Security in Heiligendamm
June 19, 2007
The week of the G8 summit has been one of the most exciting weeks for the residents of Rostock. It was the biggest event in Rostock this year. This event required a lot of security measures.
It has been the biggest police operation in Germany ever. 16.000 policemen were stationed in Rostock. On June 2nd the biggest demonstration of the G8 summit started. The demonstrators were escorted by a lot of security squads. They walked down to the harbor. There was a concert presented by “Attac” and about 70,000 people celebrated peacefully. But by mid-afternoon some members of the so called “black block” began to riot at the harbor. They threw stones against the police. Altogether the demonstration claimed 1000 injured people: 500 policemen and 500 demonstrators.
On Saturday the police followed the “de-escalation tactic“. They tried not to be involved in the demonstrations. But this failed on June 2nd. After this disastrous day the police began to act faster against rioting demonstrators. On Saturday and the following week they were much more attentive. All over the place you saw only green police uniforms. There were so many policemen. I couldn’t believe how many they were. All in all they coped with the situation.
The second big security action, the fence, was also a big “success“. The demonstrators were not able to break down the fence. Only some members from Greenpeace tried to overcome this security installation. One day a hot-air balloon turned up in the sky. The demonstrators tried to get into the barred zone of Heiligendamm. The police forced the demonstrators to land the hot-air balloon. The second incident was a motorboat which attempted to get over the barriers in the sea. They were triumphant until they were picked up by a huge motorboat from the police. That was one of the most exciting moments in the G8 week for me.
All in all the security measures were really effective. The police did a good job and reacted as fast as possible in fuzzy situations. Owing to a lot of police operations the charges for the G8 summit could be about 30 million euros more some politicians said.
written by F.L., 11.06.2007
