arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)

After the d14 march on Friday in Brussels ended up at the convergence space the cops blocked off one of the roads ahead with a water cannon and a line of riot cops - the first major police action of the day.

At first they let people out fine, but after about 45 mins they had sealed the other roads ahead and behind solidly with lines of riot police and more water cannon. They then reinforced the remaining smaller line as over 30 riot vans and 4 more water cannon waited around the corner.

Soon they pushed everyone off the streets outside and inside the gates of the convergence space - inside were thousands of people. Then they brought water cannon right up to the gates and started firing inside the open courtyard soaking loads of people in well sub-zero temperatures. For one horrible moment it looked like we were about to see another genoa diaz style massacre as the 30 vans came hurtling down the road (luckily this never occurred).

While all this was going on many people thought 'fuck this I'm getting out of here!' Venus was one of these people. With a few others they made their escape from the area but were chased by plain clothes cops who bundled them into an unmarked police car...

One of the cops was really insane and they were driven around crazily for like half an hour through backstreets and to places were other plain clothes and undercover cops were hanging out - weird and a bit scary.

They kept asking what the hell was going on, if they were being arrested etc and all the cops would say was "It is not for you to understand!". When Venus told them she was here for the peace march the following day, the nutty cop snapped back "There is no place for peace in Brussels!"

Eventually after being threatened with deportation for trying to shout out of the speeding car window to some friends they were dumped back near the convergence space, but the cops refused to give back her pink heart banner - the thieving spoilsports...

A funny story but a serious illustration. These people were lucky, many were grabbed off the streets and held for 12hrs under a low level 'administrative' arrest, but of course were still identified and photographed for inclusion no doubt to the protestors database, and may find themselves prevented from travelling to other protests despite never being charged with anything (as has happened to some people beaten and deported after the diaz raid in genoa).

Many other people were quickly deported, sometimes en mass, even before the main demonstrations started. Others were violently pounced on by undercover cops who were dressed in black and masked up.

The legal team from brussels worked very hard, but the cops stopped co-operating with them on saturday - if anyone is still missing please contact the legal team or imc belgium to let them know the details. The legal team will soon produce a report on the number of outrageous arrests, detentions and deportations which seem to go hand in hand with any large protest now.

Given that these kind of police and state tactics (which fully breach Article 6 of the EU Treaty and others) are so widespread now, many people are rightly worried about how they will act when all of the new european wide anti-'terrorism' measures, that obviously seek to target protestors, come into force and start being used.

For info on the latest legislation about to be brought down on to the heads of protestors check http://www.statewatch.org

Peace.

oh boy, I wonder where they keep your big heart? in an isolation cell perhaps..
and is Brussels really no place for peace?
I think that cop took the matter a little bit too personaly. He must have big difficulties in his own private life.
Maybe his divorcing his wife and not having the right to see his kids, or maybe his own son participated in the d14 manif.
He's certainly overstressed as most policeman in this city (big chiefs and commanders not included offcourse).
give the man a break and some days off, so he could refind the meaning of love and peace in his own life.
And for our pink Venus: let him keep your big heart, it could chear him up once and turn him into a peacekeeping copper (as they all should be!)

love don't hate