TODAY`S DEMO IN MUNICH HAS BEEN REPEATEDLY ATTACKED BY THE RIOT COPS. MANY PEOPLE HAVE BEEN ARRESTED.
I arrived in the city centre at 4 p.m. The streets are full of little green men. These are not aliens from outer space, but riot cops - hundreds of them. A small group of likely lads has mobbed up on the Marienplatz, but the cops soon surround them and force them to produce identification. Anyone who looks remotely like a protestor is subjected to police searches and harassment. Nothing appears to be going on here, or on the Odeonplatz, five minutes walk away. However, on the platz der Nationalsozialismus, I walk right into a major bundle. Several hundred protestors are fighing with the cops for control of the road. The protestors succeed at first but are driven back by the sheer number of cops. Two groups are surrounded and violently pushed away. I suceed in avoiding entrapment, which has more to do with luck than superior tactical awareness. There appear to be two kinds of cop - ones in green helmets and ones wearing black. The green helmets are not so violent and some are actually quite friendly. The black helmets are all vicious bastards, lashing out at anything that moves.
The fighting continues for about two hours as more protestors appear on the scene. Wave after wave of black helmets attacks the crowd, for no discernible reason. A tiny woman kicks a riot cop repeatedly up the arse. A man in an electric wheelchair pushes forward to get nearer the action. Amazingly, not a single object is thrown, in spite of the provocation. It seems as though two groups of protestors are kicking seven bells out of one another in the middle of the crowd. As I get nearer, I see that it is a group of undercover cops trying to arrest a man. The man is dragged unconscious from the crowd to boos and jeers. The riot cops drag him away like a sack of potatoes. More skirmishes occur, but now the tempo of the action is dying down.
The ring road has been closed to allow the NATO scum to get back to their hotels. The traffic is at a standstill. About 5,000 riot police remain in the city centre. More action is sure to happen on the main demo tomorrow afternoon.
The fighting continues for about two hours as more protestors appear on the scene. Wave after wave of black helmets attacks the crowd, for no discernible reason. A tiny woman kicks a riot cop repeatedly up the arse. A man in an electric wheelchair pushes forward to get nearer the action. Amazingly, not a single object is thrown, in spite of the provocation. It seems as though two groups of protestors are kicking seven bells out of one another in the middle of the crowd. As I get nearer, I see that it is a group of undercover cops trying to arrest a man. The man is dragged unconscious from the crowd to boos and jeers. The riot cops drag him away like a sack of potatoes. More skirmishes occur, but now the tempo of the action is dying down.
The ring road has been closed to allow the NATO scum to get back to their hotels. The traffic is at a standstill. About 5,000 riot police remain in the city centre. More action is sure to happen on the main demo tomorrow afternoon.
Comments
Hide the following comment
imc germany timeline
07.02.2004 13:21
munich yesterday
Deutsche Übersetzung
* 5 pm: At different places in Munich hundreds of people gathered for rallies. There are about the same amount of cops who control everybody who takes part (often a couple of times)
* 5:30 pm: the atmosphere is very tense, police very aggressive: demonstrators were pushed around. In at least one case a photographer was threatened not to publish his pictures
* 5.45 pm: There are three groups (each of 10 to 20 people) in the area Maximiliansplatz/ Place of the Victims of National-Socialism (PDO)who are closed in by the police. These groups had blocked the street at 4:45 pm. for about one minute where later the convoi of the participants of the conference passed by. The demonstrators were pushed from the street immediately.
* 5:45 pm: Relying on the legal team there were more than 30 people detained
* 5:45 pm: Meantime there are more than hundred people gathering for a human chain on the Platz der Opfer des NS to surround the Bayrische Hof (the place where the conference takes place)
* 6 pm: One of the above mentioned groups of closed in people are arrested.
* 6:10 pm: some skirmishes with police, at some points bashes in to the stomach and face
* 6:10 pm: At Lenbachplatz too people are gathering for a humain chain which is constrained by police using pepper-spray. All people in the three police circles at Maximilianplatz are arrested now and - as police said - soon removed. People arrested by bavarian police were treated with special brutality. There are reports about numerous injuries.
* 6:30 pm: One person collapsed and lost its consciousness after a bash with a police-club.
* 6:35 pm: On the PDO the rally with about 1000 participants takes place (relying on the Info-telefon). The rally on Lenbachplatz is dissolved. The human chain is heavyly constrained: People are picked out by police (with or without uniform); pepper-spray is used; the street is getting cleared.
* 7:15 pm: according to a speech, the rally was relocated to Odeonsplatz and is going to continue until 9 pm
* 7:30 pm: about 200 people gather at Odeonsplatz
* 7:40 pm: all 60 people remaining there were detained
* 7:40 pm: Tobias Pflüger was detained after his speech at PDO, released after 20 minutes. Reason was probably, like last year, the content of his speech
* 9:00 pm: approx. 100 people disturbed Struck (german defence minister) and Rumsfeld at dinner in a Kaefer-Restaurant. After police arrived, 20 persons sat down on the ground, approx. 15 persons were detained
* 9:00 pm: according to police-sources 166 persons were put under "freedom depriving methods", according to police-sources only 500 people were at the demonstrations and a police-press-speaker said: "we were more", the Human Chain could not be built, 3-4000 Policemen and ?women were on duty. The detainment of Tobias Pflüger was not confirmed by police.
* 10:00 pm: Police confirms 175 Freedom-Deprivements
indykid