Violence in Rostock

  I have been reading the reports and watching videos on the violent clash yesterday between police and about 1000 Autonome (militant anarchists) which marred an otherwise  peaceful demonstration of about 50,000 protesters. CNN is reporting that over 400 police officers were injured, as were 520 demonstrators.

ROSTOCK, Germany (Reuters) -- Organizers of anti-G8 demonstrations and the media on Sunday condemned violent clashes between police and a hardcore group of militants in the German port city of Rostock in which 1,000 people were injured.

A peaceful demonstration involving tens of thousands of diverse protesters was marred on Saturday by the worst street violence seen in Germany for years when hundreds of black-clad activists bombarded police with stones and torched three cars.

Police used water cannon to disperse the militants who left a trail of destruction in the harbor city, just days before Chancellor Angela Merkel hosts the Group of Eight (G8) leaders in the nearby resort of Heiligendamm for their annual meeting.

The demonstration was organized by the anti-globalization group ATTAC, and the group has published a statement condemning the violence on its Web site. Already the media seem to want to pile on ATTAC for stupidiy and naivite (Biedermann und die Brandstifter) in not distancing itself enough from the militant groups; and German interior minster Wolfgang Schäuble now looks like a hero for his unconstitutional surveillance actions against the G-8 Summit protesters. But at least one first-hand account I've read - by the Christian pacifist writer and journalist  Peter Bürger  - would seem to indicate that the police needlessly escalated the situation, and in the process injured a number of peaceful demonstrators.

Comments

[Johannes]

My question is, how do you feel one should reconcile police presence with the possibility of escalating violence? Essentially: too many police and the violent 'hard-core' of the demonstration will revolt; too few and the 'hard-core' will be empowered and misuse that liberty. Do you see a way out of this conundrum?