Online commentators are surprised by the police’s attitude towards the extreme left participants in the unreported counter-protest against the March for Life. Comparisons have also been made regarding the police’s reaction in the case of removal of the Yellow Jackets from the unreported anti-government protest of the left-wing political cyclists and the (non)reaction of the police in the case of far-left invaders at the March for Life. While the Yellow Jackets were forcibly removed from the protest even after the slightest provocation, in the case of the March for Life, the participants of the registered rally were advised to choose a different route from the one that was previously announced due to the left-wing protesters.
“…And the police were unable to control this handful of people? Seriously?” the online commentators on Twitter wondered when the photographs of the March for Life were published, also showing the left-wing protesters, whose sole purpose was to interrupt the registered rally. A counter-protest by the abortion advocates, to which the Levica party (the Left) invited its people, was not reported. This was an intrusion of another group into an area for which the organisers of the March for Life obtained permission. Two different, opposing groups cannot have permission to gather in the same place, at the same time.
In the photos of the protesters that were published, we can spot the Levica MP Nataša Sukić, a long-time assistant, who is now a former professor of political philosophy at the Faculty of Arts in Ljubljana, Igor Pribac, Luka Omladič, the former state secretary from the SD party, Jernej Štromajer, and the SD party’s activist, Vuk Ćosić.
But online commentators pointed out that what applies to some does not apply to others. What is especially noticeable in this case is the staggering difference in the police’s treatment of the so-called intruders at someone else’s protest. Let’s compare the police’s treatment of the Yellow Jackets group at the protests of the political cyclists and the police’s treatment of a group of advocates of the death of innocent children at the March for Life. While the police mercilessly pressed the Yellow Jackets to the ground at the first opportunity, handcuffed them and took them away from the unreported protest of the left-wing political cyclists, they decided to handle the abortion supporters with kid gloves, on the other hand.
They are handling the radical left with kid gloves
The police stopped the opponents of the March for Life, but in the end, it was the participants of the registered march who had to change their route. As reported by the Demokracija newspaper, the police announced at the protest on the 2nd of October 2021, at around 11.47 a.m., that the path to Prešeren Square was not safe, which forced the participants in the March for Life to return to Gornji Square in front of the St. Jacob’s Church. In other words, instead of the police taking care of security and clearing the path for the March for Life, the participants of the registered rally had to adapt to a new situation.
But as the organisers of the March for Life said, the police were better prepared for the march this year than the last. If that is true, then the question arises – what kind of anarchy and riots did the police allow to happen last year? And judging by all of this, should we really be surprised by the fact that Friday’s political cyclists have managed to last this long? The police obviously have all the patience of this world for the extreme leftists. For anyone else, however, it is enough to only point a finger, and they are already on the ground.
Ivan Šokić
