Police Storm Usine Cultural Centre in Geneva

Monday June 02, 2003 00:10

by hydrarchist - slash.autonomedia.org

Police raid at Usine, Gneeva

After the blockades on the bridges in the early morning and whilst the demonstration was going on to the French border France, scattered confrontations took place around city. From mid/afternoon the police maintained a heavy presence around 'L-Usine' (a cultural centre on the river), scene of previous clashes on the saturday night. Several hundred people were hanging out talking and drinking on the Place des Volontaires, blocked from leaving in the direction, and the situation oscillated between high tension and relative calm. Some time around seven the Usine kitchen brought down food to feed those in the square. After having spent all day in the Geneva03 studio I went down to have a look at the situation on the square. As I was standing near the front door a group a group of men dressed in casual street style clothing, many wearing sports shoes, bloack trousers jeans or shorts combined with T-Shirts and hooded tops cleared their way through the crowd and made straight for the entrance. The only thing identifying them as cops were their pink armbands marked 'police'. Each one was armed with a telescopic baton and most concealed their faces by means of bandanas, small gas masks over their noses and mouths. A group of twenty people blocked the door and some people working in the Usine tried to calm the police. They turned around for a moment and made as if to try the other side but almost immediately pivoted, their numbers incresed now to 15/20, and they proceeded to beat their way through the crowd. First people were thrown and pushed, then batoned, then came the shock/grenades and more blows with german tonfas. Several people were injured and we attempted to escape by the side of the building.

By this time police had entirely flooded the area, and as I slipped throgh the encirclement I saw another van full of plain clothes cops dismbark and prepare themselves for action. Thereafter more vans of cops arrived accompanied by German water cannons. Eleven people were arested: four women and seven men.
More in a few minutes. Rioting is ongoing in diffuse parts of the city.