Hamburg, Germany( CNN) Julia Reusing stood teary eyed under a strip of halogen illuminations in Hamburg's red light district as the late summer sun's lingering light turned to dusk.
Standing in front of the 27 -year-old Frankfurt native on Thursday evening, were a group of anti-capitalist protesters — frustrated after their “Welcome to Hell” demonstration was interrupted.
Police, who had contained the crowd with tear gas, pepper spraying, and water guns, said they were responding to violent protesters, known as the Black Bloc, who had shown up with their faces and heads altogether encompassed.
Reusing said the police would have intervened regardless, use any small incident as a catalyst to shut the protest down.
“If this is all we can do just for showing our opinion and devoting a statement — and if the nation forces are just shutting us up … I entail what kind of state do we live in, ” she said.
