Last weekend, E from the band Cistem Failure got arrested during the gay pride in Oslo. Unexpectedly, the cops are making a big deal out of the whole thing. E was held in the police station over the weekend before being brought to court today. The judge decided Monday 27th not to release E, so they are currently being held on remand in custody until their hearing, which must happen in the next 28 days. At the hearing it will be decided if they are guilty or not and what their possible sentence will be (their lawyer expects between 20 and 40 days in prison). However, the time they spend in prison on remand will be subtracted from their final sentence. So if for example they wait 20 days until their hearing, and then get a sentence of 20 days, then they will have already served their time.
They have been charged under Straffenloven § 128, for hindering a state official from carrying out their work. They are accused of throwing a pie in the face of Solveig Horne, an sexist, racist politician from the right-wing Progress Party, who had the cheek to march in the front row of the Pride parade. She is the Norwegian Minister for Equality, Children and Social Inclusion. She is known for her victim blaming, and has in the past said has made homophobic remarks such as “Is it okay that kindergartens read gay fairy-tales for young children?”. The Progress Party are a known racist party that gives zero fucks about refugees and has even stated that her party protects woman by being tough on migration issues. Ms Horne even said that her party would deal with transgender persons in the same way as with any other ‘patients’ – by directing them to the relevant health facilities.
a side from this, we think it is strange that in general politicians are leading Pride, have they forgotten about Stonewall? People can have Pride as long as it means assimilating into capitalism and hang out with scum politicians? Why be homophobic when queers also have voting rights and have money to buy things with? The gay pride in Oslo gave the solidarity price this year to the police… While a bunch of queers got arrested and in Dublin some people at the pride got badly queerbashed
after dropping a banner saying ‘homophobia kills’.
Anyway. They are gonna be in jail for a bit and it would be cool if peeps would send letters, talk about the case, play our music, do a soliparty, write a song.
Until then, none are free until all are free. pie.
You can send letters (until we have a better address) here:
Oslo ABC,
Postboks 6689 St.Olavs plass
0129 Oslo
Norway
Break the Chains
