Last year extremists in the Czech Republic convened a total of 272 events, 136 fewer than in 2012 – at least according to the Czech Interior Ministry. So, did we all just imagine those frequent street battles between demonstrators and police last year, or is someone intentionally making fun of us here?
Anyone who expected that, after the stormy anti-Romani unrest in 2013, the Czech security forces might publish at least a partially self-critical analysis of what happened in the streets, the police strategy, and the responsibility of local politicians and the media for sparking these violent clashes – often between ordinary citizens and police – would be mistaken. No such analysis is available in any publicly accessible place.
Instead of the Czech Interior Ministry producing such an analysis, the international human rights organization Amnesty International has taken care of producing a brief, factual and impressive analysis, not only of such events in the Czech Republic, but elsewhere in Europe in 2013. While the Czech state has not yet officially repsonded to that report, an Interior Ministry staffer did briefly explain on the radio that "it’s not that bad in the Czech Republic", if you please.
The staffer also commented that the Amnesty report lacked "responses from other stakeholders". Of course, that doesn’t mean things haven’t changed this year in this regard, or that the security forces have remained completely incorrigible.
Let’s try to read between the lines of the official documents that are available and evaluate the recent changes to police strategy on the basis of last year’s events. The basic document in that context is this year’s report of the Czech Interior Ministry on extremism, approved by the Government on 21 May 2014.
One of the few organizations that has reviewed this report this year is the "non-commercial, open, voluntary citizens’ group" E-Republika.cz. At the start of July, they summarized it as follows: "The fight against extremism and the security risk posed by the so-called socially excluded localities are sensitive areas of interest to the police and politicians. During 2013 the Police of the Czech Republic recorded a total of 211 crimes with an extremist subtext. Year-on-year, that is rise of 38 incidents (i.e., of 22 %). In some regions during 2013 inter-ethnic tensions increased. The result was many anti-Romani demonstrations which could have become an even more significant problem for the security of the state. Of course, this is to a great extent a social problem that cannot be solved by uniforms in the streets. Demonstrations and marches are a legitimate tool of political struggle, but disturbing public order and rioting, including committing violence with a racist subtext, rises to the level of notorious extremism."
While last year the number of "extremist" crimes reportedly rose by 22 % compared to the year before, in another place the report says the percentage of extremist crime as a proportion of crime overall remained steady at 0.06 % (as it was in 2012). In other words, according to the Interior Ministry, there has essentially been no change here – crime simply went up overall, including extremist crime.
However, mathematically a problem arises when we look at the data in the report about the overall percentage growth in crime compared to 2012, which is said to have risen 6.8 % year-on-year. In other words, supposedly the proportion of extremism as part of crime overall did not change, even though the number of extremist crimes grew at a rate three times that of the rise in the overall crime rate during the same year?
Math may not be everyone’s strong suit, but there should be at least one person at the ministry who can make sure such a report does not contain gross errors before it is published. Of course, such errors are no surprise: For years the Interior Ministry has stubbornly refused to include some of the most serious offenses of violent racism in its statistics on extremism, such as the arson attack perpetrated by neo-Nazis in Vítkov in April 2009, or the night a group of masked neo-Nazis attacked randomly-chosen Romani people in different parts of the town of Havířov in November 2008.
The Interior Ministry’s reports list the number of such offenses according to the legal sections under which they are prosecuted, and even though both the Havířov and Vítkov cases were categorized by the police and the state prosecutor as racially motivated, the Interior Ministry did not include them in its statistics on the state of extremism in the country, which are regularly translated into English and sent out into the world. Of course, such distorted statistics are only noticed by experts, and the ministry evidently presumes there won’t be that many of them abroad.
The Czech Justice Ministry, on the other hand, does not permit such blunders in its own statistics regarding the same issue. For this it is to be praised.
Neo-Nazis, racists and "the others"
While last year the average media consumer would have found it difficult to get news about any acts of left-wing extremism in the Czech Republic, according to the Interior Ministry there were more of those than there were of right-wing extremism. I hereby quote from the report:
"The most significant event organized directly by members of the anarcho-autonomous part of the spectrum took place, as is traditional, during the celebrations of 1 May. As in 2012, the model of so-called ‘Days of Action’ was chosen, which included benefit concerts, debates, the ‘Football against Racism’ tournament, the screening of documentary films, afterparties with music, etc. These were autonomous gatherings that were essentially independent of one another. Within this framework there was, for example, a benefit concert held on 29 April in honor of Russian anti-Fascists who had been murdered … . The biggest event as part of these ‘Days of Action’ took place on 1 May, when first a smaller number of anarchists gathered on Shooter’s Island (Střelecký ostrov) and then held an assembly that afternoon called ‘The Party’s Over’ on Republic Square (náměstí Republiky) before marching through Prague. Except for a few minor incidents, everything took place peacefully and without the need for any larger interventions by the Police of the Czech Republic, mainly because the event was not conceived of as a blockade of the traditional 1 May demonstration by right-wing extremists, as that march was held elsewhere, in the town of Přerov."
The report also presents the "protests against demonstrations by right-wing extremists" held in the towns of Vítkov (3 August), Duchcov (17 August) and Plzeň (24 August) as assemblies organized by [left-wing] extremists, even though elsewhere the report states that activists or sympathizers of the ultra-left merely participated in events that were organized by [non-extremist] civic initiatives. The report expressly names the "Let’s Block the Marches!" Platform (Platform Blokujeme!) as a suspicious entity, even though it was publicly supported by organizations such as the Terezín Initiative Institute, the Konexe NGO in Ústí nad Labem, and the Life Together (Vzájemné soužití o.p.s.) NGO in Ostrava.
What are we to make of this? Does it mean that, if you organize a public assembly, then the moment it is attended by a person who is considered an extremist by the staff of the Czech Interior Ministry your activity will be placed on its list of extremist events for all time?
Does the Interior Ministry need to report a higher number of ultra-left events so it can hang onto its budget, its staff numbers, and the bonuses paid to the "secret" police who participate in extremist activities? Is its aim to give the impression that it has a balanced number of suspected extremists on both the left and the right under surveillance?
Not what civil society had in mind
E-Republika.cz has this to say about the ministry’s claims:
"…citing the football match against racism crosses the line. What are the oversight bodies doing who are supposed to supervise whether the Police of the Czech Republic are upholding civic freedoms and obeying the Constitution? Those gentlemen need a better instruction manual and [Interior] Minister Chovanec should make sure they get one fast. When the politically engaged civilian public thinks of extremism and terrorism, this is not what it has in mind… . That activity was not illegal and the ministry has no business mentioning the groups who engaged in it in this report."
As a reminder, I would like to quote the recommendations issued by the Interior Ministry itself last December in its report at a conference it convened for representatives of municipalities on these issues: "Civic activists may also gather during a situation in any given locality not only during the course of an announced assembly, but prior to one and after it is over. It is possible to recommend, for example, convening discussion panels or non-violent activities expressing disagreement with the radical opinions of the neo-Nazis through street theater, posting anti-racist slogans along the sidewalks, or holding a peaceful religious service."
Unfortunately, even praiseworthy activities such as these have also now become the subject of this latest report on the state of extremism in the Czech Republic.
A classified police report of greater importance
The individual regional-level services of the Czech Police in the regions affected by these incidents have, naturally, carefully analyzed last year’s police interventions against the anti-Romani demonstrations, including their own goals; have published the relevant reports; and then have labeled them top-secret. Citizens have no right to read them, as they include tactical instructions for future interventions, and the potential organizers of future unrest could prepare to outwit police by reading them.
In order to have some notion of what is new in these reports, you could view the video footage of a speech made by René Dočekal, head of the Municipal Police in Ostrava, who cites these reports between the lines and openly explains why police "sometimes succeed and sometimes fail." Dočekal says representatives of nonprofit organizations, towns and villages are key partners for police when it comes to these circumstances.
"Each of them plays a completely irreplaceable role," he says, adding that field social workers "greatly assist us", as do municipalities and nonprofit organizations who can influence people who don’t have access to good information and therefore become the victims of alarmist reports spread by the media or online. He calls in his speech for stakeholders to develop a unified communication strategy, as last year there was tragic confusion when the spokespersons for various municipalities, police units, and other partners gave the public conflicting information.
Dočekal also provides a possible explanation as to why police apprehended only 86 people last year out of the hundreds (at least) who were caught on film demonstrably committing crimes. "During emotionally tense moments, you attack other people physically or verbally, and from being victims we become perpetrators," he says.
Let’s leave aside the question of whether such information corresponds to reality; according to the District State Prosecutor, in České Budějovice alone 23 people were convicted of perpetrating crimes during two violent demonstrations there last year. Throughout the country as a whole, there were at least six other similarly violent demonstrations last year.
According to the Interior Ministry report, the most crimes were committed during two demonstrations in Ostrava, where police have promised the strictest possible prosecution of those suspected of throwing rocks and other dangerous objects at police officeres. Either the criminal police in Ostrava have completely failed since then, or the data presented in the report cited by Dočekal isn’t complete.
Police: It’s better to hide than to face racism head-on
Dočekal also justified the established procedure through which police recommend people at a certain moment not to leave their homes because they are "trying to get rid of these assailants and rioters as soon as possible". Of course, in previous years this has meant that many families (not just Romani ones) including young children have experienced strongly traumatic moments when violent thugs raged outside their windows chanting racist slogans and loudly threatening them with violence, while inside their apartments no one was providing any psychological aid to the targets of this hatred either during or after these incidents.
A view from the other side of these inter-ethnic conflicts and a glimpse into the background of these social ghettos can be found in a recent academic study by the young sociologist Václav Walach, who discusses the developments of the last 20 years. Walach mentions the positive influence of organizations such as the "Let’s Block the Marches!" Platform (Platformu Blokujeme!), which organized the completely nonviolent protests against racism last year, events the Interior Ministry has now categorized as extremist in its report.
How the changes in Czech police strategy are affecting reality this year
This past spring, various people attempted to continue last year’s chain of anti-Romani demonstrations, convening public assemblies in that same spirit (at least four different times in České Budějovice, for example). In almost every case, representatives of the municipalities and the police have either convinced those interested in demonstrating to voluntarily cancel their events, or have managed, mainly in collaboration with the media (as well as municipalities) to keep quiet the conveners’ plans to demonstrate to such a degree that they never took place for lack of interest.
The last such attempt occurred on 7 June 2014 in the town of Budišov nad Budišovkou, where the regional medial outlet "Opavský deník" (Opava Daily) was the only one to publish several juicy and completely unsupported articles alleging that Romani people had lynched an innocent local man, literally (perhaps even unintentionally) pushing their suspicions about the specific people involved on the public. As in many examples from last year, the reporter did not ask those on the other side for their opinion, but mainly reproached police
for having not clarified the case after two months.
Of course, it is completely commonplace for cases to go unsolved, if only for lack of evidence. In the case of the planned demonstration to protest the lack of progress in solving this crime, representatives of the Regional Police met personally with the relatives of the victim and managed to convince them not to participate in the "commemorative assembly" convened by neo-Nazis (who were not local) about the case; the family ultimately publicly distanced themselves from the protest, and the nonprofit organizations who had put together a counter-action to protect the Romani families at risk of attack on that day also refrained from publicly calling for participation in a blockade action.
These combined decisions minimized participation by local racists and neo-Nazis and, on the day in question, the local Romani community loudly and somewhat controversially convinced the protesters to quickly leave the small town (or at least their street) after the failed march. Once again, the "Opavský deník" was practically the only mass media outlet to report on the demonstration in detail after it transpired, this time in a more or less balanced way – and the explosive tensions have since evaporated from the town like steam from a pressure cooker.
It is usually the case that one year of racist marches alternates with one year of relative calm in the Czech Republic. Only time will tell whether the media, the municipalities, the nonprofit organizations and the police have really learned the lessons of last year’s experiences.
The opinions published in the ANALYSES, COMMENTARY or OUTSIDE OPINIONS sections do not necessarily reflect the opinions and standpoints of the editors of news server Romea.cz, Romano voďi magazine, or ROMEA, o.p.s.
