Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Eviction round Schijnheilig: Brides are pissed!

In solidarity with the people of Gallery Schijnheilig, white rebel brides wanted to join the protests against the eviction of this great place. That Tuesday, July 5th in Amsterdam started like the way it was intended: peaceful, creative and colourful - with musicians, neighbours, squatters, sympathizers and other groups who want to make a clear statement: "We support Gallery Schijnheilig!". With music and dancing people the energy was great that early morning...

But then the police arrived and the picture changed dramatically: The police entered the street, pushes the brides aside and what we faced with was terrifying: brutal police violence. The police blindly smashed into a group of people with all the power at their hand. The word 'disproportionate' doesn't even get close in describing their tactics. Not to mention the pointless arrest of 150 people afterwards...

Police and politics (Mayor Eberhard van der Laan and his coalition of PvdA-socialdemocrats, VVD-liberals and Greenleft) made the choice to use this strategy of extreme violence. The mainstream media follows them by representing squatters as dangerous. Put these two things together and we can only conclude that there is a clear goal to criminalize squatters and all the others that don't fit in their narrow-minded system.

As brides we might look sweet and fluffy - but now we are pissed!!!

- E-Mail: rebelact@ddh.nl Website: http://www.rebelact.nl

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