Finally, my weekend trip brought me to a small town close to Utrecht, where I met up with a friend of mine who was taking part in a protest against one of the traveling circuses that are quite common during the summer. This was on a Sunday, and the day before they also had a protest. It had gone quite well, although there was quite a bit of hassling from the police, who wanted to "control" the protest (similarly to the one in Maastricht) and make sure the activists were kept in their proper place. They were only allowed to stay by the road and not by the actual circus entrance.
I arrived about 30 or 40 minutes before the final scheduled show and met up with my friend, along with four other protesters. They were all quite young - probably around 18 years old - up and coming activists, making me and my friend the seniors of the group. Most of the activists I've met here are usually around my age, few are older, and indeed it is more common for them to be younger. This is not necessarily the norm when it comes to activist causes. I spoke with a couple of ecological activists last week who told me that the animal rights cause seems to attract more of a younger crowd. Furthermore, they also told me that animal rights activists tend to dedicate pretty much all of their time to the cause, whereas others tend to be part of many different groups, spreading their energy around.
This circus protest was very relaxed compared to the others I'd been to. No real shouting, no real aggression. We just put up a banner and gave away leaflets to the public. The police didn't even show up this time around. They drove by in a car (before I arrived) and spoke to the activists, sort of reminding them of everything they'd said the following day, and then just left them to it. Nevertheless, there were two men taking photos and filming everyone the whole time. They seemed to be part of the circus, but it was difficult to tell. Even though the police had told everyone the previous day to stay off the grass and on the road, seeing that they weren't there now, we began the demo on the grass, in front of the circus entrance. After a short while, one of the circus people came up and asked us to move, insinuating that they would contact the police if we didn't. So we did. Everything was very peaceful, it was a slow day for the circus I guess, and after the show had begun we just packed up and finished the demo. This can be seen in the first half of the video below.
The local (younger) activists took some leaflets and were going to spread them around on cars and bicycles, for people to read after the show. Me and my friend were going to take the train back to Utrecht. But before leaving, I wanted to walk around the circus to get some shots. My friend told me that if we'd go around the back, we could see some of the animals - including the elephant and a couple of tigers. These can be seen in the second half of the video below.
Before going on with the story, I need to clarify some details. When an activist group contacts the authorities to hold a demonstration, an agreement of sorts is entered into, where the two parties decide on a place (i.e. the circus park) and a timeframe. For this particular protest, the official timeframe for the demo was from 12.30 to 13.30. We packed up probably around 13.20 (since nothing was happening anymore and the show had already started) and went for a walk behind the circus. The demonstration was over. On the other side of the circus was a fence, dividing the circus park from the public park, which had a walk path through it. Many people were walking this path, admiring the animals they could see. These were mostly families and many of them took pictures. This was public space.
Now, we walked around for around 15 minutes. Truly I will admit that we gave out a few leaflets, but people weren't really receptive so we stopped doing that after a short while. Instead, I filmed the animals and got some very good shots. It needs to be stressed that we are standing in a public park, among other citizens, where we can only see what the circus thinks it is alright for the public to see. We are not peeking into any locked trucks or hidden corners, nor are we filming anything that would generally be accepted as animal cruelty (i.e. no direct violence) - simply what the circus people think is OK (namely, animals in cages). Therefore, when the police showed up, I did not expect them to be able to give us any hassling. We were perfectly within the frame of the public sphere and working within the realm of law-abiding citizens. Or so I thought.
When the police arrived, I turned off my camera. There were two policemen. One was loud and spoke a lot. The other was silent and rarely uttered a word. It was a sort of good cop/bad cop deal, I guess. The talkative one was the same one that had been hassling the demo the previous day. It is a little bit difficult to fully explain the cop's main arguments, because he seemed to be making up rules as he went along, until he finally talked himself into an inexplicable corner of illogic. Maybe that's why his partner remained silent. I am sure the talker must have realized that, in the end, he had stopped making sense - but then again, he is a figure of authority, and he can't back down on his words. I will do my best to describe the confrontation as truthfully as I can.
They told us that we were breaking rules and we could not film. We asked if this was a public space - they said yes - and therefore replied that we were fully in the right, just as these other people around, to stand here and film. No, we are not, the talker said, because we are protesters. His argument was, basically, that because the demonstration was set to end at 13.30 and it was now 13.45, we had broken a rule and were in trouble. When asked about what specific law we were breaking, he did not answer. He just said that we had broken the agreement. We replied that the demonstration was in fact over and now we were here simply as public citizens. We had no banners, we'd packed the leaflets away, we weren't protesting. We are just filming, looking and acting like any other normal citizens. This argument did not agree with the police, who were completely stuck on the fact that because we had been part of the demonstration, we were still part of the demonstration. To us, this made no sense, and it made even less sense when the talker explained that if we were to leave the premises, go home, change our clothes, and come back, we could film and do whatever we wanted! This somehow implies that in order to become members of the public again (and lose the label of "protesters"), we had to leave and get changed. This opened up a can of worms that we would have liked to argue about (i.e. how long do we need to stay away? Is it ok if we go and switch clothes with each other?) but, unfortunately, something else came up that made arguing pretty much out-of-the-question.
They asked for our ID. Generally, they can't do this without proper reason, but in the mind of the talker he had good reason to do that. We had "broken a rule" (although neither of us was clear on what precisely that rule was) and he threatened to take us to the station. My friend showed his ID (the first time he's ever been asked for ID in Holland), but in a very very very stupid move, I had forgotten my ID at home. This is very very very stupid, because in Holland it is the law that everyone must be able to present their ID if they are asked for it. Otherwise, there's a heap of trouble and a very hefty fine. I became afraid that I would have to spend the day at the police station. They took my friend a few steps away to ask him my name, then asked me my name, to see if either of us was lying. Then they asked for my full name, birth date and country of origin. Expecting to be taken in to the station, where they would find out this information anyway, I told them the truth. So now I guess I am in their filing system as well.
Then something new entered the conversation, which took us both by total surprise. The talker, seemingly getting into a bit of a power trip, now told me that I had to erase everything on the tape, or he would take my tape away from me. My friend made a phone call to find out if they had any authority to do this, only to find out that (surprise surprise) they did not. This was a total breach of my public freedom. But, the problem was that I truly did not have my ID and that was a very real problem. I was in no position to argue with this policeman. It became clear to me what they were doing, so I simply asked them straight out: Are you saying that either I erase the tape and you let me go, or I refuse to erase it and you bring me in because I don't have my ID? The answer was yes. "That sounds a lot like blackmail," my friend replied. They did not answer.
To make things even more complex, the owner of the elephant now showed up to argue with us. She said that even though she did not have a problem with our protests, she thought we could do more good elsewhere. She told us not to put all circuses under the same hat - not everyone treats the animals badly. She pointed to "her" elephant and she pointed to her son, and said that they were her babies and she would never hurt her baby! Indeed, if someone else would try that, she would gladly kill them to defend her baby! I would've liked to discuss the matter with her in more detail, but the police officers were getting more and more anxious to finish this matter of the tape.
Being in no position to make demands, as I really did not want to be taken in because of the ID, I told them I would comply. However, I was filming on tape - not digitally - so I could not erase it simply by pressing a button. I had to record over it. So I rewound the tape to the beginning, showed the policeman that it was at the beginning, and then hit REC. Now came the big surprise. The talker said that he did not want to stay around all day, so he asked if he could trust me to be adult enough to erase it. Of course! So eventually they left, with the empty threat that if this footage would show up in a movie or on TV, then they knew where to find me and I would be in trouble. Balls! I guess the talker knew deep down inside that he had nothing on us, was in no position to blackmail me to erase the footage, and really crowned himself by saying that we could fix everything by going away and changing clothes. In the end, I recorded over about two minutes of footage, but the rest can be seen below for all to enjoy. And please, do see for yourself how dangerous this footage is!
In addition, the final two minutes include the footage I recorded with the lens shut off, so you can hear a little bit of the discussion with the talker - including me saying that I thought we would become public citizens again when the protest ended, and the talker saying that no - that is not the rule! He can also be heard saying that we should go home and change clothes, as well as threatening me not to make this recording public. Finally, early on you can also hear a little bit of the elephant woman talking about her baby.
All in all, it was a good protest, but a stressful event. Everything worked out in the end and two new lessons were learned (I won't put power-tripping policeman as being a lesson learned... that should come as no surprise!): One: always bring your ID to a demonstration in Holland, and Two: the circus people are very nervous about animal rights protesters. We really did cause concern, since they felt threatened enough to have us removed from the premises.
So, in a way, it was a pretty successful day.
PS: Apologies for the spelling error in the town name at the beginning of the video. It is supposed to be Soest, not Soes...
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