What is it all about?
A few months ago, a young Brutor student, by the name of Kinhar Elokur has killed 3 people who harassed him. Very little information is available about the exact circumstances. He has to go on trial on 15 october, over two months after he was imprisoned. Due to the controverse around his and that the Gallente denied bail, protests have arisen.
More valid information can be found here: Minmatar react to Senate report; call for Elokur's freedom.
Two rallies have been called on the day of his trial. One is organized by those who believe he acted in self-defense and henceforth he should be released. This protest is backed mainly by the Minmatar citizens.
The second rally was called after the first and calls for justice to be called upon Elokur, as he might have used excessive force in disposing of his attackers. As expected, the call for justice is mainly supported by the Gallente citizens.
The reason I was present was to observe this protestrally between Minmatar and Gallente capsuleers and being a neutral third party if required.
The beginning of the rally.
Shortly before 20H the first capsuleer attendants arrived. This didn't go unnoticed because as in usual capsuleer spirit, a squadron of 8 tornado's arrived, hellbent on causing mayhem and destruction amongst those who carried valuables! However due to a lucky turn of events, a capsuleer released his killright on one of them, leading to the demise of one of the Tornado's. The rest lingered on, but then decided it was too tricky to hang around, in case others might arrive with killrights on their remaining squadronmembers and thereby fled back into the depth of space.
The rest of the preparations went fairly quiet, some words shouted over comms, but nothing much. Once Commander A9 and Valerian Eldiart arrived things got into shape. Commander A9 is a well known advocate of of freedom and thereby called the Freedom supporters to join his fleet to form a more organized protest against Synchelle's trial against Elokur, demanding the man to be freed. The Freedom fleet rapidly grew in size, their calls to free Elokur sounding louder with every new member joining.
On response of this, the mysterious capsuleer Valerian Eldiart called for Justice and let the trial determine a proper punishment for Elokur's crime. As support grew for the justice side, capsuleer Paskis Robinson offered assistance to manage the Justice fleet. And so the protest began.
Protests! Freedom! Justice! Escalation?
As the protests continued, each side shouted their demands. The Freedom Force demanded to Free Elokur, as he only defended himself against vicious attackers. At the same time, the Justice Fleet shouted for justice brought to this villaneous man, who killed 3 men in a show of excessive force! Meanwile Station authorites requested the fleets to stay within their rally-spheres and keep the station undock clear for incoming and outgoing traffic.
As hours passed without any official response, the demands, shouting and arguments grew more heated by the minute. Small containers broadcasting provoking messages were dropped by both sides. The more levelheaded capsuleers on both sides attempted to call for peace, to calm down before things would escalate further. Yet more and more calls for blood were screamed, and each side was blaming the other for threatening to shoot...
And what had to happen, occured... two capsuleers had enough of the arguments and decided to settle it with gunfire... In a duel they let their guns speak, and their combatprowess decide who was right and wrong...
The Ending....
Seeing the increasingly hostile speeches and the subsequent bloodshed by the two duelling capsuleers, several people began voicing their concerns about what was supposed to be a peaceful protest... Then one of the capsuleer ships went ablaze, many of its crew lost and with that, the protest lost its momentum as people realized what their call for violence and bloodshed had resulted into...
As escape-pods from the wrecked vehicle soared away, the protest became less loud and voiced, arguments were still shouted, but with less passion, less heat. And then the two leaders of the protests, Commander A9 of the Freedom Force and Valerian Eldiart of the Justice Fleet called to end the protest, to prevent further escalation.
Right on time it seemed, because more gunfire was exchanged during the dispersion of both fleets. The gunfire silenced as ships fled the field or docked with the station and then fell silent, save for a few scattered broadcasts about Freedom and Justice.
Epilogue
Both sides had voiced their opinions and concerns to the Synchelle Justice department organizing the Elokur Trial. The protesters also experienced first hand what calls for aggression can result into. Hopefully, lessons have been learned for the future.
The protest itself was a great succes on both sides, seeing a good capsuleer presence with a large variety of ships.
There was no official response from the Synchelle Justice Department, but from trustworthy sources it's known they did listen and observed the protest, reserving their response for another day, realizing the delicate situation between the Minmatar and Gallente.
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