ATTENTION: Report still in process - this line is not deleted until this report is finished.
Detailed #NoG20 Analysis:
G20 turns Hamburg into a lawlessness police state
Freedom of demonstration sufficiently abolished – Freedom of the press intentionally disregarded – Human rights trampled underfoot – Medical help stopped – Massively lied to the public – Court judgments ruthlessly ignored – Countless people hunted, abused and injured – Bending the laws and arbitrariness by court and judiciary – Media reports sufficiently one-sided – An objective G20 balance sheet looks different
By Thomas Occupy. Frankfurt, 4th to 8th of July, 2017. Forwarded, I must say that the entire protest against the G20 summit in Hamburg was so diverse and confusing that it seemed impossible for me to write even a half-way comprehensive report. The same applies to the violence of the police and civilians as well as to the hindrance of paramedics, media and legal representatives, demo observers and the countless citizens of Hamburg and all the tourists who dared to enter the city despite the summit. It was also impossible to experience all the situations personally, so I need to take a look at the pictures, perceptions and opinions of others in some parts of the report. Parts of this report are outside my presence in Hamburg. In this report, I will focus on the facts that are often swept under the carpet in the current unilateral violence debate on the G20 protest. More than 1000 sources and references, unfortunately mainly in German, I have looked and examined in weeks of analysis. Despite the scope of this analysis, the presentation of the events had to be shortened in many places, in order to allow an easy-to-read presentation of the events surrounding the protest against the G20 summit. Only sources whose authenticity is known to me will find input into this report. All third-party factual descriptions correspond with the probability of actual events. To avoid a false impression, it should be pointed out at this point that the plundering of shops and the flaring of cars is just as reprehensible as the violence of the police against paramedics, journalists and peaceful demonstrators. The large number of events highlighted here and the resulting questions and conclusions draw a disturbing picture of the legal status of the Federal Republic of Germany.
Prepared ambush against demonstration "Unlimited solidarity instead of G20" at corner Brandstwiete / Willy-Brandt-Strasse.
In advance Political and police representatives were already trying with very far-fetched projections of street violence to criminalize and split the protests. The media supported these intentions by constantly asking questions about the condemnation and demarcation of violence among the speakers of the protest. At the same time, an extensive ban on the protests was made to keep as many people as possible away from protesting. Unfortunately, this strategy has been partially succeeded. The BUND led to a split within the protest, which had previously spread across the spectrum. Campact, DGB and other organizations joined this split in order not to be thrown together with the "mucky pups". Rather than mobilizing together for a large final demonstration, from the “splitting groups” was called for a demonstration for the Sunday before the G20 summit. Spokesmen of the #G20Protestwelle told media that they had nothing to do with the violent protesters of the #NoG20 alliance and thus denigrated even the tens of thousands who, despite provocations and police attacks, clung to their contentwise protest, and also under the unlawful and violent action of the police troops, did not lead to active counter-defense. The call of Hamburg's parties and others, who under the slogan "Hamburg shows attitude" organized a separate rally on the last day of the G20 summit, was to be recognized as completely schizophrenic. The impression of protest was to be aroused, and served only to prevent as many of the citizens as possible from the actual protest. Both splitting demonstrations, however, did not have the intended attraction.
Journalists mistreated - Ignoring press freedom - Reporting partially banned
Even in the run-up to the G20 summit, ignorance of the basic right of freedom of the press took place. Without justification accreditation was denied to various journalists. During the summit, to 32 other journalists the accreditation were revoked; with 9, the accreditation card was confiscated by police at summit security area entrance points. Initially, the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) did not want to give any concrete information on the exclusion of journalists (http://faktenfinder.tagesschau.de/inland/gzwanzig-journalisten-bka-101.html). Days later indications came out, that the press freedom for some media representatives was restricted due to foreign wishes (https://www.tagesschau.de/inland/journalisten-akkreditierung-101.html). Finally, the BKA justified the withdrawal of accreditations towards the "German Association of Journalists" (DJV), reason was, that a complete monitoring of these 32 journalists was not possible within the security area (https://www.djv.de/fileadmin/user_upload/18.07.2017_Antwortschreiben_BKA.pdf). Through this process, it was only now known that for more than ten years certain journalists were supervised by German police officers, if necessary. This was nothing unusual, but had already happened more frequently, was mentioned by security circles (http://www.sueddeutsche.de/medien/pressefreiheit-journalisten-werden-offenbar-seitteen-jahren-beobachtet-1.3584288). The legitimate question arises as to what the BKA understands by freedom of the press. Full monitoring of media representatives is usually known from China or North Korea. Added to this is the fact that journalists were partly severely hampered by the police during the protest. Deliberate crimes against journalists by the police are clearly documented. If even the DJV on Twitter asks: "Has the police targeted hunting for journalists around the G20 summit?" (Https://twitter.com/DJVde/status/884342849306865664), then the most naive and gullible citizen must also ask whether here, the freedom of the press has not been overridden in many areasand this planned and forcefully. Who now is unfaithful about such claims, not know what to believe, can easily make his own picture in a collection of sources:
- German journalists' association e.V.: "My press card was chipped away and police struck my stomach, pepper sprayed my face." This is the tweet of a journalist who became a victim of the police at the protest camp in Entenwerder. That he could prove himself as a journalist seemed to be of no importance to the police. Under the Twitter hashtag #Entenwerder is to read from further infringement on journalists. https://www.djv.de/startseite/service/blogs-und-intranet/djv-blog/detail/article/ohne-mass.html
- neues deutschland, newspaper: Police also beat journalists in Entenwerder. https://www.neues-deutschland.de/artikel/1056130.polizei-pruegelte-in-entenwerder-auch-auf-journalisten-ein.html
- Huffingtonpost, newspaper: Flo Smith reports under the title "The press is no longer safe at the G20 summit in Hamburg" from police attacks against its own team. http://www.huffingtonpost.de/flo-smith/die-presse-ist-hier-nicht-sicher_b_17434624.html
- Hans-Jürgen Burkard, stern- photographer: (Report on 2 targeted attacks by the police against him - 1x water cannon with Photo - 1x pepperspray) http://www.stern.de/panorama/stern-crime/stern-fotograf-hans-juergen-burkard-keine-polizeigewalt--herr-buergermeister--das-stimmt-nicht--7539418.html https://mobile.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10154873725767677&id=613002676&_rdc=1&_rdr&refsrc=http%3A%2F%2Ft.co%2FvXlsv9Ckwr
- Martin Eimermacher, journalist: My arm was thrown away with the press card. With blows and footsteps, we were almost encircled. I've called several times, I'm from the press, I want to get out. And then I only felt pepper spray in my face, which was sprayed on us from a maximum of half a meter away. http://www1.wdr.de/daserste/monitor/sendungen/g-zwanzig-gipfel-100.html
- Unicorn Riot, video: Police attack the press with batons, punch cameras, and break equipment during the NoG20 "Welcome to Hell" protests in Hamburg. https://twitter.com/UR_Ninja/status/883312293026693120
- Unicorn Riot, video: Unicorn Riot journos were hit 22x by water cannons, pepper sprayed 8x, hit by batons 3x, cameras attacked 3x, tear gassed 4x, & more https://twitter.com/UR_Ninja/status/886680038573309952
- Perspektive Online, newspaper: Our reporters have been massively attacked by the police Hamburg with pepper spray. https://twitter.com/PerspektiveOn/status/883386157043781633
- Chris Grodotzki, multimedia journalist & photographer: Police just peppersprayed me at point blank range in the face. second time they put me out of business today. fuck this shit. https://twitter.com/visrebel/status/883811039200116736
- Wiebke Harms, journalist: Policeman over my press pass: "The shit is not worth anything." Superior understanding of democracy! https://twitter.com/Doubleyoueiebke/status/883343645872709633
- Christoph Hedtke, (photo-)journalist: That was bad. Rarely seen so violent. Not only on protesters, but also targeted punches on medical staff and journalists. https://twitter.com/c_hedtke/status/883037117202391040
- Christoph Hedtke, (photo-)journalist: It escalates again. Direct truncheon hit from above to the head of a journalist. https://twitter.com/c_hedtke/status/883229492294144000
- Christoph Hedtke, (photo-)journalist: It was again the special forces USK. The hit came from behind on the unprotected head of a signed journalist. https://twitter.com/c_hedtke/status/883232819702583296
- Sören Kohlhuber, journalist: Thuringia's special forces SEK is targeting journalists with G36 guns to drive them out. https://twitter.com/SoerenKohlhuber/status/883449024745021441
- Danny Hollek, journalist & photographer: Policemen have threatened journalists yesterday with G36 guns. https://twitter.com/dannytastisch/status/883607068132786176
- Tim Lüddemann, journalist: The police Hamburg arbitrarily denied access to the park Entenwerder, also journalists like me with press card. https://twitter.com/timluedde/status/881528225553412097
- Erik Marquardt, photographer: I have shown my press accreditation to a policemen. He said, " I don't give a shit, piss off here." Then he kick me. https://twitter.com/ErikMarquardt/status/883457770942541824
- Erik Marquardt, photographer: Goofy for the policeman, that 1700 people in the live stream watched, as he shouted at me and took me the mobile phone. https://twitter.com/ErikMarquardt/status/883832582596644866
- Ruben Neugebauer, photojournalist: Policeman: "Press freedom ends now." https://twitter.com/RubenNeugebauer/status/883445005230243840
- Frank Schneider, chief reporter: Police are also aggressively targetting journalists in the event of riots of the "G20 Welcome to Hell" demonstration, complete escalation. https://twitter.com/chefreporterNRW/status/883029040550096898
- Frank Schneider, chief reporter: Bavarians police forces are running complete mad at the edge of the clearance of “Schanze“, attacking uninvolved and reporters in a targeted way! https://twitter.com/chefreporterNRW/status/883443176211701760
- Frank Schneider, chief reporter: Policemen attack journalists directly at “Schanze”: "From now on, there is no freedom of the press anymore, go off or you go to the hospital! https://twitter.com/chefreporterNRW/status/883445804744278016
- Streetphoto, photojournalist: Colleague was peppered tonight with the comment 'fuck no matter whether you're press' in the face. Result: two hour hospital https://twitter.com/streetphotoSE/status/883468792206159874
The police - your friend and helper - or sadists and violators in uniform?
Perhaps a provocative question, but the almost unbelievable number of already documented and still under investigation illegal incidents through the police forces within the framework of the #NoG20 protest raise questions. Does the training of the police aim at integrating unnecessary use of force as an automatism into the action of the police? In the context of such a situation, is there any targeted internal reporting within the Police Office to incite officials on the street? Are sadists and perpetrators tolerated or even encouraged within the police? None of these questions can be answered within the framework of this article. One thing, however, is quite clear: within the muffled and anonymous mass of unmarked operational groups, a violation of legal requirements is particularly easy. A successful prosecution of illegal police force is rather unlikely and evidently not wanted by the Ministry of the Interior and the police leadership. There is no other credible opinion to explain why the operational groups does not have an individual marking. Some federal states have a labeling rule, but this is, if at all, satisfied with a small, long and difficult to recognize number series. An easy-to-remember number, similar to an license plate, is currently in use with almost no police unit. Hundreds have already been reported in the area of attacks against protesters and uninvolved persons. For this reason, only a few, particularly crass examples are explained in detail in this article. Further evidence of police attacks (all groups of people) around the G20 summit are collected here:
Videos of ruthless police violence
A man tied with cable ties is dragged across the ground by the police like a dead animal. In the video you can see that additional pepper spray is used against the bystanders. In addition, the attached discussion thread shows how the Hamburg police comment such human-despising scenes (https://twitter.com/PerspektiveOn/status/883421298856251394):
- Marder @Bockwuarscht, July, 7: "@ PoliceHamburg like this you go with demonstrators? You have lost any dignity."
- Police Hamburg @ PoliceHamburg July 7: "And what has the person done before?"
- Fabster @Fabster_LE July 7: "The answer with what she did before shows what you are ... lousy thugs."
The photo of the woman on the sweeping tank already went through the press worldwide. In the video https://vimeo.com/224833926 you can see at 04:28 that the woman climbs on the tank and that the police immediately attacked her massively with pepper spray, without being attacked by her. It is true that the Hessian Ministry of the Interior promised to do preliminary proceedings against its own units deployed there. Whether this will lead to a conviction of these police officers remains to be seen, but is more than questionable in the current German legal practice.
The police claim to have been massively attacked by stones and bottles from the demonstration "G20 Welcome to Hell". With this representation, the public is deliberately lied to justify the illegal and disproportionate police violence. Four videos from the beginning of the demolition of this demonstration show, that the police attack the demonstration without stones or bottles flying. This only starts after the police had already used batons, water cannons, CS-gas and pepper spray and did not stop to act violently against everything and everyone. It is also clear that the water cannon is also used against uninvolved people. Nearly at the same time, an attempt is made to water gun a photographer down from the. At least the attempted negligent killing can be attributed to the police here.
The fact that, contrary to usual practice, the registration of this demonstration was confirmed by the assembly authority without any conditions, is worthy of special mention. That is why many had foretold that this could only mean that the demonstration will be not allowed to start. In fact, this demonstration was massively attacked by the police after only a few meters. The journalist Martin Jäschke writes that at a press conference of the police, the police head of operations Hartmut Dudde claimed that the escalation in the "G20 Welcome to Hell" demonstration began by simultaneous bottle throws against the police officers. He contradicts this description: "Colleagues and I (between the black block and the police) experienced this differently: bottle throws firstly, when the police marched into the demonstration." (https://twitter.com/jaeschko/status/884020022670225408). This presentation coincides with my observations and is also confirmed by other journalists, including:
- Channoh Peepovicz https://twitter.com/Resis_Tante/status/884021678262673408
- Margherita Bettoni https://twitter.com/MargheBettoni/status/884038038543900672
- Philipp Löwe https://twitter.com/DonLejon/status/884041737311846403
A very detailed analysis of the "G20 Welcome to Hell" demonstration has been written by the "Initiatives against police violence Berlin" and comes in its analysis to the clear conclusion http://ikgpg.blogsport.de/images/170706_g20_polizeiangriff_demonstration.pdf: "When we summarize all the available information, only one possible reading remains: In the case of the very violent police against the front part of the Welcome to Hell demonstration on 6 July 17, the police and their leadership went about it, to hurt, injure, traumatize and intimidate many people from this part of demonstration and to prevent them from further protests in the future." The evidence about the actual progress of police operation against the" G20 Welcome to Hell" demonstration leaves only a few questions open: Did the police make a criminal offense because of jointly intentional serious bodily harm? And is there a willingness in politics and the judiciary to clarify this question without prejudice and to prosecute the wrong committed by the police?
Further only briefly commented videos with police violence – timestamp in () :
- Police group in case of jointly intentional serious bodily harm. https://youtu.be/4wFx2CiVMZc
- The water cannon is used against demo medics while treating injured persons (00:20). https://vimeo.com/225553235
- Police are pressing helpers with batons (00:06). https://youtu.be/BS24aeE_nig
- Several policemen with batons abusing individuals. https://twitter.com/ststeindl/status/885077833852301313
- Armed special forces are targeting journalists (00:21). https://twitter.com/jaeschko/status/883815912398348290
- A policeman gets out of the car and with no reason hits a person (00:08). https://twitter.com/berti_fox/status/884046639513686018
- Policeman comes around the corner and with no reason hits a person (00:05). https://twitter.com/fcmc_tv/status/883696815496978433
- Police group rushing into a group of people, while beating anyone (00:10). https://twitter.com/polizeigewalt20/status/884103716458070017
- Demonstrator wants to videograph police - fist in the face (00:16) https://youtu.be/ihy12ChguNI
- Policeman beats person with raised hands brutally in the ribs (01:21). https://vimeo.com/225546198
- Police beat up 2 young women. (The situation related at 01:18 https://youtu.be/24u9AzkaBSI) https://twitter.com/timluedde/status/884771370902671360
- At the beginning of the video, a massive water cannon against protesters, then a demonstrator is beaten four times with a beating stick until she falls to the ground (02:13). https://youtu.be/2wP_MgYmRoY
- Policeman bump press photographers to the ground without warning (01:03), then the press is pushed back by the police (e.g., 01:50). https://youtu.be/ZYtS0M7OofM
- Rushing policeman kicks with full force on the ground lying protesters. https://twitter.com/frmzck/status/883564977583517697
- Targeted water cannon attack on journalists, apparently to destroy the equipment (08:30). https://youtu.be/2xqYCPVVvzU
- Announcement of the police: "Camera off, otherwise I take it away from you!" (03:25). https://youtu.be/KGH8U10oIaY
- Police want to snatch camera and pepper spray on photographers and bystanders. https://youtu.be/Cjg2KPobrTA
In view of these examples, the statement made by Hamburg's mayor Olaf Scholz (SPD): "There was no police violence, different presentation is a denunciation which I decisively reject." (http://www.ndr.de/nachrichten/hamburg/Scholz-Polizeigewalt-hat-es-nicht-gegeben,scholz1300.html) in the week following G20 appears like a mockery. Does he want to sell the Hamburg citizens for stupid or why is he lying so shamelessly? If Olaf Scholz himself believed this, one would have to doubt his sanity. In any case, it is a shame for Hamburg's face in public perception. The fact that about 100 cases of police violence and violations of fundamental rights are documented at the G20 summit speaks for itself. On June 19th, the interior committee of the citizens of Hamburg met. There, police president Ralf-Martin Meyer said that the demonstrators at “Schanze“ were armed with iron lances. Just funny, that there is not a photo and not a video recording of it. So one must assume so far, that the head of the Hamburg police has shamelessly lied to the internal committee in order, to distract from the excessive police violence something. In the same score, the police officer Hartmut Dudde suggests, that the police operation went well and bends the number of policemen injured during G20 up to 709 in an act of creative empowerment. Dudde himself had spoken at the closing press conference on July 9th of 476 injured. The fact that even this smaller number is farfetched, shows BuzzFeed in its analysis (https://www.buzzfeed.com/marcusengert/bei-g20-proteste-weniger-polizisten-herswer-als-gemeldet). Only a few were injured by the influence of demonstrators. The largest number is due to dehydration, circulatory problems, "friendly fire" by own irritation gas, or individuals were simply bungling to exceed a simple fence.
Only 21 officers were not able to serve the following day, and officially only two officers of the federal police were seriously injured. The Hessian Ministry of the Interior has also been esspecially perfidious with its reinterpretation of reality. The 130 police, who were injured by their own irritation gas, were quickly re-declared as victims of the demonstrators. First, the radio “Hessischer Rundfunk“ reported, that dozens of Hessian police officers were hurting themselves when they wanted to go with tear gas against G20 opponents. This had led to eye tears and reddening, according to a police spokesman (https://www.taz.de/Was-fehlt-/!5428147/). The next day, a spokesman for the interior ministry explained that summit opponents had used the gas (http://hessenschau.de/panorama/130-hessische-polizisten-durch-reizgas-leicht-verletzt-,polizisten-traenengas-100.html). It is only a matter of fact that at the press conference with police president Ralf-Martin Meyer and the police head of operations Hartmut Dudde, the alleged big attack, which is responsible for nearly thirty per cent of all G20 injured policemen, was not mentioned. A large-scale irritation gas attack by militant demonstrators would probably be unique in the German demonstration history and is more than unlikely alone by the equipment required for this. That the authorities have at least been partly fictitious with the injured numbers can be can easily prove by a reply from the Hamburg Senate to a written question by the member of assembly Christiane Schneider (left party) (https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/3901063/Kleine-Anfrage-Schneider-Verletzte-G20.pdf). There the number of Hessian police officers injured by irritation gas is indicated by 77, while the Hessian Ministry of the Interior speaks of 130. From the originally officially reported two seriously injured police officers were here nine, of which however only seven were treated in stationary. Where are most seriously injured policemen treated on an outpatient basis? That something is not true is obvious.