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05. 05. 10. - 14:00

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05. 05. 10. - 14:00

An encounter with Vienna police

Comment by Austrian Times reader Lionel Di Giacomo

I am an American touring in Vienna. I have stayed nearly two weeks now with some activists in the city, looking at churches and the like. Vienna has been beautiful to behold, but old statues and well kept gardens do not teach much about the living city. Some of my hosts were on their way to a demonstration and asked if I would like to come watch. I wanted to see something real about Vienna. I said yes. This was on 23 April.

We gathered at the University campus, a mishmash of students, punks and other activists. Once about 15 people had gathered, they began to walk towards the demonstration. The group was peaceful and heading towards the place of protest.

While crossing the street, the police suddenly came pouring out of vehicles I had not even noticed before. They blocked off the intersection and shouted at us to get against a wall. As an American with terrible German, I was completely confused. I luckily had my passport - but they were suspicious of me.

They would not tell me why they had stopped me and would not let me leave. They told me I was not allowed to take pictures, though I did get a few. They made me show them the contents of my bag and flipped through my notebooks. They took my first aid kit and examined it privately, deciding whether or not I had illegal drugs.

They became physical, at one point pushing one of the activists I was staying with. I straightened in surprise and officers moved to restrain me. Finally, after a great deal of waiting on the street without explanation, a female officer spoke with me very briefly. She made something up about my passport being out of order, which it is not, and recorded my name. I think there was a policeman recording the whole episode on video for some reason. After some more waiting, they returned my passport and let us go.

I was astonished at how aggressively put down the completely innocent demonstrators were, when they were not even demonstrating. It was a small group, obeying traffic rules and travelling to a completely legal assemblage of demonstrators. Just walking. If it is legal to assemble peacefully in Vienna, I would not know it after my experience. I felt like they could have taken me away and I had no rights at all.

Thankfully, they did not decide to detain me, but I will not be attending any more demonstrations in Austria - I am too afraid what the police may illegally do to me. I will just enjoy the beaten path, and be thankful I am not waiting for a court hearing for crossing the street.

Austrian Times

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