Nearly one year after the eviction of the neighbouring houseproject Liebig 14, our project Rigaer 94 and the squatbar Kadterschmiede got attacked by cops.
On 28th of January 2012, a demo against a police congress and the urban operations-conference in Berlin took place. At night there was an after-demo soliparty in Kadterschmiede which is located in Rigaer 94.
Before the party had even started, the area was already swarming with cops. Soon the usual quarrel with the cops at our gate to the street began. It is not unusual that they try to get into the yard and cause some trouble. At first, they were held back by our outer gate as always.
But then they tried to find other ways into the house, climbing over walls and sneaking through basements. They got through to the front door of Kadterschmiede and started to destroy it as well as the entrance door to the living space of Rigaer 94. At first they didn’t get very far becausebehind the doors there were barricades awayting them. Meanwhile they sprayed tons of pepper and teargas into the house and emptied fire extinguishers into the stairs in front of Kadterschmiede. Some people were close to being suffocated.
The cops finally snuck through adjoining basements into Kadtschmiede and opened the barricades from the inside. They beat down and ran over the first people they met and threw some people down the stairs. They also broke into two flats of the living space of Rigaer 94, where they beat, pepper-sprayed and arrested many people. Some of the arrested ones had to stand outside in the bitter cold to await their transport to the police station for a long time. On their way in and out of the house they damaged doors, windows and many other things. The cops didn’t let any lawyers through to us and also most of the press had to stay well away from the scene.
In all this trouble and chaos, there was great solidarity form many people and places. Some other parties in Berlin that night were interrupted and people mobilised to defend Rigaer 94 and Kadterschmiede. Many small groups of people were running around in the area causing trouble to the cops, smashing banks and starting fires. The cops were also partly obstructing themselves: they argued about how to carry out orders and tried to instruct each other on how to do their job – at least something to laugh for the arrested people in the house. We assume that the cops had planned and prepared this attack beforehand – they parked up in the side streets before the party had even started and knew the architecture and rat runs of the house very well – but from this point of view they acted rather stupid and could have done a lot more damage to us.
In the midst of all this crazy shit it was amazing to experience all the solidarity and support. Many thanks to the ones who took to the streets, who awaited us with hot soup and warm words when we were released from the police station and had already started fixing up the house when we returned. We call out to everyone to fight back against repression and keep fighting capitalism!
For a self-determined life and free-spaces!
Defend Rigaer 94!
