Free Republic

Raging street battles that marred Germany’s G20 summit have sparked a political fight over how Hamburg could descend into “mob rule” and why Chancellor Angela Merkel chose a hotbed of leftist militancy as the venue. Germany’s top-selling Bild daily was withering in its condemnation of the chaos that saw far-left and anarchist radicals torch rows of cars, loot shops and hurl rocks and bottles from burning barricades at riot police. “One should use with caution the words ‘failure of the state’. Sadly, it applies in Hamburg,” the newspaper thundered Saturday, slamming the summit as a “debacle”. “Of course, the police...

ACTIVISTS clashed violently with riot cops in Germany setting cars ablaze, looting shops, throwing petrol bombs and trying to gatecrash the convention centre hosting the G20 talks. Hundreds of extra police were drafted in to the streets of Hamburg in a bid to keep the increasingly violent protests by anti-globalisation rioters under control. But as these shocking images show the port’s streets were once again turned into a burning battleground. Around 200 police officers were injured, dozens of activists had to be taken to the hospital and more than 70 protesters were detained.