Truth?

What is the truth? To quote Babylon 5: "Truth is a like a triple edge sword". There is my truth (or view), there is another persons truth (or view), and then there is what really happened. This becomes important when considering what happened yesterday in Helsinki when the Smash Asem march was about to start. From what I've read, the police stopped the march before it even started because of two things:

1) No one could be reach from the organisers of the march to discuss the route which didn't suite the police
2) Smash Asem had said that they would cause atleast some disruption to the daily life of the citizens of Helsinki

Because of the two above the police surrounded the marchers and cornerd them into the Kiasma square where they were taken away from the encampment one by one after they were photographed and their ID's checked.

Granted, some of the marchers had their faces covered which by Finnish law is forbidden in a march. Thus their actions were against the law and they had it coming. But what of the rest of the persons who were trapped? How much of their actions was a result of the police deciding to stop the march and trap the marchers? Older persons can keep their cool but understandable, younger persons temper and feelings are quite fast so it should not come as a suprise that there were reactions to the police actions.

A more interesting question is the police action that took place, that is the cornering of the marchers to prevent disruption in the city. Should crime be prevented? Yes. Should voicing ones opinion be silenced beforehand? No. Even the President said that in a democrazy everyone has the right to march and voice ones opinion, as long as it goes without destruction of property and damage to people.

So. What would have happened had the march been allowed to proceed? This we will not know. And never will know. However it has left a bad taste in quite a few peoples mouths. The Left partys youth organisation has called for an investigation into the police actions as has the Green partys youth organisations as well as some of the representatives of the parlament. Most likely nothing will come out of it but it will have changed the was marches are performed and opinions voiced in Finland.

Sadly. The truth is always the first casualty.