At around 1pm, our Blue group reached the intersection with Friedrich-List-Straße via Lommatzscher Straße. Friedrich-List-Straße was blocked by the police, blocking our way towards the WT-Arena and the registered demonstrations. On the one hand, the police overtook us on the left and blocked the road towards the train station. On the other hand, we were directly attacked on the right by the police with shoves and punches to the face. They tried to force their way between us and the fence, which they failed to do as there were many demonstrators standing there. It was not clear why the police used such massive force here, and there were no requests from the police to us. The police units involved were from Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Schleswig-Holstein. The distraction was apparently used to block our way back via Lommatzesche Strasse with Hamburg bars.
The golden finger came via Friedrich-List-Straße from the direction of the train station and joined up with us, as the police were blocking this street with only a few forces. There were also members of the multi-coloured group. We were then surrounded from three sides, with occasional violence from the police. Further police reinforcements were called in from the direction of the station. Police officers from Thuringia were also involved in the following actions. In the minutes that followed, our side announced a demonstration march towards the station, as the police set up a massive threatening backdrop. At around 1:30 pm (the police said it was 1:20 pm), they issued the first warning and an expulsion order and threatened to use force to clear us out. The instruction was that the assembly should disperse in the direction of the station. The second warning from the police sounded no more than five minutes later with the time “13:32”. This was checked by us and was correct. A maximum of five minutes later, the third warning sounded. Some of us left the intersection in the direction of the train station. Immediately after the third warning, the eviction took place: the demonstrators were pushed together with massive police force from two sides of the intersection towards the street, so much so that some of us felt short of breath. Then we were roughly pushed and shoved against cars, fences, thorn bushes, lampposts and parked police cars towards the station. Many were kicked from the front and back with knees and boots against shins, calves, backs of knees and buttocks, even though we were moving on our own. Some fell, but those who followed continued to be pushed onto them. No consideration was shown for the injured either, cries and calls for paramedics were ignored and met with even more violence. Some police officers shouted and goaded each other.
We, a small two-digit number of people, were separated from the majority of the demonstrators by a closed police chain and pushed forward and against the fence between the police cars and the fence in a chain of one. Objections from us that we could go forward ourselves and not go any faster were answered several times with even stronger shoving and verbal humiliation and threats. In general, the situation was very chaotic and we were constantly shouted at. One policewoman (32/12, helmet symbol yellow on the left, green on the right) shouted: “You’ve got it too damn good!” while pushing a straggler. Demonstrators who did not resist were also grabbed by the back of the head and neck and pushed forward. An obviously limping person with two supports was physically and verbally harassed. Here, too, many of the police appeared to be out of their head, for example with their staring, wide-open eyes. They really enjoyed inflicting senseless violence on us. From about halfway along the route, the police violence subsided somewhat, and pepper spray was still used occasionally.
We perceived the whole situation as an extreme experience of violence. What was particularly bad for us was the impression that we were not perceived as human beings but were being herded towards the station like cattle. The massive violence even after the intersection had been cleared, when we were already trying to retreat to the station, was also shocking. The worst thing for some of us, however, was to see how much the police officers seemed to enjoy using violence. They apparently enjoyed it immensely and acted as if in a frenzy, behaving like empathiless violent offenders in uniform for whom physical assaults are no longer just a means to an end, but the end in itself. Given the extent and nature of the violence, it is clear that this brutality against demonstrators from democratic civil society is structurally anchored in the police force and is either ignored or even approved of and practised. We demand that politicians clearly distance themselves from such police violence and hold those responsible to account. As we were also victims of Thuringian police officers, we expect a public apology from the Thuringian Minister of the Interior Georg Maier, the will to clarify the situation and the willingness to prohibit such (presumably planned) police violence in advance in the future. For those of us who have experienced all this, our trust in the police has been destroyed. If they don’t want to establish themselves as a state organ of repression in the service of the AfD, they should change the way they behave and deal with democratic protesters and the police representatives responsible should apologize publicly.
An additional perspective can be found here: https://www.tagesschau.de/inland/regional/sachsen/mdr-auf-heimweg-aus-riesa-panik-verzweiflung-menschen-schieben-um-attacken-der-polizei-zu-entgehen-100.html
Come to our departure meeting tomorrow for the demonstration against the 
By train to Riesa on 11 January ✊
