arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)

Right! Today was not so cool for me, despite the wicked strreet party which successfully pushed back police lines with the party power, of the magic truck sound system.

Principally I see my role as that of gathering information documenting police violence against demonstators.

I was working on the Anarchist march, where people dressed in black were smashing cars belonging to local people. One girl tried to stop this and unmasked a car smasher who then tried to attack her and had to be stopped.

Later there was more car smashing and one family called from their window to try and stop their vehicle being destroyed. The car smashers then proceed to thow rocks at this family, which included a child.
For me this behaviour is out and out facism nothing more nothing less.
Later on as I was filming, a masked up figure dressed in black ran up to me and with a sharp karate chop on my arm, snatched my camera and ran away. This person did not smash the camera but held on to it. Two of us pursued this person but failed to stop them.

Now this is unfair, I regularly put myself at risk to make sure there is footage documenting police misbehaviour. I cover evictions, and in fact covered the illegal eviction of the French protestors earlier this week..
So a message to the person who snathced the camera, please return it because this camera was on loan to me for the day and you are only damaging a media activist organisation.

Therefore if you read this and are not a blacked up cop or fascist, please have the decency to return the camera to:
Cine-Nova,
Rue d'Arenberg 3

or contact Belgium IMC at rue Lambert Crickx 30,

No questions asked.

I was there at the time it happened, and I strongly believe this was an undercover cop that was trying to get video footage of the demo.
I got to say that several people tryied to catch the guy, but he ran away (toward the poice lines which would be curious for a "black blocker"). Another guy seems to have been identified as an undercover cop at that time and he was kicked out of the demo, running very very fast.
I just got to say that as an anarchist, I'm sorry about what happened to you. Right before some comrades had to throw empty bottles at a half dozen group of undercover cops that just entered the demo. They ran away, but they seem not to have been the sole ones...