NYT: Economy Slumps, but It’s a Bull Market for Protesters

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/04/world/europe/04iht-protest.html?_r=1&ref=weekinreview

By STEPHEN CASTLE
Published: April 3, 2009

STRASBOURG — Galvanized by an economic crisis, demonstrators are once again targeting international summit meetings, bringing violent protest politics back to Europe this week after a lull that lasted most of this decade.

Europeans who remember the street clashes that marred high-level meetings in 2000 and 2001 are getting a vivid reminder of the way that populist anger can boil over into ugly demonstrations against institutions symbolic of the excesses of greed and power.

Here in Strasbourg, near the German border, police used tear gas and rubber bullets Thursday night to combat protesters who destroyed phone booths and bus stops, set rubbish on fire, and attempted to erect barricades ahead of a meeting of the NATO alliance. The police detained 300 people and were still holding about 100 of them Friday.

A day earlier, as world leaders met at the Group of 20 economic summit, anti-capitalist protesters snaking through London’s financial district engaged in a bloody confrontation with riot police after some smashed their way into the Royal Bank of Scotland.

Security forces in Strasbourg, bracing for further trouble, have mounted a massive operation, deploying 9,000-10,000 policemen and locking down large areas of the city, while around 3,000 anti-NATO protesters are camped in a tented village 15 kilometers away, about 10 miles.

FULL story at link.