The story of tonight's action does not differ much from past actions...
We tend to call these actions flash mob, but in reality there is no flash whatsoever, ...firstly the invitation for the event is in the public domain, then when the appointed hour comes, participants do nothing but wait some signal in order to get moving, and on top of this police officers seem to be some of the most ardent readers of http://saverila.ludost.net/ and they are the first to show up .....in bulks

Wiki says "A flash mob is a large group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, do something unusual for a brief period of time, then quickly disperse.


Please do go to wiki for history and inspiration .

The purpose of this action was to get focused on the problem in a peaceful way....unfortunately one of the results was confrontation with the police officers.

Police officers have come prepared and they have of course someone to run the battle for them. They get instructions block these crowd, let them go now, now stop them. Now you can not cross the street because I say so and so on. They keep playing the leading part...they stop people...they push people..they arest people....they beat people. On the other side the peole are completely unorganized, from that aspect the event was quuite flash mob like.

Not surprisingly between the shouts for Rila and Pirin and Irakli, freedom was the the next on the agenda. The arrests were completely groundless....at several times the police starting pushing people and created chaos. Cveta Hristova was knocked down on the pedestrian path during one such chaotic pushing. The next thing she knew was she is dragged into a police car and taken to the police station. The fate of Krasimir Grozdanov was similar althoug being a male under such cirmustances is certainly a disadvantahe as police has beated Krasimir in the car and in the police starion. Accusations were they did not obey police order. Cveta did not hear any such order...

Being a male is not much of advantage.....Krassimir was beaten in the police car and in the police station. Both he and Cveta were released around 10:30pm. Accusations were they did not obey police order. Cveta did not hear any such order...

The action with the police divert the focus away from the subject (Nature) to the other problems of democracy and Police country rulings- apart from the aggresion towards Cveta and Krasimir, the police has also dragged and pushed others, including catching Nevena Gurova (~ woman aprox 40-50 years of age) and releasing her on the ground with her head top down on the street!!!

The take aways for me are:

- More discreet actions (from the police) and better preparation are due. Revolution is sweet as it brings adrenaline but if doesnt knock governments it is pointless waste of energy. We need results!! How many of us believe that the construction in Rila can be stopped, how many believe Bansko will be ever restored? Not many I am afraid
- More mindfulness during an action, the whole point is for flash mobs is sponatenous actions.Means that if police officers block the crowd and do not allow to cross the street it is easy just to turn the other way round and cross from different place. less conflict...
- The ecological disasters/invasion occurring all over Bulgaria need to be documented and filed in court. Anyoyne who has information of any such violation should list it and send to the eco organizations. (e.g. http://forthenature.org/?)
- I have to go digital and upgrade all the hardware around me. For this post you will have to trust only my eye camera - the arrests, for the police pushing, for the signs and for the inspiration. Luckily tropot was there too,...so you can see also with your eyes!!
- education - on flash mobs for protesters, on behaviour with citizens for police men

With this I end up this post and wish you a very good night. Wishing I had the energy to write a post in Bulgarian too...but i do not worry too much as nabludatel was there and you can read his coverage.