On further reflection I think these guys seemed remarkably disciplined and sophisticated in their brutality. And it wasn’t just the trio. That someone had the idea of alleging the victim was “shooting up” as I walked by sounds to me like it was a tactic. This was not true and making stuff like that up spontaneously is weird. The remarks of the police officer in charge of the scene, backed up by his female colleague also seemed lost. They were effectively allowing three angry dangerous bad looking people to wander about and intimidate bystanders. And defending them at least to us, they were supposedly the victims. The perpetrators of violence in this space were allowed to roam freely to continue to intimidate me and then released by police. Ditto the method of assualt. To bystanders three guys put a person in stress positions on the ground, one with a Walky Talky and something badge like on his chest. They looked like they were police but they weren’t. This is why few bystanders did anything. So let’s suppose that in fact they were police and - as a mind game - that their victim was a climate terrorist (I don’t think she is/was) - if so the objective was clearly to scare people - other activists most likely, and possibly those involved in XR like tactics the previous day. But for police to do this whilst pretending to be workmen upset that someone spat at them was/is absurdly stupid. And in the meantime they may well have risked making activists more radical. Finally a question to German readers, I was told not to film, not only by the “thugs” but by the police. Is it in fact illegal to film police in Germany? For the public? Is there any protection for journalists rights to use cameras? There are good policy reasons for making cops wear body cams and allowing the public to film arrests. This is nothing to be afraid of - unless you want police to be frightening to the public. That’s what this event felt like to me. I was frightened and I am now very glad I am no longer in Bonn.