Hamburg Story

It's been roughly three years since the G20 Summit that was held in Hamburg, Germany. For the most part, the Summit has been forgotten....it's the riots that occurred and the damages done to public and private property....that is remembered.

Charges against the hundreds of 'peaceful' protesters? No. What you have are a handful of charges (usually going to serious breach of peace, dangerous bodily harm, and involvement in arson....this one typically goes to car-fires or garbage can-fires).

Presently four individuals out of roughly 200 in the imagery or pictures....were picked up by the police and can be put at the location. They can't really do a great job on saying absolutely, and there lies the serious issues left. The problem is....guilt by association.

Their lawyers now say (NDR does a good job in reporting this story) that you can't actually put them at the act, because of so many there, and most all were 'peaceful'.

The judge? So far, just looking at the structure of the case, and the legal maneuvering.

The amount of jail-time if convicted and finalized? Two would get close to three years....two would get around two years.

So here's the blunt view of the situation. For all the damage done in the city over that couple of days....few if any of the violent crowd has faced serious charges. Most Hamburg folks look at the results, and the marginal results of court activity....shaking their head.

The police attempted to do their best....the prosecution had a marginal situation to work with, and the judge is left to clean up the justice side and reassure the public that things do work in the end.

The sad thing is that the four might have been the only four out of the 200....who walked in a peaceful sense for the day, and just unlucky at having the police arrest them, and get to the charges point now.

The other sad thing is that they might have been the only four of the 200....who were violent for the day, and just lucky they were surrounded by 200-odd non-violent people.

Now a judge has to straighten this ending out.