Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Protester blinded by water cannon

Howie | 11.06.2007 07:50 | Liverpool

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

Howie
- e-mail: howardpaterson@onetel.com
- Homepage: http://www.myspace.com/howie_p

Additions

Comments

Hide the following 2 comments

They have always known water-cannon could blind us

11.06.2007 14:01

It will be small comfort to the latest victim of the G8 that he has good grounds to sue. They decided long ago our eyes were able to be sacrified to oppress dissent.

"Water cannon vehicles borrowed from Belgium have been used in Northern Ireland for the last couple of years, but medical evaluation of possible harm from the cannon’s jet is difficult.
Though there is an obvious risk of eye damage or injury from being knocked down by the water jet, Dstl is developing a system to measure forces applied by the jet on various parts of the body."

Danny
- Homepage: http://www.dstl.gov.uk/science_spot/shoot_to_stun.php


Water cannon

11.06.2007 16:55

are pumps.All pumps have a psi.Taking nozzles into account quite a considerable force is delivered,mountains have been moved by water cannon.

Fred


Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech