G8: Star March banned again

* Total banned area for the Star March once again expanded
* Heiligendamm officer-in-charge known as violent
* Further interference by the police likely

The Star March coalition registered so-called 'substitute-events' on Sunday. This was to safeguard the right to demonstrate should a complete ban be confirmed by the federal constitutional court.

Yet just a half day later the special police department 'Kavala' also banned these events despite the fact that they were mainly outside the banned zones I&II. A demonstration in Kuehlingsborn is affected by this, as is a rally in Boergerende and a march from Bad Doberan through Steffenshagen to the National Motorway 'B 105'.
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The Kavala have exhausted all possibilities to block the Star March. It's registration was initially delayed and invitations to cooperation talks were rejected. It was only through the administrative court route that the Kavala had to
speed up.

"It is obvious that the police are executing political decisions in that state visits will not be confronted by dissenting opinion", summit opponents criticised."The duty of a police agency however is to facilitate assemblies, not to prohibit them".

The officer-in-charge for the section around Heiligendamm is Alfred Tilch of the Sachsen Anhalt standby police. Tilch is regularly appointed at the Castor-Transport protests in the Wendland area. There he permitted his units on several occasions to randomly batter demonstrators after the arrival of the nuclear transports and therefore after the demonstration. Furthermore he was reported several times for illegal police enclosures of demonstrators.

"The police will do as much as possible until the very end to block the Star March despite possible legal ratification", Hanne Jobst of the 'Gipfelsoli Info-Group' surmised.
In the past the standby police have been known to use tactics such as provocation at the start of or during a march, for instance the deployment
of snatch-squads. Expressions of solidarity by bystanders would then be used as an opportunity
to attack the entire demonstration.

The police already can ban a demonstration on the basis of actual 'danger prognoses'.
The legal route is then impossible.

Jobst is easy-going:"if possible at short notice the presence of a terrorist cell plotting to attack Ms Merkel with a cream cake will be divulged".

The federal constitutional court's decision is expected on Tuesday (later today).