On Thursday November 30th, at around 4pm, a dozen plain clothes and uniformed policemen from the cantonal police entered the premises of anarchist bookshop Fermento, on Josefstrasse 102 in Zurich, armed with a search warrant. The alleged crime: “Public instigation to commit crimes and acts of violence”.
As we have just learned, three policemen from the Criminal Investigation Department of the cantonal police already entered the bookshop ten days earlier. Then too using the same statement: the bookshop window would be an incitement to commit crimes and violence against businesses and individuals, to be seen in the context of the recent incendiary attacks against the construction of the PJZ [new palace of justice] and “Bässlergut” prison in Basel.
All this did not happen completely unexpectedly. Only a couple of days before, a long background article published by Schweiz am Wochenende and taken up by the Aargauer Zeitung urged that something be done once and for all against these anarchists, boasting of having discovered what everyone in Zurich can see: our shop window.
If the police acted on the impulse of Andreas Maurer’s piece – to call the journalist by his name – or if the latter had written under the pressure of someone else, we cannot know and do not care. The journalist’s role as cop has been openly demonstrated once again.
Let’s move on to the technical side:
In the first search, only the posters hanging from the window inside the bookshop were removed. Clearly the agents in question were not sure which poster contained the criminal message, so they took them all. One of these was an invitation to support our bookshop, which at the end of February will have to give way to yet another branch of Migros. We learned of the posters’ removal in amazement.
However, yesterday’s search was more thorough, although probably no less chaotic. This time another, apparently more important, department of the cantonal police was in charge. The trigger was the reappearance in the window of that damned manifesto: the one where those responsible for the construction of Bässlergut prison are listed, proposing to show the responsibility of all those who make a profit out of imprisoning people.
Strange that this time the same poster has been left in the window. In return they confiscated several others, especially those against the construction of the PJZ, as well as against the migration regime and prisons in general. As in the case of the first search, the posters were “seized as evidence and to preserve their traces”, because “any trace collected can lead to identifying the authors of the deed” (???)
Apart from this: 3 computers, 1 external hard drive, 1 CD with photos of plain clothes cops (for their photo album?) and also the list of addresses of subscribers to the anarchist newspaper Dissonanz in Zurich (and other correspondence), as well as the cards of books lent by the library, were taken. Clearly all this obviously has little to do with the offending poster, which among other things can easily be seen on the internet. The information collected, the names, contacts, etc. will probably serve other purposes, other constructions, more or less ridiculously set up.
We’ll see later.
In neither of the searches was there anyone from the bookshop present. There was the landlord at times, and the mayor of the district was called to supervise. A copy of the rent contract was requested and obtained to “find out who rents the premises in question and is therefore responsible for it”.
The prosecutor in charge of the operation is Edwin Lüscher, who for some time has been distinguishing himself as being in charge of riots, and who seems to be well known to everyone.
We’ll keep you informed
Your anarchists of Fermento
via https://finimondo.org/node/2105
Translated by Act for freedom now!
