WEEK 19 April 29th to May 5th 2002

   POLICE BERSERK IN THE STREETS

   An army of Berlin policemen brutally attacked protestors in several German cities during today's May 1. demonstrations. Clad in heavy armor and armed with guns and water cannons they walked straight through rows of people, beating them with clubs and kicking them while they lay helplessly on the ground.
   In Prenzlauer Berg in Berlin where people had gathered around a campfire, the attacks were particularly vicious. The highest number of injuries happened here.
   - We weren't doing much, a protester says. - We gathered around a fire, like human beings have done for millions of years. We wanted the streets... we wanted Life to reclaim the city for at least a short while. The tyrants' servants attacked us almost instantly, like they had been waiting for an excuse. It's becoming fairly obvious by now that the time for peaceful protest is long gone.
   Angry protesters did strike back in several places, making at least some of the uniformed thugs pay for their crimes.
   60 policemen were injured. The number of injured protesters (and random, passing onlookers) is somewhere in the higher three figures.