1- Police violence & Reckless arrests:
Photo by Karim Mostafa

#YouStink is a peaceful movement and should remain that way. Security forces are mainly to blame for the violence during the first protest while infiltrators turned the second protest into a nightmare. What’s important is that civilized and peaceful demonstrators stay away from these infiltrators and from clashing with the police. Let’s keep in mind that security forces are given orders that they need to follow and most of them want the same demands we do and don’t want to clash with the people. Needless to say, some of them are violating basic human rights and need to punished severely but I believe the best way to counter any violent act by the police or army is by documenting it and exposing it.

Aside from the use of violence during the demonstrations, a lot of protesters were wrongfully arrested and tortured. There are a lot of testimonies online stating how people were jailed for days, interrogated and tortured, and forced to do drug tests. Lebanese authorities and the Interior Minister should take immediate action to ensure there is no repeat of these actions in future protests. Human Rights Watch documented the violence in the early protests. You can read the report [here].

2- Damaged Public Property:

Riad el Solh statue was sabotaged, traffic lights were destroyed, shops and billboards were vandalized and even Hariri’s grave got its share of the riots during the second day of protest. I blame it all on the infiltrators but it is every one’s responsibility tomorrow not to damage public property and to report or stop those who are doing so.

[YouTube]

3- Political Parties, flags and slogans:

A lot of parties are trying to take advantage of this movement. I’m not sure how the organizers are planning to keep them away from the protest but they should do so in order not to jeopardize its credibility. The fact that so many movements popped up during this week is definitely not comforting and a headache for the #YouReek guys.

4- More movements and hashtags:
#‏مستمرون‬ ‫#‏طلعت_ريحتكم‬ #بدنا_نحاسب #حلوا_عنا #عالشارع #بدنا_رئيس
I don’t know what happened this past week but every one decided to come up with a new hashtag and call it a movement. A hashtag is a not a movement and there’s already one hashtag that we can help trend. Stop coming up with new hashtags/movements for God’s sake!

All in all, I hope that today’s protest goes smoothly and achieves positive things. Stay safe everyone!