Brussels to Europeans: Sit down and shut up

My two fears for the Brussels anti-Islamization demo — that it would be underwhelming and violently suppressed — seem to have been realized, although it could have been worse.

So far the only accounts I have been able to find are at Brussels Journal and Gates of Vienna.

For the mainstream media, the demo seems to have been pretty much a non-event. Not even Lucianne.com has a story about it. The AP gave it the yawning, small-earthquake-reported-in-Chile treatment: "Officers handcuffed two leaders of the far-right Flemish Interest Party, which is very critical of Muslim immigrants, and took them away in police vans," as though there was nothing at issue except criticism of Islam by a right-wing fringe group.

More details may emerge later. For now, the main thing that's evident is that a peaceful demonstration was banned and that those who showed up anyway, without otherwise being provocative, were arrested with considerable force in some cases.

Maybe the spectators at the event, and the few others who will eventually learn about it, were alarmed by how Europe's new superstate has zero tolerance for challenges to its multi-culti agenda. For lots of others, the day's big news was about Britney Spears's "MTV comeback disaster."

UPDATE late 9/11

Brussels Journal has posted a video of demonstrators being arrested by the Police/Politie (Belgium is a bilingual country, just like the immigration industry wants to make us). It isn't shockingly violent — I've seen worse in person, in the U.S. — but I'll bet it will be an eye-opener for some Europeans nurtured on a belief in the goodness of the Nanny State.

UPDATE 9/16

I've now had time to review additional videos and descriptions of the police arrests in Brussels. I was previously a little inclined to give the police the benefit of the doubt -- after all, they were acting under orders, and there's no way you can arrest someone who doesn't want to be arrested without using some force.

It's obvious, though, that at least in the cases of the Vlaams Blok leaders, the force was excessive and punitive. Some of the cops (and their commanders) should be charged with human rights violations. Of course, they won't be.

But let's not let the most important consideration get lost in outrage about police brutality. What is even more disturbing is that peaceful citizens desiring to make a peaceful protest were denied that right because it would have offended Muslims and possibly led to violence from some among them. A malevolent precedent has been set, by which Muslims can veto the civil liberties of other citizens through intimidation.