Begin forwarded message:
> From: "geert lovink" <geert at xs4all.nl>
> Date: Sun Jun 1, 2003 5:54:05 PM America/Chicago
> To: "Nettime-l" <nettime-l at bbs.thing.net>
> Subject: <nettime> police is breaking the doors to l'usine (G8/geneva)
> Reply-To: "geert lovink" <geert at xs4all.nl>
>
> (via florian schneider)
>
> please forward!
>
> from the independant media studio from geneva where all different media
> activists from all over the world are reporting life from the G8
> protests
> around evian/ genf / lausanne. the police is rioting the building
> right now.
>
> please watch it and please forward it - every public is urgently
> needed!
>
> police is breaking the doors to l'usine. we are locked in the indymedia
> center. please watch the live stream and support us:
>
> http://www.geneva03.org/static/live.ram
>
> thanks
>
> ---
>
> IMC Dispatch Geneva, 01.06.2003 23:50
> Eyewitness account of someone who has just come from Usine.
>
> this is an eyewitness report from someone who has just come to the
> dispatch
> center from Usine. All afternoon and early evening, there was some
> rioting
> that moved toward the Usine. At the beginning it was in the Rue
> Basses, and
> then it moved toward the Usine, in front of the Hotel de Finance along
> Quai
> de la Poste. Local activists had been erecting barricades in front of
> the
> Hotel de Finance. All windows of the Hotel had been previously damaged
> the
> day before. This gave the police an opportunity to close off the
> Usine. They
> blocked the access roads, but there were always people sitting in
> front of
> the open space eating and drinking and socializing, and the situation
> was
> calm. And soon after the people's kitchen brought out the food (around
> 7:30), someone said that there were plainclothes police coming. They
> wore
> street clothes and masks: gas masks, bandannas over their heads, hoods
> over
> their heads, and some had helmets. They came in an orange van that said
> Police. There were canton police from Zurich and Geneva, but no German
> police. They were armed with collapsible (telescopic) steel batons
> (which
> are illegal for policemen to carry in Zurich). There were activists and
> people from the Usine in front of the Usine, trying to close the door
> to
> keep the police out. People made human chains outside the door. Police
> immediately started beating people with their batons, without warning.
> They
> came running in, screaming, and beat people immediately. Two people
> bled
> from their heads. Then this eyewitness was beaten on his arm and fell,
> and a
> woman fell on top of him. After a moment, she got up and ran away. This
> eyewitness followed her to the river. On the way there were riot
> police with
> "tonfa" batons, and they were hitting people who were running past
> them, but
> not very hard. This eyewitness was clubbed. He heard stun grenades,
> (a.k.a.
> percussion grenades or concussion grenades). There are photos of these
> grenades, which have to this activist's knowledge not been used before
> in
> Switzerland. Then more and more police came, in police trucks, army
> trucks,
> and police cars. They pushed the people further and further away from
> the
> Usine. This eyewitness saw some people being taken away from the Usine
> in
> police buses. At the side entrance of the Usine, inside the Usine, the
> police were smashing doors to break them open. There is film of this
> from
> several sources. This eyewitness was standing in front of the side
> door on
> Rue du Stand and a police man who was on the staircase smashed a
> window for
> no reason. The glass fell on the people who were standing outside. The
> policeman appears to have done it just for fun. Police led some people
> out
> of the Usine and take them away in police cars. The legal team and
> journalists were allowed to go close to the entrance to watch this.
> This
> eyewitness went around a corner until the police moved away. One
> strange
> thing was that one of the police officers who was leading the troops
> had a
> rainbow-colored badge that said "Pace." He was not very aggressive.
> When the
> police broke in, they offered no warrant. They did not open any
> dialogue
> with the people who were in and around the Usine. It was an ambush.
>
>
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