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The consequences of #HambacherForest: No cops during fascist march in #Dortmund – #Reul launched propaganda show

Yesterday police forces in Hambacher Forest violently evicted a sit-in blockade, injuring several people. Last night fascists marched in two districts in Dortmund, there was almost no police because almost all riot squats are serving energy giant RWE in Hambacher Forest. At the same time the fascists were marching the rest of Dortmund police was busy with a propaganda show, North Rhine Westphalia’s (NRW) state ministe of interior, Herbert Reul (CDU) was their guest.

Published by Enough is Enough. Written by Riot Turtle. Image above a screenshot from a video made by @Korallenherz: Fascists in Dortmund last night.

Note: Enough is Enough is not organizing any of these events, we are publishing this text for people across the US and Europe to be able to see what is going on and for documentation only.

On Wednesday evening NRW state minister of interior Herbert Reul announced a temporary stop of the eviction operation in Hambacher Forest. Reul announced the pause of the eviction after a journalist fell down from a plank bridge during the police operation.

Although there were no evictions of tree houses since Reul’s announcement, cops continue to provoke people in the forest, clearing barricades and beating people with batons. Hambacher Forest activists asked the cops to let them grieve in piece, but instead the cops sabotaged a minute of silence to commemorate Steffen on Thursday. The minute of silence was broadly announced, so the cops knew what they were doing.

About an hour before this clear provocation, the cops also cleared barricades on the road to Lorien, a part of Hambacher forest that is not evicted yet.

During the night hours RWE employees and Cops kept mourning activists awake in tree houses with noise of a generator that gave electricity to flood lights that were pointed on tree houses.

As if all these provocations weren’t enough, NRW state minister of interior Reul, stepped up the psychologial warfare by announcing that the tree houses will be evicted after the “pause”. Reul also exploited Steffen’s death for his services to RWE capital by motivating the eviction saying that the tree houses “are to dangerous.”

During Thursday’s minute of silence, the cops confiscated a security line of an activist and gave her a ban for the premises as she wanted to join the minute of silence. Confiscating security lines and climbing gear basically means that cops continue to bring people’s live in danger after the tragic death of Steffen one day before. Cops actually did not only confirming that they confiscated climbing gear, they also confirmed that this is the normal procedure when they catch somebody with climbing gear.

A journalist also confirmed that cops are confiscating climbing gear regurlarly (tweet below).

Many journalists are going on the trees because cops again and again hindered journalists who work on the ground. Steffen said in a video he tweeted (tweet below) one day before he died: “After the press was often restricted in their work during the last few days in the Hambach Forest, I am now 25m up on Beechtown to document the evacuation work. There is no barrier tape up here.”

On Friday cops continued to prepare the eviction of Lorien. They started that operation about 10 minutes before a press conference of activists, which was held about 5 kilometers away from the police operation. The cops knew many journalists would leave the area to visit the press conference. The cops came to clear barricades and mono- and tripods from the road that leads to Lorien. The cops motivated the operation with the argument that they need the road as an emergency exit. That motivation was smashed by officials of the fire department on the spot who said they have enough space for emergency cases. After that cops stopped the operation, but that was too late for several people who got injured from police violence in the morning hours.  In the end the cops came about 50 meters closer to the Lorien occupations.

In the night hours it became clear what happens when a police operation with around 3500 cops is serving capital interests of energy giant RWE. In Dortmund around 100 fascists took the streets and marched in Dorstfeld and Marten. According to eyewitnesses there were only 3 cops to protect people from the fascists. But they (the cops) never protect people from fascists anyway. It might have been a few more, but the few cops on the street were not able and police authorities not willing to cope with the situation. The fascists could do whatever they wanted. Dortmund is a stronghold of the fascist party “Die Rechte” and the cops know that many of them are militant far right activists with a criminal record.

Almost all riot squats are in the Hambacher Forest and the cops don’t seem to have capacities anymore to protect people from fascists. But well… if they have capacities… they also don’t protect people from fascists, so that’s not something new. But usually it is not as visible as it was in Dortmund last night. The cops in Dortmund also launched a big propaganda show at the same time the fascists were marching last night. Of course NRW state minister of interior, Herbert Reul, was also present. The CDU politician wouldn’t miss a propaganda show of his puppets in uniform. While the fascists were terrorizing two neighbourhoods in Dortmund, cops in Dortmund confiscated 20 kilo of tobacco that wasn’t taxed. The cops also searched Sisha bars when Reul was visiting them. They found things like a door that wasn’t safe enough in case of a fire. The propaganda show was accompanied by Dortmund police authorities on Twitter, using the hashtags #NullToleranz (zero tolerance) and #livedabei (live present).

The behaviour of Reul and the cops in Dortmund and Hambacher Forest makes clear that serving capital and cheap propaganda shows are more important for them, than the job they say they are doing. They don’t protect people, they don’t serve people, they fight against people in places like Hambacher forest and leave people alone when fascist are terrorizing their neighbourhood. The cops and Reul seem to be willing to escalate things even more. Organize yourself and Fight back!

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2 thoughts on “The consequences of #HambacherForest: No cops during fascist march in #Dortmund – #Reul launched propaganda show”

  1. Just a citizen

    Instead of a comment here a link for the all the police men and women out there involved:

    http://www.beamten-magazin.de/information/beamtenrecht_und_verfassung/pflichten_der_beamten

    (Trigger warning: text contains passages about “unrestricted personal responsibility”, a.k.a. “conscience”!)

    And as a legal notice: the constitution of Germany ALWAYS puts the protection and safety of LIFE before that of personal property…

    Reply
  2. klak

    Why complaining about cops not being there (to protect you fromt he fascists)?Really sad…There was a time that fascists couldn’t take the streets cause they were simply beaten up by a strong autonomous/anarchist movement. What happened? …

    Reply

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