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Police operation failed: 1000 people injured
After the mass demonstration started peacefully there have been massive riots in Rostock. According to most recent information 433 policemen and 520 demonstrators were wounded. The situation got out of control after police tried to arrest alleged rioters.
As reported yesterday, after the demonstration had begun peacefully, there were some heavy clashes with the police. According to the police an attack against of one of their cars was the reason for taking action against the suspect. The policemen were then heavily targeted with stones, bottles and fireworks. There were also a few molotow cocktails fired towards the police. The police did not act in a systematic way and charged into the demonstration again and again. Some of the people who threw stones were driven into the crowd of demonstrators who were watching the concert. Small groups of policemen stormed into the crowd and were quickly surrounded . During this time there was a hail of stones falling onto the police but since they were surrounded by mostly peaceful demonstrators they couldn’t do much. Some mummed people continued hurling stones in the direction of the police regardless of the peaceful participants. Many people were injured by these actions, some were seriously hurt. The police initially was not able to get the situation under control. At first it actually only calmed down when the police withdrew. Apparently some people from the so called “Black Bloc” even took up the pursuit.
Because of the behavior of the police during this time not only these especially aggressive youths but more and more people took part in the hassle. The reports of the press saying that whole streets were ravaged although had to be rejected. The riots were only in the harbor area. The stores in the window shopping area “Kröpeliner Straße” and the McDonald’s restaurant located only a few hundred meters away were completely unaffected. A reporter from CNN correctly declared that the material damage was relatively small. The violence was almost completely directed against the police. But also some banks and sparsely private property was damaged and cars were set to fire.
Escalations during reclaim the streets – party
Near Doberaner Platz up to 150 people had a rts-party. A few streets away small groups of people had built small-sized barricades and a sunshade was set to fire. When the police arrived they were attacked with stones and firework. Even though these events had nothing to do with the completely peaceful party, the police evacuated the street.
During this time the small groups of barricade builders had long left the scene. Even though there were almost no people around Doberaner Platz the police thought it was necessary to station water guns and an armored clearing-vehicles nearby. The police marched through the streets in groups of up to 50 but it stayed calm. Already during the night the police was accused of acting in a disproportional way and for attacking a journalist without reason.
More pics: http://de.indymedia.org/2007/06/180359.shtml