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My non-Polish mutuals, here's what's happening in Warsaw right now // Thread
#Margot #LGBT #Warszawa #Policja
#Margot #LGBT #Warszawa #Policja
Margot (a.k.a. Małgorzata Szutowicz) is an LGBT activist for the StopBzdurom (StopTheNonsense) organization, which aims to combat homophobic and transphobic propaganda in Poland and to educate on sexuality and gender-related issues.
Margot is also herself transgender and still undergoing transition. She is being misgendered and deadnamed left and right, including by liberal media. https://twitter.com/KsymenaMatysek/status/1291817330448773122
She was originally charged with vandalizing a car which belonged to a Polish anti-LGBT propagandist organization, and with assaulting the driver of the car.
That organization uses cars covered in graphics about how the LGBT are p*dophiles etc.
That organization uses cars covered in graphics about how the LGBT are p*dophiles etc.
https://twitter.com/UpadekP/status/1283022559953522690
A couple of weeks ago she was brutally arrested by the Warsaw PD and it took several hours for her legal team to locate her, let alone get to her.
A couple of weeks ago she was brutally arrested by the Warsaw PD and it took several hours for her legal team to locate her, let alone get to her.
After this, StopBzdurom staged a protest where they covered or adorned several monuments with rainbow flags in solidarity with the Polish LGBT community. This ruffled many feathers. It has been reported that the vice-minister of justice himself intervened to punish the activists
A couple of days later, Margot was arrested again, this time on the street, again without any specifics on why. Her friend from StopBzdurom, Łania Madej, was also briefly arrested and the apartment where she was staying was searched without due cause.
The other charge they got was "violation of religious feelings" which is a REAL CRIMINAL CHARGE IN POLAND, most often used to prosecute anyone that criticizes the Catholic Church and its role in Poland.
A couple of days ago it was announced that the court decided to put Margot into 2-month pre-trial detention (even though the flight or recidivism risk was very low).
Today, Margot walked out to the cops to be voluntarily arrested but the cops (who had come for JUST HER with three huge multi-prisoner cars) chose to ignore her until protesters had surrounded the scene. Cops then escalated the situation by using force without prior warning.
The police proceeded to beat and shove protesters, including several MPs, who are supposed to be immune from police proceedings.
BTW this is an example tweet by Warsaw PD misgendering her. Feel free to report the tweet as well as the account. https://twitter.com/Policja_KSP/status/1291800835215757313
Reminder: this is all about Margot
1) spray-painting on a car, a charge that could be settled with StopBzdurom just paying some damages
2) putting (not even fixing!) a rainbow flag on a couple of monuments
1) spray-painting on a car, a charge that could be settled with StopBzdurom just paying some damages
2) putting (not even fixing!) a rainbow flag on a couple of monuments
Cops are now saying the protesters were being aggressive but this appears to be false based on multiple accounts of people running away from the police and in general being assertive but not keen on violence. The entire thing looks like a setup designed to demonize LGBT activists
I'm not putting any pictures of Margot here btw because I don't want any comments on her appearance or passing. If I see anything of that sort in my replies I'll block you =)
All in all, after a short retreat on the part of the police (where they briefly pretended they weren't even trying to arrest her (???)) they took her in that car, which they surrounded with that hilarious kettle that did NOTHING
You can help Margot and other Polish activists by contributing to this bail fund https://twitter.com/AnarchistFed/status/1291815163776176128
As a bit of context: Poland has always been extremely homophobic but LGBT has been used as a scapegoat by PiS (the party which has been in power since 2014). https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2020/jul/08/we-are-the-most-homophobic-country-in-the-eu-polands-election-and-the-lgbt-fightback-video
During the recent presidential election (which was won by the PiS candidate), the public's attention was basically redirected away from voter suppression issues and the (pretty bad) gov response to the COVID crisis, and toward LGBT activists and feminists.
I must add that Poland has some of the strictest anti-abortion laws in Europe and the PiS parliament takes any chance it can get to threaten women / womb-havers with a total and unconditional abortion ban a la Ceausescu Romania or El Salvador
So far, these attempts have been rebuffed by Polish women and feminists standing up to PiS in great numbers, but each new election won by PiS brings with it a new threat to women's rights. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-37540139
PETITIONS WON'T HELP HERE. THEY DON'T CARE. You could literally collect a billion signatures and they will still simply do whatever they want. They don't care about proper judicial or legislative procedures whatsoever. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Polish_Constitutional_Court_crisis
However, I must highlight here that the entire Polish society is THIS BAD, not just the PiS voters. The main counter-candidate to the PiS guy in the last presidential election was a guy who has been vocally against gay marriage. And HE was supposed to be the liberal one lmao
https://twitter.com/PissPigWife69/status/1283519983679610886 i fucking hate polish ppl lmao (except for LGBT activists, they rule)
oh here's a useless post made by the useless """opposition""" presidential candidate where he tries to have it both ways by criticising the court's decision about Margot's detention but ALSO distancing himself from any actual radical ideas such as "homophobia bad"
here's a video of an MP being shoved despite having his MP identification on him, which is supposed to grant him immunity https://twitter.com/m_gdula/status/1291803369942724610
Oh and apparently the police were loudly telling each other to terrorize the crowd by pulling out random people to arrest. This was heard by many, including the MPs in attendance https://twitter.com/Olszewski_Luk/status/1291812901687304192
I must stress again that it is my great dream to get Warsaw Police banned from twitter. Let's do this! Report this tweet for harassment of a protected category https://twitter.com/PissPigWife69/status/1291836521860009985
Okay that's it from me. Dropping this podcast for my Polish followers. https://twitter.com/LewyInteres/status/1291856080423858176
Follow me ONLY if you want a steady stream of Beyoncé takes and communist memes
https://twitter.com/magdadropek/status/1291862313574838272 Apparently they're charging Margot with taking part in an illegal demonstration (that gathered AROUND her as she was voluntarily submitting to the arrest warrant!!!) if you live in warsaw then they need all hands on board
The protesters who were detained aren't being allowed to speak to lawyers https://twitter.com/gjanoszka/status/1291861774220886018
Activists and MPs are still calling different police stations and jails in Warsaw to ask for info on where the arrested people are. If you're looking for a friend or relative you can e-mail here [email protected]
Some of the approx. 40 people have been found but not all
Some of the approx. 40 people have been found but not all
as of 1:00 a.m. (polish time) 13 protesters have not been located, according to one organizer as many as 70 in total may have been detained
https://twitter.com/AM_Zukowska/status/1291305663608565760 these are the polish progressive (mostly democratic socialist) MPs who have been either protesting on the ground or staging official interventions on behalf of protesters today.
https://twitter.com/B_Maciejewska/status/1291847602741432320 this lawyer hasn't been able to see his client. the cop tries to tell him that the MPs (who are recording the video) have priority before him and the MPs both say in front of cops that they waive that priority. cop becomes confused & snitches on himself
this video clearly shows cops literally jumping on people's backs to detain them for simply standing around (?). so you can show this to anyone who claims that protesters were being aggressive https://twitter.com/PiotrZytnicki/status/1291817284667936770
https://twitter.com/AgaBak/status/1291883214747967488 It's still (by design) not clear where Margot is being held. Her legal team and others (including MPs who are normally allowed to request this information) have to wait till Monday to petition the prosecutor's office for this info
Okay it's 2:30 a.m. in Poland rn so I'm going to bed. See y'all in the morning. Stay safe everyone!
My DMs are open (just for this night) so please message me if you have any questions or requests, or just if you wanna talk
P.S. Polish LGBT ppl - you're the best!
My DMs are open (just for this night) so please message me if you have any questions or requests, or just if you wanna talk
P.S. Polish LGBT ppl - you're the best!
I’M BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND
#MuremZaStopBzdurom
NEWS ROUNDUP PART 1
-One of the MPs who were protesting had her shoulder dislocated and wrist broken by cops
-Cops were beating and shoving anyone, even accredited journalists and MPs, didn’t care about IDs, wouldn’t ID themselves
#MuremZaStopBzdurom
NEWS ROUNDUP PART 1
-One of the MPs who were protesting had her shoulder dislocated and wrist broken by cops
-Cops were beating and shoving anyone, even accredited journalists and MPs, didn’t care about IDs, wouldn’t ID themselves
News roundup PART 2
- throughout the night cops would move detainees from one jail to another to make it more difficult for lawyers to locate them, they'd also refuse to supply even the MPs with the info on where protesters are being held
- still no info on where #Margot is
- throughout the night cops would move detainees from one jail to another to make it more difficult for lawyers to locate them, they'd also refuse to supply even the MPs with the info on where protesters are being held
- still no info on where #Margot is
News roundup PART 3
- the vicinities of Warsaw jails are being increasingly invaded by neo-nazis who are trying to terrorize protesters who there to ask about their detained comrades
Overall this has been a blatant show of force designed to discourage #LGBT dissent
- the vicinities of Warsaw jails are being increasingly invaded by neo-nazis who are trying to terrorize protesters who there to ask about their detained comrades
Overall this has been a blatant show of force designed to discourage #LGBT dissent
NEWS ROUNDUP PART 4 !!!
It has been reported that detainees were barred from seeing their lawyers until they signed a statement that said they had no complaints about the fashion in which they were detained. Yes, this is super illegal.
It has been reported that detainees were barred from seeing their lawyers until they signed a statement that said they had no complaints about the fashion in which they were detained. Yes, this is super illegal.
This is a statement from the Anarchist Black Cross, the org that runs bail funds and legal help for detainees PART 1
Anarchist Black Cross statement PART 2
(NIGDY NIE BĘDZIESZ SZŁA SAMA means "you'll never walk alone" btw)
#MuremZaStopBzdurom #MuremZaMargot #LGBT
(NIGDY NIE BĘDZIESZ SZŁA SAMA means "you'll never walk alone" btw)
#MuremZaStopBzdurom #MuremZaMargot #LGBT
https://twitter.com/sarajawadart/status/1292047274642636801 Spread the word yall!
https://twitter.com/DZIKIJOSEPH/status/1292012824902934529 This is a very good point but I'm going to leave the thread up for a bit longer bc the photos I'm using are stolen from the GW news agency, so they're probably already well known to the police and will stay in circulation even if I take them down from here
weeeeeeeee it's that time of the year again! gestapo is trending! yaaaayyyy
Also one thing I wanna address is that dashcam video where StopBzdurom acivists are seen shoving the driver around.
My response:
1) Hell yes that's queen shit
2) Margot is not really aggressive from what I can tell. Another activist escalates the situation & then she helps
My response:
1) Hell yes that's queen shit
2) Margot is not really aggressive from what I can tell. Another activist escalates the situation & then she helps
https://twitter.com/YngvePL/status/1292037579945254912 I might also add that the polish cops are clearly copying americans in terms of their attitude and the general strategy of escalating the violence and then punishing protesters for fighting back
mf said Porlanad lmaoooo
btw polish troglodytes in my mentions: do you know you're able to edit your twitter handles? your handle doesn't have to be your first name followed by eight digits. you're literally three clicks away from not looking cringe lmao
btw polish troglodytes in my mentions: do you know you're able to edit your twitter handles? your handle doesn't have to be your first name followed by eight digits. you're literally three clicks away from not looking cringe lmao
one of the protesting MPs just said the cops are threatening to have her immunity revoked for "wheedling out information". well good luck with that boys. that outta work. https://twitter.com/AgaBak/status/1291922896198172674
One thing I haven't discussed in this thread (bc it would need its own thread tbh) is how blatantly PiS is using the public TV network to further its political goals. Here's a screen cap from right now: a story about how happy Poles feel in Poland. https://twitter.com/OSMJesien/status/1292044569308270593
A solidarity protest is happening in Warsaw in two hours. Stay tuned.
If I post any photos, I'm going to make sure they're already in wide circulation. I may post audio of chants etc. if I get a hold of it but I won't post any images that may expose protesters needlessly
If I post any photos, I'm going to make sure they're already in wide circulation. I may post audio of chants etc. if I get a hold of it but I won't post any images that may expose protesters needlessly
JESUS CHRIST I TOLD YALL PETITIONS DON'T DO SHIT. Don't sign the petition. Go out and protest, support bail funds or join an LGBT org in Poland instead. Literally what do you think is going to happen to that petition? Exactly zero people who matter here will care.
Oh, look! It's the NYT with their usual centrist charm. From the same newsroom that once brought you Larry Kramer hit pieces and pro-martial law op-eds now brings you "police brutality as a friendly scuffle".
from the Warsaw protest happening right now
