[kj] Blindness

[Tim Bucknall]

Don't Blame the cops, blame the troublemakers who's stupid actions have lost
us the right of protest

On 15/06/07, Change <crackedmachine at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:

>

> A LIVERPOOL man was blinded in one eye by a police

> water cannon as he

> staged a protest at the G8 summit in Germany.

>

> The 33-year-old from Aigburth spoke exclusively to the

> Daily Post of

> the horror and pain of being directly hit in the face

> with the

> powerful jets by officers he claimed were using the

> crowd control

> devices as weapons.

>

> The protester, a member of Liverpool's Social Forum,

> is suffering

> from shock and witnesses to the incident, which

> occurred at the

> protest in the Baltic Sea resort of Heiligendamm on

> Thursday, said

> they saw his eye come out of its socket.

>

> Speaking last night from the Eye Unit at the Royal

> Liverpool

> Hospital, the victim, who wishes only to be called

> Matt, said a CAT

> scan had revealed he had sustained internal bleeding,

> extensive

> damage to his Iris and possible damage to his retina.

>

> Doctors have now told the keen reader, cyclist and

> amateur

> photographer, that he will face future operations,

> cataracts, and

> glaucoma.

>

> They told him that because of the internal bleeding it

> would be

> between six to eight weeks before they could assess

> the damage to his

> retina but warned that permanent harm had been caused

> and that he

> will never fully regain the vision in that eye.

>

> Matt said: "I went to Germany to take part in a

> peaceful protest and

> to be honest at the start of the day there was a very

> jolly, almost

> carnival, atmosphere.

>

> "There were three lines of police and all of a sudden

> things got more

> aggressive.

>

> "There were a few baton charges so all the protesters

> just linked

> arms and stood firm. It was all still very peaceful.

>

> "I have never seen water cannons before and all of a

> sudden there

> were eight or nine of them. The police made an

> announcement in German

> but none of us understood it and then we were fired

> at.

>

> "I was knocked to the floor at first and then when I

> got up I was hit

> right in the face.

>

> "The pain was incredible. My eye had come out and I

> just ran off

> holding it to find an ambulance."

>

> Matt was one of seven protesters and a German

> journalist who were

> taken to Rostock University Hospital with eye

> injuries.

>

> He said one protester had also been knocked

> unconscious by the water

> cannons and another suffered a perforated ear drum.

>

> Matt added: "They were using water cannons as weapons,

> which they are

> not supposed to do.

>

> "Their actions were deliberate and vindictive and

> completely

> unnecessary.

>

> "I went there to express my feelings peacefully as I

> am entitled to

> do. What they did to me was absolutely dis- graceful.

> Doctors can't

> believe what they have done to me.

>

> "The German activists we spoke to said they have never

> before seen

> the police use this type of water cannon or fire at

> people heads."

>

> Matt added that he was going to take advice about

> suing the German

> police and will campaign for a stop to water cannons

> being fired at

> protesters' heads.

>

> Liverpool Daily Post - June 11th

>

>

>

>

>

> INTERZONE

> http://www.augustineleudar.110mb.com/Interzone.htm

>

> RTX, Kristin Hersh, Githead, Shellac, Michael Gira & the Dirty Three

> interviewed here:

> www.perfectsoundforever.com

>

> Polysics interviewed here:

> www.cultcargo.net

>

>

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