G20 Hamburg – Authorities Continue Violence on Last Day of Summit

Hamburg, Germany – On the last day of the G20 Summit, an estimated 200,000 people took part in a ‘Solidarity Without Borders’ demonstration and march. After the march, many thousands of people mingling in the St. Pauli neighborhood were met by riot police who used water cannons, tear gas, and beatings to disperse people from the streets, sidewalks, private businesses, and even open parks.

We walked with the ‘Solidarity Without Borders‘ demo and witnessed riot police flanking a group of an estimated 8,000 anti-capitalists for the duration of the march, as you can see in the video below.

The massive march had a large assortment of groups bringing their own messages of protest against the G20. The video below shows a huge pro-Kurdish contingent.

Unicorn Riot was live on and off throughout the evening, documenting the events on the street as they happened. Watch our summary of the epic street battles that happened the night before as well as the ‘Solidarity Without Borders’ march below.

The evening of July 8, 2017, German authorities, who had been reportedly raiding camps and checking IDs of non-Germans, detained a group of about a dozen or so Italians on the streets of St. Pauli to examine their papers/passports.

As the police formed a cordon around the detained Italians, dozens of people stood near and chanted in solidarity with the Italians. The Italians were eventually let go after about an hour of being detained.

Shortly after this encounter, as large amounts of people were in St. Pauli drinking and conversing, police made moves into the same streets that the night before were the site of intense clashes and resistance to police incursion.

Dozens of units of police, ranging from 12 officers to 100 officers per unit, started forcing people off of main streets, parks, and sidewalks as people ran for cover. Police beat back people at will, including patrons of nearby restaurants and bars. Some protesters fought back by throwing rocks, bottles, and fireworks at the lines of police.

Police water cannons were fired continuously throughout the night to clear streets. Schulterblatt Street was run through numerous times with water cannons and large units of police beating, pepper spraying, and tear-gassing whomever they came into contact with.

Deep into the night, thirty or more protesters sat down at an intersection near squatted Rote Flora and were blasted by water cannons for over five minutes. This brutal repression was a continual scene throughout the night.

By the end of the night two Unicorn Riot journalists had been beaten by police. One of our journalists was kicked and punched in the head while warding off baton hits.

All of our journalists on the ground suffered bruises and injuries from our coverage of the G20 protests, and all are healing and continuing to make media.

To watch all of the livestream videos from the night, see below:

See our G20 updates page here:

#NoG20 Protests: Live Updates from Germany


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