Photo Gallery A Desperate Situation
A Black Bloc protester faces off against a water cannon in Hamburg's Schanzenviertel district on July 7. Massive and violent protests have raised serious question about the city-state government's preparedness for the G-20 summit.
Some have criticized Hamburg for the police's use of brute force and lack of de-escalation techniques that could have diffused an explosive situation. Police deployed water cannons and beat protesters with Billy clubs.
The German government has gone easy on the city government, including Mayor Olaf Scholz (left), in part to deflect attention away from Chancellor Angela Merkel, who was instrumental in picking Hamburg as the site of the summit of global leaders.
The summit was held near Hamburg's Schanzenviertel, an area that has been plagued by left-wing extremist violence for years. Many observers say the protests and violence that happened last Friday night was to be expected. The protester here is throwing a wooden bench onto a burning barricade. Police literally lost control of the Schanzenviertel for two hours, leaving local residents at the mercy of Black Bloc extremists.
For two hours on Friday night, police were justifiably afraid to enter the area. "Serious injuries should be expected should the police advance," an informant in the Schanzenviertel reported.
One officer claims that Hamburg Police Superintendent Hartmut Dudde sought to "provoke the Black Bloc so there would be cause for intervention."
Police in Hamburg literally collapsed in exhaustion after being stretched thin by the many protesters. "The risks and the side effects of such a summit were known from previous such meetings," says Jörg Radek, the deputy national chair of the police union GDP.
The violence in Hamburg has fueled uneasiness in Germany, where the government has lost control in several high-profile cases in the past two years: the refugee crisis, the mass sex crimes committed at Cologne on New Year's eve at the end of 2015 and the December 2016 terrorist attack in Berlin.
