This Thursday 3rd of August, 2017, in the morning, the cops have broken the doors of several rented and squatted houses in Florence, Rome and Lecce, to arrest eight anarchist comrades from Florence.
La Repubblica (Italian mainstream newspaper) says it’s the result of an investigation made by the DIGOS (Division of General Investigations and Special Operations) and the antiterrorist Italian police, regarding two events. [Read More]
At 6:30am on 3rd May antiriot police and carabinieri squads coordinated by Digos and ROS, stormed Asilo Occupato, the squats on Corso Giulio Cesare and Borgo Dora and two houses in Turin and Barge; the local media also mentioned raids carried out in Bologna and Cuneo, of which we have no confirmation.
The pretext for this repressive operation, which led to six comrades being arrested, is an alleged scuffle that took place outside Asilo last February at the end of a night event; the charges are kidnapping, aggravated damage and resisting public officials. Antonio from Lecce, Antonio Sardo, Camille, Fabiola, Fran and Giada were taken to the prison of Le Vallette, and there’s mention of an unconfirmed seventh arrest.
In the meantime, as the cops are taking it easy and don’t seem to want to go away in spite of the arrests made, we are calling for the squatters still on the roof to join the gathering on Corso Brescia, corner with via Alessandria. [Read More]
Heavily armed officers from the General Investigations and Special Operations Division of Italy (Digos) broke down the front door and invaded the Asilo Occupato (occupied asylum) building in Turin on Wednesday, arresting six activists.
Occupants of the anarchist-run space, located on Via Allesandria, in the neighbourhood of Aurora, resisted for several hours on the roof of the property before the raid. Carabinieri (Italian militarised police) also participated in the repressive operation.
Among the detainees are four Italians (Fabiola De Costanzo,Antonio Pittalis, Antonio Rizzo, and Giada Volpacchio), a Frenchwoman (Camille Casteran) and a Spaniard (Francisco Javier Esteban Tosina), who were detained as a “precautionary measure.”
The arrests are related to a clash with carabinieri guards that took place on February 28th in the vicinity of Asilo. Agents alleged obstruction and damage to a police vehicle as they prepared to carry out the identification of a “suspect” but were stymied by the arrival of 15 people who blocked them from doing so.
Asilo Occupato has been targeted by repressive institutions for months, which have issued several precautionary measures against people who visit it, such as a ban on residing in Turin or preventive detention. In December, eight people were arrested for “not respecting residence prohibitions” imposed on them in a major dawn raid. [Read More]
Summary by act for freedom – A suspicious parcel was spotted by a Digos patrol outside the premises of a fascist Casapound bookshop on New Year’s Eve. A bomb disposal expert called to the scene in order to detonate the device was seriously injured by its explosion. Shortly afterwards several anarchists’ homes were raided by the police in Florence and other areas in Tuscany. Prosecutors started an investigation for attempted murder.
Another operation, ‘operation Panico’, unrelated to the action against Casapound, was carried out by the cops on 31st January against 35 anarchists of whom 3 were put under house arrest and 7 were inflicted various restrictive measures. Villa Panico squat was also raided and closed down. The charge pressed with operation Panico is criminal association and refers to a number of episodes that took place in the city in 2016. [Read More]
Saturday the 19th of November a demonstration should have taken place at the Kerkplein in The Hague against the repression of anarchists and anti-fascists in The Hague and elsewhere. On the order of Hague mayor Jozias van Aartsen the police made the demo impossible through repression and violence.
The demonstration ended in a kettle and the violent mass arrest of 166 people. In our opinion this is completely unjustified. That’s why we have started to collect complaints about the actions of the police, which we want to submit collectively. If you were arrested, or were mistreated by the police in any other way, fill in the attached form and mail it to arrestantengroep070 [at] riseup [dot] net.
Did you not reveal your identity during your arrest? Then you can still file a complaint. In that case you can skip the personal questions, but fill in a made up name so we can easily distinguish the anonymous complaints. It is also possible to send the complaint via PGP. Send us a message with your PGP key and we will send you ours.
As far as we know no one has received a fine or subpoena until now. If you do receive anything by the police, please let us know asap via arrestantengroep070 [at] riseup [dot] net. [Read More]
Yesterday (19th of November) at 16:00, 250 people gathered at the Kerkplein to march in a demonstration against the repression that anarchists and antifascists in The Hague and elsewhere have been facing during the last few years. Repression such as constantly prohibiting demonstrations, and mapping the activities of anarchists and antifascists in order to implement repressive measures. This demonstration was also crushed with repression and violence from the police, per order of Hague mayor van Aartsen.
The demonstration was surrounded from the outset by the Riot Cops and was filmed by the police on all sides. Afterwards, the police ordered that everyone remove their face coverings because, “that was the agreement”. One thing is certain, there was no agreement made about this and this was also not in the notice that the police drafted listing the conditions.
It was immediately clear that the riot cops were just looking for an excuse to engage in a mass arrest, which also happened. The police kettled the demonstration and attacked the group. While the police were attacking the demonstration, they called on people to be calm; a prime example of the way The Hague police try to deescalate. During this mass-arrest, people were hit in their faces, an arm was dislocated, and several people had leg injuries. The police used chokeholds several times and the few people who left the demonstration after being ordered to do so were subsequently beaten. Eventually between 166-184 people were arrested. [Read More]
On the night of May 23rd, the police in Warsaw arrested three anarchists on charges of an alleged arson attempt of a police vehicle. The three were transferred to a remand prison where they are to be held in custody for three months, awaiting trial. They face up to 8 years in prison. Media frenzy broke out over the arrest in the past few days, with high-ranking politicians and experts on terrorism discussing the matter on TV. Photos and video reruns of the arrested walking with chains around their feet and hands are broadcast on public transportation. The text below is a translation of the statement that was sent out by various groups from the anarchist and wider social justice community in Poland, in response to these arrests.
Open letter in connection with the arrest of three anarchists in Warsaw
The mass media in Poland are releasing increasingly more absurd, one-sided reports about the arrest of three anarchists on Monday, May 23rd. We interpret this as an attempt to intimidate and criminalize social justice movements in Poland.
[Read More]
This afternoon April 12th, the latest Manba was evicted by numerous cops, we faced two arrests and police violence. This squat opening followed the eviction of Manba 2 (last week).
Manba was opened a few days ago on Rue Bel Air, in a building empty for several years. The opening allowed the continuation of events at Manba: welcoming migrants, collective workshops, political meetings, freeshop… This place also wanted to be a meeting point between struggles at this time of social movement.
The police turned up on April 12th and stayed for several hours in front of the building, occupied at the time by five comrades (including one arrested the evening of April 12th). An “expert architect” showed up to pretend that the building was dangerous, although it wasn’t sanctioned as dangerous or unfit. The eviction after 48 hours of occupation was therefore an illegal eviction. People came in support against the eviction, around 20-30, who were then violently handled by cops, so the numbers then swelled throughout the confrontation. After pushing back supporters, cops then completely blocked the street and access to the building, which they eventually entered, bringing out the occupants and proceeding to arrest one of them. [Read More]
Bailiffs, in almost identical uniform as cops, illegally smashed into Parker Street squat and evicted us yesterday. We had previously managed to defended our selves from security thugs who were trying to force entry and deny access to the building. We had held our own and reclaimed access after a scuffle. Cops were called (not by us) and eventually one bailiff was arrested after assaulting a comrade. However, the cops were more than happy to allow the security thugs to hide their identification even though this is against the law and the legislation was spelled out clearly for them. We thought cops were good at following orders!? During this commotion the wanna be cops bailiffs smashed down doors around the back of the building and illegally stole the building from us. Parker Street building has been restored to an empty building, aka a dust collector. To add insult to injury the bailiffs stole some of our possessions. Our Neal Street, Covent Garden squat was also evicted, earlier in the morning, and the cops arrested one of our SHA comrades, on false charges, resulting in another empty dust collecting building. An addition two SHA comrades were arrested that night, again on false charges, and have now been released as has the former arrestee. [Read More]
In this topic we will post updates on the people that were arrested in the Spuistraat eviction
On the 25th of March the Tabaksbanden in the Spuistraat got evicted. 16 People were arrested. As far as we know, they all got charged with public violence and/or breaking public order. All arrestees are in Zuid-Oost.
This morning 2 people were released. Updates on the rest of the arrestees will follow soon.
Arrestantengroep Amsterdam
Tel: 06-42413496
info @ arrestantengroep.org
Today, Friday the 16th, the building is not yet evicted.
The buildings on the Pieter Vlamingstraat 94-96-98 had been empty since 2008, when the tenants were kicked out. The demolition of these and other surrounding buildings started in 2009 with the exception of Pieter Vlamingstraat 98, where the owner of the coffeshop on the ground floor refused to leave. The original plan of De Key was to demolish the existing social houses for building luxury apartments for the free market. The neighbors protested against the plan, started a court-case and the project was eventually rejected. De Key then proposed to build both social and private sector apartments, but this was rejected as well. Eventually De Key proposed to build 145 apartments for students, and the projects got finally approved despite the opposition of the neighbors, who started yet another court case against De Key but lost it at the end of 2014.
In July 2012 a group of people squatted the Pieter Vlamingstraat 98 and the empty field that was left after the demolition of the buildings aside. These fields are quite common in Amsterdam Oost, where housing corporations like De Key, after demolishing entire social housing blocks, run out of money to complete the project and left only waste lands behind. At the time of the occupation, the state of the house was very poor. All the basic infrastructures were missing, and the structure of the building was rotting away. The squatters massively renovated the building to make it livable. Through these years more then 30 people have called this building ‘home’. A lively communally grew around it, and started a number of activities for the neighborhood such as a neighborhood garden (Roomtuintje Oostbos), a give away shop and a free library. [Read More]
Yesterday, friday the 25th of april, two cops were lurking through the Mühlfeldgasse in the 2nd district of Vienna at around 20hr. Shortly afterwards a group of people was attacked by the cops in front of the Pizzeria Anarchia squat. Like almost everyday, the viennese cops terrorizing our district were carrying out a racist control.
A bunch of people, who were attending a public workshop, decided to start an intervention in solidarity. This intervention was limited to asking for the reason for the control (it was a normal control), asking for the identification number of the cops (30967) and taking photos for documentation. The police was taking the controlled person with them. We tried to enforce that a solidary person can accompany the police car or at least to find out to which the person was supposed to be taken to. [Read More]
