Reykjavík Grapevine - 14.08.2015, Side 6

6
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 1 — 20116
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 2 — 2015
According to several eyewitness and
firsthand accounts, police searched the
bags and pockets of multiple attendees.
Some guests were reportedly made to
disrobe. Police also went so far as to go
into the unoccupied tents of guests. Po-
lice activities weren’t confined to the
festival grounds, either. They reportedly
stopped a bus en route to the event, order-
ing all the foreigners off of the bus. The
police then went onto the bus, where the
Icelanders left on board were questioned
and searched. None of this, incidentally,
is legal.
The headlines after the event more or
less parroted what West Iceland Police
said in a statement: that there were 29
drug arrests at a festival of 200 people.
(West Iceland Police did not respond to
requests for a comment.)
Festival organisers immediately sent
out a statement on the events of the past
weekend.
“This year, the police held our festival
guests in a death grip from the moment
they arrived, and went way over the line
as far as we are concerned,” the organis-
ers wrote. “We greeted numerous guests
in the festival entrance who were in ut-
ter shock, and did not trust themselves
to go back to the camping area after the
encroachment and abuse of power of
the police.” Soon thereafter, they called
upon all festivalgoers who were subject
to police scrutiny to come to a closed
meeting, with a lawyer, who would re-
view testimony and video footage taken
by the guests. The results of that meeting
have yet to be announced at the time of
this writing.
Why this festival?
“I find it kind of strange that a very small
music festival, that is held in a tiny fishing
village where the community celebrates
the event—which has never had any trou-
ble with any form of violence or property
damage whatsoever—was the target of
such massive search and seizure tactics
by the police,” Morgunblaðið journalist
Davið Már Stefánsson, who was at the
event, told us. “Just to be clear, I appreci-
ate the presence of the police and hate the
kind of discourse that paints all police ac-
tivity as some kind of brute coercion. But
I think entering tents without permission
with detection dogs, while guests are far
away enjoying music, putting up road-
blocks and searching attendees over and
over again while refusing to provide any
sort of probable cause is just a tad bit dra-
matic—if not illegal. ”
Davíð isn’t alone in his reservations
about making a small music festival the
focus of such an intense police effort.
Stefán Magnússon—who runs the east
Iceland metal festival Eistnaflug, which
saw some 3,000 guests last year—told us
that they never had any problems with
the police.
“I have to admit, I don’t understand
how things work in this country,” he told
us. “I don’t understand why the police
don’t show up with drug dogs at Indepen-
dence Party conventions or the Frostró-
sir Christmas concert and sniff around
there. Is it because if you’re in a suit and
have a political party logo on your lapel,
you get a chance, but if you’re wearing
a woollen sweater, then you’re clearly
questionable?”
Grímur Atlason—who
runs Iceland Airwaves,
a multi-venue festival
that sees thousands of at-
tendees each year—was
similarly baffled by the
overzealous police.
“It’s very strange how
the police force works,” he
wrote on Facebook. “In the
Westman Islands, you may
not talk about one type of
crime, but only while the
[annual Merchant’s Week-
end] festival is going on. In Snæfellsnes,
on the other hand, [police] go way over
the line, and then send out this dramatic
description of the ‘horror’ that greeted
the four drug dogs and the police squad
at this 200-person festival under a gla-
cier. Trying to disparage the festival and
its guests in order to justify the means.”
The law is (probably)
on your side
Davíð believes last weekend’s police op-
erations can be chalked up to one simple
factor: the genre of music performed and
celebrated at Extreme Chill.
“It‘s clear that the Icelandic police
authorities link the electronic music
scene with substance abuse,” he told us.
“In 2014, the police showed up at Harpa
with detection dogs while Sónar Reykja-
vík was in full swing, something that was
unheard of at that time. I’ve been work-
ing as a cultural journalist for four years
now, and never have I witnessed such an
extreme approach. We need clarification
on what probable cause really entails
and what rights people have when being
searched.”
The legal point is an important one.
As Pétur Þorsteinsson, director of civil
rights group Snarrótin, told us, the law
can be murky when it comes to situations
like this, but our civil
rights remain clear.
“The big problem
is that almost every
paragraph in the chap-
ter on human rights in
our constitution ends
with some exceptions
from the protection
given in the para-
graph,” he told us. “But
the police also break
the law, for example, by
forcing people to accept
searches by threats and by their world-
famous ability to smell illicit smoke, even
where it does not exist. The obvious use
of musical profiling is a special case, al-
lowing the police to harass people that
like techno music, but leave us, the clas-
sical rock and opera freaks, alone.”
Pétur advises that festivalgoers adopt
a “just say no” policy to being searched,
as is well within your rights if the police
officer asking to search you or your be-
longings has no warrant. He does recog-
nise, however, the human component in
that advice.
“That's easier said than done, when
you are confronted by rude and rogue
policemen,” he said. “But that's the only
way, and we have several documented
incidents where the police gave in when
the suspects knew their rights to be left
alone and dared to stand up against op-
pression. Knowing your rights and de-
fending them, wherever needed, is the
way to go.”
Words by Paul Fontaine
Photos by Pan Thorarensen
The Extreme Chill Music Festival is not exactly the row-
diest scene, as the name might attest. It’s more known for
being a small gathering of people listening to electronic
music played live. But last weekend, it became the focus
of a police operation that would make headlines and draw
criticism for overzealous and possibly illegal tactics that
are virtually unheard of at larger events.
News | ACAB
"The obvious use
of musical profiling
is a special case, al-
lowing the police to
harass people that
like techno music,
but leave us, the
classical rock and
opera freaks, alone.”
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By Nanna Árnadóttir
NEWS
IN
BRIEF
Don’t believe the hype. Despite
plenty of news coverage detail-
ing dangerous stunts by tourists
in the past few months, Iceland-
ers still love you guys! According
to a new poll from Market and
Media Research, 80% of Iceland-
ers feel good about tourists in
Iceland.
Another thing Icelanders
agree on this month is that
it’s great to be gay in Iceland.
In the wake of another success-
ful Pride weekend, a Gallup poll
shows 86% of Icelanders believe
their country is a great place to
be gay, though respondents were
not asked how well Iceland treats
trans folk (get with the pro-
gramme Gallup, there’s a “T” in
LGBTQIA!).
While being gay in Iceland is
great, being a seal is less cool.
Earlier this month an adorable
chubby baby seal made a brave
escape from Reykjavík Family
Park And Zoo. The youngster
was eventually tracked down and
despite resisting a police officer
(by biting him) he was dragged
back to the zoo, and promptly
EUTHANISED AND FED TO
OTHER ZOO ANIMALS. Note to
readers, don’t piss off the zoo.
Continues Over...
Extremely
Unchill
How Police Went Too Far
At A Music Festival