Video footage has emerged of climate activist Greta Thunberg posing with German police shortly before she was carried away and detained during mass protests against a coal mine in the town of Lützerath.
Images of Thunberg being carried away by police were broadcast across the world, with some protesters claiming it amounted to police violence. However, the reality of the detainment appears to be far different than initially reported.
The new footage shows that Thunberg calmly posed with the officers before she was led from the protest by police, with critics saying the whole event appears to have been staged.
It is unclear if the police were under orders to pose for the cameras during Thunberg’s arrest, or why this strange photo op session is only being revealed now. In the video, she can be seen laughing and looks relaxed and unconcerned with her detention.
Already, Twitter users have begun creating memes around the incident.
Others indicated that the detention of Thunberg is not an event totally out of the ordinary given the way the media has covered most of her career.
Her whole career is a PR stunt
— The Victim Olympics ™︎ (@ZVictimOlympics) January 17, 2023In another video, police are seen picking up Thunberg, walking with her for 20 meters, and then letting her go, as if the entire incident was a theater rehearsal. Quetions are now being raised about the different incidents, and whether they were produced to provide the global media with the necessary footage and photos it needed to paint Thunberg as a victim of police oppression.
Thunberg, a darling of climate activists, has long been used by the political establishment and helped grow support for Green and left-wing parties across the West — even if Thunberg herself has sharply criticized the German Green party’s decision to allow the mining project to go through in the region.
The protests in Lützerath have seen clashes between police and protesters, including the use of Molotov cocktails. However, despite activists alleging serious police violence in Lützerath, they were forced to retract claims that protesters faced “life-threatening injuries” in what appears to have also been a case of misinformation.
North Rhine-Westphalia Interior Minister Herbert Reul, in response to the retractions, said he is “slowly fed up with the fact that allegations are always being made without providing evidence.”
Although nine protesters were hospitalized with injuries, not all of those injuries were due to police actions. In turn, 102 police officers were injured, with nine of them unable to return to duty.
Some Twitter users also compared the protests in Lützerath to the extreme violence used against those protesting against Covid-19 vaccine mandates and lockdowns.
