Reykjavík Grapevine - 19.07.2013, Side 8

At least it's spittle, the least
gross of all the bodily fluids.
what happens next, does the
officer restrain her?
Not so much restrain her as drag her by her
arm and throw her into the nearest bench,
specifically the metal armrest of said bench.
Then he sat on her while another officer
handcuffed her before throwing her into
the back of the van. At best this looked like
grossly unprofessional behaviour, at worst an
attempt to cause grievous bodily harm. This
came as a great surprise to most as—unlike
in many other countries where police are
generally viewed with suspicion—Icelanders
generally hold theirs in high regard.
Icelanders are finally learning
the lesson NwA preached all
these years ago.
The Icelandic police have come by their repu-
tation honestly. If it can be said that they have
had an image problem, it is that they were
considered too damn nice. The last time an
Icelandic police officer went viral, it was a
photo of an officer who was teaching some
skater kids how to do a proper ollie.
An important police skill,
especially in these straitened
economic times; you never
know when they'll have to
exchange their squad cars for
skateboards.
The best example of the high esteem most
Icelanders generally hold their police force
in can be seen during the “Pots and Pans
Revolution,” which followed in the wake of
the 2008 financial crash, when opinion of the
Icelandic state and its symbols was at an all
time low. When rocks were thrown at the par-
liament building, which was surrounded by
police, protesters formed a guard around the
police, to dissuade any further rock throwing.
So this video came as quite a shock.
like that time a police officer
tazered me in my wibbly wob-
blies for looking at him funny?
Maybe not quite that much of a shock.
Though this caused widespread outrage in
Icelandic society, there have been some who
defended it, most notably a number of police
officers. Snorri Magnússon, the head of the
Police Federation of Iceland, defended the
officer in the video by saying that everything
had been done according to procedure, it was
just "unfortunate that this bench had been
on Laugavegur, and thus the incident looked
bad."
Next they'll be saying it was
the bench that hit her.
Funnily enough that is almost what police of-
ficer Gísli Jökull Gíslason said in an opinion
piece in the newspaper Fréttablaðið entitled
"Faultless Arrest." He says that the method
of arrest used was "not without flaw in so
far as the woman bumped into a bench, but
that everything else was done by the book."
Which is a bit like saying after a plane crash
that everything went according to plan except
for the engine catching fire.
They should've arrested
the bench.
Among the people who have criticized the ar-
rest are judo instructor and former policeman
Jón Óðinn Waage, who said that "those who
think these are proper procedures should not
work for the police." Another Jón who is also
a martial arts instructor and former police-
man, Jón Viðar Arnþórsson, also criticised
the procedure.
You know how the old saying
goes, those who can't do,
teach, those who can't teach,
teach martial arts and are for-
mer policemen named Jón.
I am pretty sure that is not an old saying. The
police officer in the video has been suspend-
ed from duty while his conduct is reviewed,
and the woman is reportedly suing for dam-
ages. Though the public was shocked, it is
unlikely that Icelanders will lose confidence
in their police force as it is routinely among
the institutions most trusted by Icelanders
according to surveys. How much Icelanders
trust benches has not been researched.
A couple of weekends ago, a police officer was filmed having an altercation with a drunken woman in downtown Reykja-
vík. This video, once posted online, spread among Icelandic internet users like a clip of a cat licking an ice cream cone and
sneezing. Shot from above, the video shows an extremely inebriated woman who has fallen down in the middle of the shop-
ping street Laugavegur, right in front of a police van. She gets up and tries to stagger away, while the van edges closer to her,
eventually clipping her with the side view mirror and car door. She goes to the driver side window and may either spit on the
police car, or get spat on by police.
SO WHAT’S THIS POLICE BRUTALITY
I KEEP HEARING ABOUT?
by Kári Tulinius
Iceland | FAQ
Continues over
RYAN GOSLING. There, we got
that out of our systems. EDWARD
SNOWDEN. Okay, that one's out too.
Well, to be honest, Snowden was
never really allowed in the system,
as the pro posal to grant Snowden
Icelandic citizen ship was vetoed,
which means it can't be voted on
until after Alþingi takes its summer
holiday. Could this have something
to do with the letter sent to Ice-
land's Ministry of Foreign Affairs
by the US Government, requesting
Snowden's immediate arrest should
he turn up in Iceland? Maybe. Or
perhaps it was Ban Ki-moon's visit
to Iceland, during which he openly
condemned Snowden's public ac-
tions for redirecting attention away
from the real issue at hand: vast and
illegal electronic surveillance by the
US Government. Oh yeah, that's
right. Sorry Ed, hope Russia is cool
for now.
While Snowden is getting cosy over
in Russia, mayor Jón Gnarr is public-
ly attempting to cut ties with Reykja-
vík's "sister city," Moscow. On June
11 Gnarr submitted a proposal to
end Reykjavík's relationship with
Moscow on account of the Rus-
sian capital's stance on gay rights.
Maybe Elín Hirst, the Independence
Party MP, would be better received
in the Russian capital after being
sent home from a Parliament meet-
ing to change trousers because her
outfit was just not fabulous enough.
Apparently Iceland's got some im-
age issues. Can you blame us? If it's
not blue jeans in government gath-
erings, it's the approval of a plan
submitted by the Muslim Associa-
tion to build a mosque in Sogamýri.
Isn't that right, Ólafur? Ólafur F.
Magnússon, the former mayor of
Reykjavík, publicly expressed wor-
ry over the mosque's approval, stat-
ing that "Muslims here don’t seem
to have any difficulties financing the
project, receiving aid from Muslim
organisations abroad. Those or-
ganisations might want to increase
NEWS IN BRIEF
JULY
by Parker Yamasaki
Illustration: Lóa Hjálmtýsdóttir
You can watch a video of that infamous arrest on www.grapevine.is/news 8The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 10 — 2013
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