Tonight the police crossed another line. In a long succession of curbing the rights of protesters, the Utrecht police joined ranks with other police squads by violating the protesters' rights.
[[After very violent police repression and injuring of our comrades, we call on everyone with increased urgency to join the demo tomorrow at 12.00 in Utrecht against the Kraakverbod. JULLIE WETTEN, NIET DE ONZE. JULLIE REPRESSIE, NIET ONZE.]]
We need you all!
From the beginning of the protest the police was very repressive and wanted to minimize the protesters' actions. At first there was no sound aloud. Torches were not allowed either, only at certain streets. The protesters even agreed to these restrictions, but the police kept on pushing.
At the Vrouwe Justitiaplein, when demo was about to end, the police wanted to force the protesters to turn off the sound system, which wasn't very loud at that moment. The protesters were about the leave and wanted to walk back to the center to end the demonstration in a peaceful way.
At that point 10 to 20 police men jumped on the wagon (bakfiets) with the sound system and started hitting the people around it. Many people got hit by police bats. During the confusion that ensued, two police horses rode through the protesters, and injured some people. One police woman forced her horse unto some stairs, after which the horse fell on its side.
The group was split in two, but we regrouped around the corner. The police kept on following and pushing us. On the other side of the street we saw the police driving away with the wagon (bakfiets) with sound system: "Fietsendieven"! The group was walking back to the center and because of the police violence the group was shouting " No Justice, No Peace, Fuck the Police!" which the police apparently didn't like.
At Neude the many police officers and secret cops arrested another person from the back of the crowd. The group ran back towards the arrested comrade, but there was too much police for us to rescue him. Then the group was attacked again, and another person (who was accused of throwing something) was arrested. The people who carried the coffin were attacked by the police and took some blows. Police with dogs chased the rest of the group away.
The remaining group of people walked to the ACU, where around 8 secret cops "waited" for us but quickly walked away from the other side of the street.
We want to end with a note of advice to the young comrades at the demo, some of whom seemed to be a bit inexperienced. When the group was attacked and tried to regroup, many people were walking around as individuals; some in between police, some on the other side of the road, and all with big gaps in between the protesters. This highly increased the risk of more arrests. We don't blame our comrades, but hope they might learn from this experience and don't take this as negative criticism. We know the situation was chaotic and people might panic at such a moment. But staying closely together and form a compact group is essential at such a moment; don't talk to the police, there is no use in that. Stick together and take care of the comrades; make sure everyone gets home safe. See you tommorow comrades!
[[After very violent police repression and injuring of our comrades, we call on everyone with increased urgency to join the demo tomorrow at 12.00 in Utrecht against the Kraakverbod. JULLIE WETTEN, NIET DE ONZE. JULLIE REPRESSIE, NIET ONZE.]]
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