When we left the centre we saw cops sweep past the IMC in an odd formation, almost like they were on exercise. It was made even stranger by the fact that they were also on the bank of the river. It seemed like a real sweep of the area - not just looking for gproups of protestors to harass.

Then they formed up along several side streets to the main street near the IMC. We went around them and then they moved into the main street that connected to the bridge, where they formed lines with water cannon and brought in reinforcements. This was really weird as there was no one around! We thought they might have been waiting for people from small demos to get pushed towards them, but this did not happen.

However, many people came out of bars, shops and flats in the area to see what was going on. Bear in mind they have said people must not be on the streets when the cops are taking any action... some crowds began to gather, then there were several cars full of masked up plain-clothes cops speeding around at very high speeds, plus several vans skirting around close the IMC.

As if this wasn't enough, they then brought in two fire trucks, then more cops with full riot gear and gas guns. Then they told poeple to disperse, and everyone was thinking what the fuck it this about...

- do they want to attarct people so they could diperse them?
- do they want a riot?
- do they want an excuse to raid the IMC?
etc

All very odd indeed. Then we met someone (who we trust to be 99% reliable) who told us something similar had happened one hour earlier, except that when local people came out of the bars to watch, the police attacked them with batons.

Then it got even stranger... we went for a walk around to try to figure out the situation. There were lots more plain-clothes cops speeding around in cars. When we got back to the scene most cops had gone, pushing south from the river bridge and there was a fire engine using hoses to wash the pavement, hosing down a street corner. As we walked towards it our eyes got very irritated and our skin began to burn a little - not like the usual gas we have experienced over last few days, something different. So we were thinking, what is this about? Our eyes and skin felt so odd that we left before we reached the scene and before we could ask the fire crew what was up.

As we were walking away, three car loads of cops wearing full balaclavas sped past, one stopped just in front of the fire engine. They jumped out of one car and grabbed someone, and the other two skidded to a stop right next to the fire truck and jumped out. Then another car load saw us and pointed at us and we decided to leave very quickly. So that was the last we saw...

I cannot undertsand what was going on - provocation of locals perhaps, but because of the fire truck hosing the street and the large number of balaclava-clad cops it was very wierd. It seemed like either the police had

- lost the plot;
- were enforcing the announcement that no one should be on the streets watching them in action;
- were trying to provoke people into rioting;
- were trying to provoke people specifically near l'Usine (a big tactic over the last few days has been to either push protests towards l'Usine, or to send cops around l'Usine to scare people away);
- were dealing with some kind of special security alert that has been kept quiet.

This might seem paranoid, but no one we spoke to (about 15 different people from corporate journos to locals) could account for this behaviour.

It's also worth noting that the police really did not like the criticism they have had, or the calls for their chief to resign after fucking up the cop actions so much and causing the people of Geneva to rebel -- then they banned any form of protest here, and then banned people from observing the police. It's like a mini state of emergency - but it's a bit stupid since it's all over now...