On our latest adventure the JSBP program visited the Riot Police Headquarters in Budapest. Personally I was unsure upon arrival whether or not it would be a worthwhile trip. Our previous trips have been entertaining, fun, and educational, so there was no reason to believe this one would be any different. However, I don’t personally find the idea of visiting a riot team that entertaining, nor do I enjoy learning about the different aspects of a job that essentially revolves around subduing the citizens. With that being said I am not naïve enough to think that a country shouldn’t have riot polices and other agencies designed to subdue angry and unruly crowds. They are clearly important officers who carry out invaluable tasks, but the idea about learning how their station works and the different techniques in crowd control they use was not something I’m too interested in. As far as our trip to the station goes, it was not without its moments but it was certainly not one of the take-away points of our trip so far either.
One of the reasons the trip was not up to par with the previous ones was that upon our arrival we were given a presentation that was more than slightly on the boring side. One of the problems was that the lady who spoke to us only spoke Hungarian, and I think our translator had trouble trying to properly convey what she was saying to us. She showed us a PowerPoint with facts all about the station and the riot police, but I found the information to be somewhat obvious and not very interesting. Essentially there are a lot of branches of the riot police and they have many other jobs besides breaking up unruly mobs. They have counter-terrorism responsibilities, and they also have subordinates that deal with things specific things such as bomb scares. Yet for the most part everything we learned about the Hungarian Riot Police and the overall police system were things that would be true for almost all countries, with maybe some minor exceptions. I hate to sound like a snobby college student but I just honestly didn’t feel that anything in the meeting was interesting at all. Yet in defense of the presentation I’m not someone extremely interested in police work, but someone who is might have found it informative (If they spoke Hungarian).
This picture Pretty much speaks for itself
After our presentation we were shown the different equipment the riot team uses including weaponry and armored vehicles. They showed us different types of grenade launchers that were used to deploy teargas and were actually all designed after the AK-47. They also had several handguns to be used only in extreme situations when the lives of citizens or the officers were in grave danger. They had a shield that looked really cool but the tour guide said it was too big and inconvenient to be put to everyday use by the riot squads. After the tour of the weapons they showed us the different types of armored vehicles they use to get into the heart of large crowds. They were very big, elaborate, and intimidating upon first glance. One was a former Russian tank and another was a pickup truck with a turret on the back used to shoot teargas at protestors.
This is a teargas grenade launcher similar to the one we were shown, As you can see the butt of the gun resembles an AK-47
As a ten year-old I would have found this stuff really cool and been exited to climb on the tank, but as a twenty year-old I couldn’t help but feel uneasy about the whole thing. These massive machines and their accompanying weaponry were to be used against living-breathing human beings. I understand they may be necessary sometimes, but when I saw those machines the only image popping through my head was people protesting and in return getting teargas fired at them. When one thinks of protesting (In both America and around the world) often times the people taking a stand together get physically punished for doing so. At Kent State in 1969 soldiers fired upon innocent protestors who were doing nothing illegal. In Tiananmen Square in 1989 the government killed many of its own citizens who were peacefully asking for a guarantee of basic human rights. In both those cases and many more throughout history the “aggressors” were essentially riot police sent out to subdue the crowds. This may seem like an unfair generalization about all Riot Squads, but I can’t help the fact that when I saw their equipment I thought about defenseless people being fired upon. I guess in a different place or time I may have been one of the people in the crowd.
This is the song Ohio By CSNY. This song was written about the Kent State massacre and the tragic death of four defenseless college-aged protestors.
This is the song Ohio By CSNY. This song was written about the Kent State massacre and the tragic death of four defenseless college-aged protestors.
Alex, i think you brought up many good points about the weaponry that the police are using against their own people. It's hard to say exactly when this stuff is needed, but I think there has to be some line in which we can determine that one protest is peaceful, and thus it would be unnecessary to bring out the big guns, or when a protest may be self destructive to its cause. I understand the concerns of a government, but in my opinion, the people have the right to be heard and express their opposition. If the police are brought out in full force that message is squandered, and in the media it can even be framed to look dangerous in itself....Kind of a tangent I'm going on, but your blog has made me think! It's great that you were able to come away with all of this despite a less than impressive day.
ReplyDeleteOh hey, funny seeing you here.
ReplyDeleteI was really intrigued by the fact that you didn't look forward to this field excursion. I know that some of our other trips have had a more "law and environment" feel, or maybe were more geared towards Hungarian history. This one, though, was pretty much as justice-y as it gets.
I agree that sometimes, PowerPoints are not the best way to convey crucial information, but I didn't particularly mind this one. It was pretty basic, yes, but I did not know most of the information in it. I know that the Riot Police back home don't handle some of the same topics, so I was surprised to read that you found the information obvious.
I had no idea that you were so uneasy upon seeing all the riot gear. I'm a pretty liberal girl, completely for the right to peacefully protest against anything you're unhappy with. But not every use of the riot police is comparable to Kent State. The London riots this past summer were horrific - young male "protestors" robbed a dying man of his wallet while he was asking for help. Three brothers were shot dead when they attempted to defend their neighborhood. Sometimes, the fury of people in a crowd can get out of control. I was impressed with the fact that the Hungarian Riot Police mostly stuck with tear gas - even the American Riot Police at least use rubber bullets. Anyways, I'd love to talk more sometime about this trip. I really appreciate opinions that are completely opposite of mine, and I'd really like to learn more about what you thought. Great blog, though, Alex. Sorry if I sound mean!
Alex, Grace and Mary--you have all made great points regarding the use of riot police weaponry that we saw last Wednesday. I just wanted to chime in with a couple of my thoughts. Mostly, I wanted to highlight the fact that the man giving us the "tour", so to say, of the police weaponry and vehicles did a great job of explaining the features and uses of what was there last Wednesday. One of the most important things that I think he did while giving us the tour, however, was to mention repeatedly that a particular weapon or vehicle was only used in very serious circumstances. Following the field trip on Wednesday I watched several youtube videos of actual Hungarian Riot Police situations and in ALL of the videos I saw (five or six), the vehicles were present, but not being utilized to their full, damage-doing capacity. They had a presence, and that was all that was necessary. I think it's important to remember that just because the police force has these weapons and vehicles, doesn't mean that they are always using them. Rather, I think they are important tools for a police force in a city as big as Budapest to have just in case...preparedness is very important.
ReplyDeleteSo, that's my quick two sense, and this sounds like it could be a good/lengthy conversation for the group to have sometime together, eh?
Hope everyone had a good weekend! =)