G8 protests - State paid agent provocateur unmasked

During a G8 summit blockade near Bad Doberan, following repeated media warnings a so-called “agent provocateur” has been unveiled. This violence provoking state employee has sneaked into the peaceful anti-G8 sit-in action and instigated people to violent deeds.
Apparently, various activists have tried to hold back this still unmasked guy, who showed up his aggressive temper urging people around him to violence. But eventually some protesters identified this man in black with a policeman.
When the news about this man’s identity went round, activists literally mobbed him. The agent provocateur was freed by some Legal Team members from the mess he’d got himself into and handed him over to his police colleagues.
During the clashes between anti-capitalist globalization protesters and police it had already been cried out that violence by state paid agents provocateurs had massively contributed to the escalation of 2nd June in Rostock.

Source: Indymedia

Anyone got any photos of the guy?

Oh, and by the way… don’t forget to check out the up-to-the-minute reports being sent to Indymedia. Anyone wanna remind the German police that they’re beginning to behave a bit like the Nazis?

What’s next, concentration camps for the protesters? Gas chambers even?

The German cops would do well to remember who they’re actually protecting… the likes of Bush and Blair; the very people who deceived their countries into an illegal war upon a sovereign nation that had no real means to defend itself. Now what does that remind us of I wonder?

And let’s not forget the CIA’s rendition program and Guantanamo Bay.

These are the people that the German police are so conscientious in protecting from the legitimate protests of tens of thousands of ordinary citizens!

Protests, moreover, that if left unhindered would almost certainly just be probably very noisy but peaceful. At least no-one would be injured or killed by them - which is more than can be said for State-intervention policies!

When will the police finally realise that by using repressive tactics they merely provoke an escalation in the determination of the general public to have their voice heard?

Sample extracts from the Indymedia Timeline:

06.06.07 22:15
Legal update: So far 200 arrests have been made today, of which 60-70 were in a parking lot near the Rostock Laage airport. Two lawyers were not allowed through but, instead, warned that if they came back they would be arrested. At both detention centres in Ulmen and Industriestr., all lawyers were kicked out of the the lawyers room. An alternative media bus from Amsterdam was seized by police and the driver was physically forced to drive the bus. A Stern photographer was arrested for “inciting violence”.

06.06.07 19:15
The sit-down blockade in Hinter Bollhagen near Gate 1 has been forecfully dissolved by police. Protesters are withdrawing, some having been hurt by pepper spray and batons.

06.06.07 19:00
Police have announced that they will prevent food supplies to activists at blockades. Water and meals are not being let through any more. A doctor had requested that Disaster Control provide blankets for protesters as they face the provision of cold. Police, however, have not approved this.

06.06.07 18:35
Hinter Bollhagen: A peaceful sit-down blockade near Gate I of the fence, with approximately 100 participants, is being brutally dispersed by police. A water cannon is being used and cops are reportedly beating people up.

Footnote: protesters (at least in Germany) are actively prevented from wearing any form of protective clothing at all. Yet the cops are armoured, shielded, batoned, and generally “tooled up”. Now what does that tell us?

An open letter to the Press

An Open Letter to the Press Rostock, G8 2007:
There is Something Terribly Wrong Here

Here in Germany, as major protests begin against the G8, the world press is not looking beyond the story of the battle – a partial story at best – and asking how or why it is happening.

Summit after summit, we have seen the same pattern in the media. The images of black clad protestors hurling rocks at police, the stories of senseless hooligans—those whom the government says should be punished and locked away.

These stories and images of street fighting do nothing but spread fear, criminalize protests, divide social movements, and distract the public from the story of the G8 and their unaccountable polices that are spreading militarism, poverty, violence, environmental destruction and climate change.

It is easy to condemn those who throw a rock or burn a car, but most of what we are seeing in Rostock is police blatantly provoking violence, using that same violence to justify ever more heavy-handed repression. Each day we are experiencing constant harassment, searches and humiliation imposed on us in the streets and on bikes, trains and borders, with no evidence of crime.

According to an official statement 13,000 police were present in Rostock on Saturday – all were well-armed and wearing lots of protective gear. There were small bands of police running into crowds, pushing, shoving and encircling protestors in a legally permitted rally. We saw nonviolent protestors who were trying to de-escalate the situation bludgeoned with batons and pepper sprayed. We saw huge water cannons infused with toxic chemicals spraying indiscriminately. Why is the press not reporting these acts of violence by the police? If violence makes such good headlines, why does the violence of poverty created by G8 policy go un-condemned?

Perhaps we might begin to understand if we look deeper. We may see that such violent confrontations have become a symptom of social and economic systems that values property over life, prisons over education, sprawl over sustainability, borders over migration, war over peace. We might see that it is in the interest of the police and the G8 to have such street fights, to justify the 90 million euros spent on security (in Germany alone). We might understand that repression and the violence of police is designed to thwart democracy and silence dissent.

But we who oppose the G8 will not be silent and we not be stopped. We understand that things are terribly wrong and that without such protests our voices will not be heard at all.

For ongoing independent coverage of events near Rostock: de.indymedia.org

Contact:

* Lisa Fithian, Austin,TX / +49 17629799874 / fithianl(at)igc.org /
* Logan Price, Seattle, Wa / +49 16092437902/ logan(at)riseup.net
* Nick Simmons, Vashon,WA / technocrat.nick(at)gmail.com
* Causten Wollerman, Denver, CO / 303.748 0922 / causten.wollerman(at)gmail.com
* Eric Freeman,Minneapolis, MN / erriiik(at)riseup.net (speaks German)
* Ian Markson, San Francisco, CA / IanEMarkson(at)yahoo.com,
* Val Alzarga, Denver, CO / 31610647398
* Michal Asterweil, Chapel Hill, NC / 0049015774630929
* David Zlutnick, CA, davidzlutnick(at)gmail.com
* Brandon Letsinger, Seattle, WA, cascadianow(at)gmail.com
* Luke Rodeheffer, Rodchester, MN, unspunmedia(at)gawab.com (speaks German)


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License.