Deconstructing modern demonstrations

Policing, in the modern day, is a tricky business. As the inter-connectivity among population keeps on increasing daily, it becomes really difficult for law enforcers to isolate an incident from another in a geographical area. A demonstration erupts instantaneously if law enforcement agencies are not on their toes round the clock. The element of surprise has bamboozled police officers whenever their estimation about the numbers in a demonstration goes wrong. A delayed response on the part of police can aggravate the situation since high social inter-connectivity provides a narrow room for error for law-enforcement agencies in such situations. If an incident of violence takes place during these demonstrations in an area of a country, it is transmitted easily through social media and fast telecommunication channels without any delay. As a result, it gets replicated and multiplied in other parts of a country or a region as well. With increased human rights protection awareness, the law-enforcement agencies are in a dilemma as to what extent they can use deadly force and under which circumstances such action may be employed against protesters involved in sit-ins, rallies and protests causing damage to life and property of the common person.

Social media is an important platform for mobilising people for an occasion. It also provides a leaderless e-environment for local authorities to tackle a law and order scenario. A recent study in the US on demonstrations indicates that nearly 4,296 protests took place in the first 10 months of 2017 on wide-ranging issues, including civil rights, environment, healthcare, immigration, legislation, racial injustices and others. Not a single demonstration could be isolated to restrict its negative effects as it spreads from one corner of the country with use of internet and social media communication. Similarly, the recent protests in France have also exposed many gaps of the French police in handling and controlling these demonstrations within certain locality and geographical area. The issues which are not directly related to policing have constantly become a prime cause for concern to local police commanders and foot constables. In Paris, for the last couple of months, violence surged as Yellow Vests attacked government buildings, private properties and torched numerous cars on main roads of the city. They burnt tyres on roads and nearly 50,000 persons took part in the demonstrations all over France. The main reason of these protests was the current price hike and tax increase on basic commodities. Social media like Twitter was used extensively to cover these demonstrations and each tweet was followed and liked by thousands of people. Many celebrities and box-office icons also chipped into it through their tweets in which they expressed solidarity with protesters and compared their violence and vandalism with the structural barbarity of French and global elites. Though the local authorities have not compiled racial data of arrest of those accused of vandalism and torching of government and private properties, it would be a random mix of white and non-white population in the country. A number of lessons can be drawn from modern demonstrations which nowadays are taking place from big cities of the US to the cosmopolitan centres of Europe.

If we look at the officially-recorded data on demonstrations in Pakistan then a gradual rise in protests by students, government employees and religious parties can be observed. Interestingly, political demonstrations have increased slightly but it remains constant from 2015 till 2018. The most significant part of these demonstrations is that civil society exhibits no interest in such activity and remains at the bottom of the list of these protests. Three factors are quite important in deconstructing modern demonstrations across the globe. The live coverage of these protests has significantly dwarfed police action in these situations. The police are reluctant to use extreme force lest it may be recorded by anyone and the-viral-video phenomenon can propagate it before the police can act against the culprits who use it for gaining the upper hand against state authorities. The concept of freedom of expression needs to be redefined because under the garb of such assertion, people resort to vandalism causing loss of precious lives and properties of persons who have nothing to do with such rallies, sit-ins and demonstrations.

These protests are mainly based on politico-religious issues and since the demos are organised through e-medium, no formal leadership exists to negotiate, discuss and control the people on the streets. Everyone tries to contribute with his or her views and encourage sloganeering thus reaching out to people from all sections of society. Local law enforcers are unable to locate the leadership of the protesters thus making it really difficult to work out a settlement. Therefore, an unseen simmering discontent persists after each protest which can exacerbate the situation anytime anywhere.

Moreover, it is necessary that the local police should have exclusive limited control over social media so that if they feel that certain video or audio is being shared many times and can cause resentment in certain sections of the population or society, then the same can be blocked and culprits involved in it taken to task. Within the next few years, the digital footprint of crime will become alarmingly prominent in each and every criminal activity. Hence, effective counter-digital tools instead of latest weapons and gadgets to disperse demonstrations should be available at police stations so that they can act promptly in these situations. In an extremely orthodox society where patience levels are generally low, a leaderless e-medium can easily exploit the existing sectarian, racial, social, economic and religious fault lines causing disturbances and creating unnecessary hurdles for state authorities.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 17^th, 2019.

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