The G20 Summit

In early July 2017, the G20 group of world leaders held their summit in the city of Hamburg, Germany. The choice raised some eyebrows due to the solid left-wing leaning of the local population and their expected reaction to having this event on their doorstep.

This gathering of protestors, police, press and Presidents made their way to the city from all over the world; the different voices all wanting to have their say but in very different ways.

A series of organised protests and marches were given permission to take place on both the Thursday and Saturday, while all forms of gathered protest were forbidden on the Friday. Invariably, these restrictions were ignored and the days and nights rolled into one long series of skirmishes and clashes.

Led by a substantial group of "black bloc" protestors, the first major march of the summit was contained from the start and following a rush from members of the riot police, erupted into violence before it had managed to travel more that 200 metres.

Sadly, after covering a number of events along these lines, it's hard not to stand back from it all and see that there are patterns and systems in place that, despite the best efforts of the protestors to smash the system, are strengthened by these actions. Having visited the arms fair at ExCel in London, on seeing the shining new water cannon trucks with joystick controlled jets, I couldn't help but think that someone somewhere was enjoying this opportunity to field test the latest version of their respirators, armoured vehicles or pepper spray formula.

Over the days and nights that followed, the constant sounds of sirens in the distance filled the air and reports of flashpoints between protestors and security forces came and went on social media so frequently that monitoring the events became near impossible. With many roads closed, travelling between focal points came down to marching the miles between locations, evading roadblocks and checkpoints.

Friday saw the heat rise again as cars and property began to burn in the streets. As quickly as I could reach a location, the clashes would have moved on, leaving members of the fire department to put out the flames. Now that this line had been crossed, concerns for the next stage of protests that evening became more evident.

As the rioters took things up a level, the police matched them, becoming heavier with their responses and more liberal with their use of pepper spray and batons. Paving stones were broken to cheers from the crowds and fist-sized rocks handed out among the more aggressive front-line of the "black bloc". In turn, the police charges became more indiscriminate with cameras and press identity cards failing to provide any protection from force. Two members of a British television crew were pepper-sprayed, despite clear identification and carrying broadcast camera equipment.

Like the Tottenham riots of 2011, it was sad to see that the area that took the brunt of the damage was that of the community. In their desire to defeat capitalism and global corporate businesses, the property of the public is destroyed. The cars, shops and windows need replacing, meaning insurance premiums go up, car manufacturers sell more vehicles to replace those burned and some of the small independent businesses end up losing out entirely. While I don't disagree with some of the points raised by those who protest against the G20, destroying the bicycle of a member of a local resident or smashing the windows of a small independent clothing store in one of the poorer areas of the city isn't the way to go about improving the world.

As my time to leave on Saturday arrived, I made one last visit to an area that had been hit hard by looting the previous night. Having checked out of my hotel, I was forced to drag my suitcase with me. As I photographed a damaged building, a woman stopped to talk to me in German. Explaining that I was British it was nearly a statistical certainty that I couldn't speak any other language, she seamlessly switched to English and offered to look after my suitcase for me at her home and then provide me with breakfast when I came to collect it. To butcher the famous line by Blanche DuBois, I remain eternally amazed by the kindness of strangers. As the G20 summit attempted to show the harmony of the world, and those outside the perimeter fought to show that their version was the way forward, this simple act of generosity showed to me that human decency really is the very best way.