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Home > Campaign News > Perched on a tree ... the cops down below (updated 3 / 09)

Perched on a tree ... the cops down below (updated 3 / 09)

Friday 2 September 2011

All the versions of this article: [English] [français]

As of this Friday morning, the trees at the Elisa Mercoeur park (near Bouffay, Nantes) are occupied by ten opponents to the métropole Nantes-Saint Nazaire project, namely the airport of Notre-Dame-des-Landes. The cops soon arrived on site, having seemed to have received orders to intimidate us. In two waves, twenty people who were present on the ground were violently arrested as they sang, distributed leaflets and installed a picnic. Most have been released, but at least three are still at the police station. At 7pm, their companions were still in the trees, but soon firefighters and the police climbing team were present on site. Around 9pm, the riot police charged at the people on the ground while their comrades in the trees were being removed.

UPDATE September 3rd :

The three people arrested in the morning have all been released : They are accused of rebellion or aiding rebellion, and have been given court dates in May 2012. Following the charge by riot police in support of the people on the ground, around 9pm, two people were arrested after being severely beaten. At 13:30 on 3rd of September, one of them was released and also charged with rebellion; the other is currently still in custody. Around 9pm, the last occupants of the trees in Elisa Mercoeur park were finally dislodged by the climbing team, helped by a cherry picker and various Tazer shots. They were then immediately shipped off to the police station and quickly released, except one person - ’tazered’ several times while in the tree - still in custody at the time of writing. The repression of this occupation that was intended as a space for dialogues and meetings with the population of Nantes, demonstrates - once again - the willingness of those in power to silence, criminalise, divide and weaken the opposition to the proposed airport.Despite claims of democratic mandate, the airport development relies on baton blows0} : as always, the crackdown on all those refusing their world, whether by opposing their development projects or by participating in various resistance movements. Recently, Jacques Auxiette pleaded Prefecture "go karsh" the occupant of the ZAD-es : No complex, it calls for the suppression of the opposition movement. The events of September 2nd show that the prefecture got the message. We’ve taken note !The fight against the airport and its world continues, and we will not let ourselves be defeated by their democratic practices !

See the leaflet that was handed out