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Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Four Greenpeace members held in isolation in Copenhagen, write to the Danish ambassador to ask for their release, please!


Nora is one of the four being held in isolation in a Danish jail.


Dear Readers,

At the time of this writing, four members of Greenpeace are being held in isolation in a Danish jail in Copenhagen for the "crime" of attending the gala state dinner for heads of state, in order to bring attention to the plight of our planet.

Danish authorities intend to hold these four brave people until January 7th, 2010. 

Aside from the fact that during COP15 perfectly legal, unarmed, non-violent marchers were beaten repeatedly with batons and thrown into cages (yes, cages!) and pepper-sprayed, and

Aside from the fact that marchers had permits to march,

Aside from the fact that elderly people and small children were walking peacefully in these legal marches,

Aside from the fact that fascist and brutal methods are absolutely certain to breed a new generation of radicalized extremists in a country that had been known for the valiant and heroic actions of its Queen Margrethe during World War II that saved almost all of its Jews from deportation, and which government apologized in 2005 for the ones who were not saved (click here),

Is the holding of peaceful protesters in isolation for weeks not a clear example of a violation of human rights!?!

Greenpeace, U.K., has a site where there is a letter that can be sent by e-mail to the Danish ambassador.  It is a form letter, but you may change any and all of it.  I did. 

Here is a link to that site:  http://e-activist.com/ea-campaign/clientcampaign.do?ea.client.id=18&ea.campaign.id=5324

Greenpeace, U.K., has provided a very polite letter to be sent to the ambassador, but I don't like to mince words, so I deleted theirs and wrote my own.

Here is a copy of what I wrote to the ambassador:

Ambassador Birger Riis-Jørgensen
Embassy of Denmark
55 Sloane Street
London SW1X 9SR

Dear Ambassador Riis-Jørgensen,

I believe that it has not escaped anyone's notice that the methods used to deal with legal and illegal protests in Copenhagen were very unprofessional, not to mention going against modern, less-violent, and in the end, far more productive methods of dealing with such protests.

Elderly people and small children walked peacefully and legally down the streets and they were viciously attacked by Danish police.

I personally watched many, many videos of the brutal methods of the Danish police. I watched them strike people who had no weapons, people who held their arms straight up in the air to show their peaceful nature, and the police struck them with clubs, again and again.

What sort of image has this given Denmark in the eyes of the world, today?

Please think on this, and help to release the 4 members of Greenpeace, who are being held -- shall we say -- in a rather fascist way, an inhumane way, that does not jibe with the image of Denmark acquired when your valiant Queen stood up to the Nazis.

Very sincerely yours,

Tenney Naumer, M.Acc., M.B.A.
Rua Leoncio Santos, 107
Bairro Recreio
Vitoria da Conquista, Bahia, Brazil

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