"I'm at the end" - an anonymous record of a G20 policeman
Their assignment at the G20 summit on the weekend in Hamburg was heroic. For days have thousands of police tried to protect the city from violent assailants from the autonomous scene? and went to their limits. Pictures of injured and exhausted officials made the rounds on the net and in the media. How hard this mission really was, a police officer told the 'stern'. On the sidelines of the protests, the 29-year-old reported:
I am completely finished, like all of us here. We have been working for 30 hours, with one and a half hours sleep on the cot in between.
We set up a kind of emergency supply at the jetties this afternoon because several colleagues collapsed. They were just too hot, they looked like after four hours of sauna.
One reason: The police suits weigh almost 20 kilos. Running in it and defending yourself? a show of strength for the women and men.
Another reason: the violent protests of the 'Welcome to Hell' demo at the Hamburg Landungsbrücken.
I was at the front of the demo yesterday when it escalated. Hard to tell if the boss's strategy was right to dissolve the demo on the spot. Anyway, that had a good bang, we had several injured colleagues.
Actually, we urgently need reinforcement. But they are all from Germany. We do not want to cry. But it will be tough until Sunday.
They persevered - even though some quarters of Hamburg at times resembled a field of rubble and offered the police plain hatred. At the end of the G20 summit, many citizens paid tribute to the tireless efforts of the officials.
