G20 Legal Team press group, press release #11, July 6th 2017

On the evening of July 6th the police has violently attacked the »Welcome to Hell« demonstration at it’s starting point at Fischmarkt in order to prevent any demonstration from happening. Both the protest rave the night before and the initial event this afternoon took place without any incident.

At 7 pm, by the time the demonstration was about to start, the police goon squads stormed with brute force into the crowd assembled. The people present were subject to severe beating by police forces using batons and in addition the crowd was attacked with pepper spray and water cannons. Apparently dozens of activist have been injured – some of them seriously. Up until 9.30 pm the G20 Legal Team has taken note of more than 50 arrests.

After the manifestation had been dispersed people regathered in neighbourhood districts in order to exercise their right to demonstrate. In some instances police vehicles drove at high speed right in the middle of such assemblies.

At the moment there is still all different kind of protest happening in the streets of Hamburg – the situation remains dynamic.

The police department of Hamburg under the command of Hartmut Dudde has pursued the escalation politics we have already been expecting after the aggressive propaganda campaign, which now ran for weeks prior to the events tonight.