So, Mayday. I’m chatting with Corii online, and she says there’s a huge parade on Market street in San Francisco, part of the immigrant protest movement in the states. Here in Berlin, the first of May is supposed to get ugly. For the last 24 hours, we’ve seen literally dozens, even scores of police vans and riot contol vehicles, filled with cops, hanging out by the major rally points in Friedrichshain, Kreuzberg and Prenzlauer. Far more cops even than at the biggest antiwar marches in San Francisco, when they had human walls trying to move the people off Market.
So we went walking today, all across the city, trying to find a riot. But nothing. Not even a looting. Barely a decent jaywalking.
There was clearly action last night. The Mauer park, near where we are going to live, was covered in plastic cups, and the temporary metal fences had been trampled by the time we got there today. I think we simply missed the memo. Midnight: riots. Mayday: sleep in, have a beer.
According to this story, Walpurgis Night, or May Day’s eve, is in fact when the scheisse goes down. But the cops say this was the quietest night in years. They expected left wing protest action later in the day, but we were here, all we saw was public drinking and a rockabilly band singing in English. Sigh. I would have taken even a public urination — except wait, that happens everyday…
On a brighter note, the Dunkel Heffeweizen I drank a liter of tonight is very good. Time for more, I think.