'Liberal' Austria herd poor together then squash Vienna squatting movement

[Tony Gosling]

500 policemen involved in eviction of squatters

http://www.thelocal.at/20140731/500-policemen-involved-in-eviction-of-squatters
Published: 31 Jul 2014 10:35 GMT+02:00
Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner (ÖVP) says 
that there were only 500 policemen directly 
involved in the eviction of the squatters from 
the house in the Mühlfeldgasse in Vienna's 2nd district on Monday.
    * 
<http://www.thelocal.at/20140731/http://www.thelocal.at/20140730/over-800-police-deployed-for>Over 
800 police deployed for right-wing march (30 Jul 14)
    * 
<http://www.thelocal.at/20140731/http://www.thelocal.at/20140729/police-arrest-19-people>Police 
arrest 19 people from Vienna squat (29 Jul 14)
    * 
<http://www.thelocal.at/20140731/http://www.thelocal.at/20140728/riot-police-with-water-cannon-evict-squatters>Riot 
police with water cannon evict squatters (28 Jul 14)
1,000 policemen were there "for other measures in 
the whole city-zone" she said on Wednesday in 
national broadcaster ORF's evening news bulletin ZiB 2.
There was broad criticism all over Austria that 
there were too many police personnel involved, 
which was widely regarded as disproportionate. 
Some sources had reported that there were about 1,700 policemen on duty.
Mikl-Leitner added that those 500 policemen were 
not there all at the same time, but spread 
throughout the day, between 6:00 am and 9:00 pm.
The police previously refused to disclose how 
many personnel were involved. Police spokesman 
Roman Hahslinger had said on Monday that there were definitely more than 1,000.
Mikl-Leitner defended the police operation saying 
it was well-planned and that it was not an "easy" operation.
It was expected that there would be "fierce 
resistance" to the eviction after there had been 
calls for violent resistance on the Internet, she said.
If things had escalated, because police had not 
provided enough personnel, then the force would 
have been heavily criticised, Mikl-Leitner said.

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