the police raids and the kids riot (Hamburg, may 9th, 2007)

On may 9th, the police raided several radical-left projects in Hamburg and Berlin, and confiscated files, computers and printers. They claim to be looking for evidence of terrorist activities. In the last two years, a number of cars belonging to politicians and managers were burned with links to the G8 summit this year in Heiligendamm.

Later that day, thousands of people took the streets, protesting the police repression. 3000 in Berlin, 2000 in Hamburg, and smaller demonstrations in many other cities.

One of the raided projects in Hamburg was the Rote Flora. An autonomous culture center, that has been squatted since 1989, and will be one of the three convergence centers for the G8 protests.
At 7pm people assembled in front of the Flora to protests the earlier police actions. About an hour before the demonstration, the whole plaza in front of the squat was filled with 1500 - 2000 people.
The march lead through the streets of St.Pauli, with people linking arms to prevent arrests, with the police driving up 6 water cannon trucks, 2-3 clearing tanks, and surrounding the protesters in a very narrow espalier. Sometimes walking, sometimes running short sprints, to keep the demonstration lively, the march ended again in front of the Flora, when it started getting dark.
Some people dragged nearby construction fences onto the street. In response, the police attacked without warning and rather randomly clubbed into the crowd.
people defended themselves with bottles and fireworks, but got dispersed when the water cannons with the police reinforcements came. Small groups scattered into the side streets, throwing bottles, starting small fires, but by midnight the situation was calmed down by the police. For now, at least. More protests have been announced.

The police claims that 3 of their members got hurt, one passerby was injured and 8 people got arrested.