bands (the highlight being when the ice instruments prematurely began falling apart, making great crashing noises as they hit the stage, that was excellent) and a number of speakers including naomi klein, who talked a lot of sense and made me briefly happy.

it's a strange feeling in copenhagen right now. no one knows what the fuck is going to happen in the next two weeks. all this fear mongering, people too scared to even join legal demonstrations. the anti-democratic laws being rushed through that no one is doing anything about. it's like everybody is terrified. especially the cops. and that's what makes it worse.

but anyway, neither me or kenneth have won a single game yet. we totally suck at bingo. it's tragic.

what else? i don't think i've ever worn a yellow tshirt before yesterday.

and i really must mention the lasagne we baked the other day. it was the best lasagne we ever made, and it was vegan. the trick wasn't the extremely tarty tomato sauce with rather strong paprika, but the layer of deep fried and crispy aubergine. bless that beautifully hued vegetable.

the other great meal we had recently was at kate's joint, a north/east african restaurant in norrebro with a good helping of vege options. the dishes tasted so good i wanted to cry. even the piss/shit burn it gave me the next morning made me happy.

07.12.2009: so today will be the first day of COP15. i don't know to what extent this has been discussed around the world, presumably a lot, but here in denmark it's the biggest thing since COP3. and to be honest i think it's going to be about as useless. a lot of people seem to have high hopes (hopenhagen anyone? sponsored by cocacola and that coal plant we tried to shut down? when people lead, leaders actually tend to turn into dictators), getting excited about discussion and dialogue, but the whole thing is as blatant and total a farce as all the preceding summits. they've been fucking around for fifteen years now, should we really let them continue dragging us all straight down to hell? america has already said they're not ready and wont agree to anything, again, completely undermining every country actually willing to make a difference. it's just a joke.

not to mention that the UK's most despised rascist asshole is representing the EU at the summit. which idiot let a facist climate change denier join the EU parliament's environmental commitee?

all the decisions have already been made. sure, we'll have five days of brilliance, but then the ministers and leaders will arrive to backtrack and fuck everything up. there's no reason to presume this summit will differ from the tried and tested route every other summit has taken before it. whether it's the world's richest, the self-designated leaders and protectors, pissing from their lofty heights onto the world's poorest, or representatives from all corners putting up a pretence of being able to save us from them.

they have zero authority and zero legitmacy. none of them are willing to seriously discuss what needs to be done, and that's why people will be taking to the streets in these following days, despite the danish government's best efforts to scare people away. during the last couple of weeks legislation has been rushed through that doubles the time police can hold people under preventative arrest (now twelve hours, even if you've done nothing), and massively increases fines for inhibiting police work and not dispersing. and don't forget that you can be arrested in denmark for simply carrying a scarf if there's a demonstration happening anywhere nearby. and we have it cold.

yep. maybe it's time you put the fist back in 'pacifist'.