# IT TOOK 1,700 POLICEMEN AND A TANK TO EVICT 31 SQUATTERS



## landpirate (Jul 29, 2014)

The pictures on this thread take a while to load so click the link and read it direct from Vice if you can. 
http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/pizzeria-anarchists-evicted-912?utm_source=vicefbuk

*IT TOOK 1,700 POLICEMEN AND A TANK TO EVICT 31 SQUATTERS FROM A VIENNESE PIZZERIA YESTERDAY*
VICE Guide to Vienna, you already know that the squatting scene in Austria’s capital basically consists of a few fucked-up punk houses and most of them are either government funded, or at least tolerated by the government.

That is until yesterday, when the only actual squat in Vienna, the notorious Pizzeria Anarchia was evicted. It took 1,700 policemen, 12 hours, one tank and a water cannon to get 31 squatters to move their shit. Pizzeria Anarchia might be no more, but the story of its downfall is an embarrassment to local police and an example of shameless realtors' tactics winning over the little man.

The squat came about sometime in 2012, after a group of anarchists were invited to live in a former pizzeria by none other than its owner. Yet, a couple of weeks ago the squatters received an eviction note. According to the squatters, the operation was part of a shady plan conceived by the holding company to get the other tenants to move out of the place, and raise in this way the monthly rents.

“We were invited here by the owners,” one of the anonymous squatters told us. “They said they felt sorry for us and wanted to do some sort of social project. They told us the place was totally abandoned and that we could stay for half a year. But then we found out that there were a couple of tenants still living here – and the plan was to get them moving out because we’d allegedly be too loud and too much trouble for them. Once we saw through this scam, we joined forces with the tenants and took over the whole building. The idea was to show that simple people could actually hold their own against ruthless ventures and realty speculators.”

Another one added: “We’re not the ones that the violence comes from.”

Once we explained our goals, we were allowed to spent the night with squatters and sympathisers at Pizzeria Anarchia. The atmosphere was relaxed, even cheerful – besides booze and weed, there was even some making out, while others had already started to plan the building of barricades to hold back the oncoming police forces.

“Find a place to stay is pretty tough,” explained one of the visiting punks. “These guys lived here with the owner's permission, which at first seemed ideal. But now they’re being kicked out once again.”

Around 5AM, work on the barricades intensified and was carried out without much talking. The police arrived shortly after, but to our surprise they kept their distance. It was a little before 10AM that they got closer, only to be greeted with passive and peaceful resistance – plus a couple of dye and feather bombs. Thanks to the squatters' rigorous preparations and the massive barricades at both doors, it took the police a whole day to finally get into the building and remove all 31 squatters from the scene.

During the operation, the police had banned all press from the site (a debatable violation of ruling press law, since there weren't any war crimes or heavy fights going on) but we managed to get onto a friend’s roof terrace nearby, until the tank came to smash in the gates. It was probably around this point that people started wondering how a bunch of misfits managed to keep police at bay by nothing other than stacking furniture behind a door.

Around dusk, police finally made it into the building and on to the third floor, where they arrested the last resisting protesters. It was one of the biggest police operations of the last couple of years. The costs have yet to be determined.


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## Tude (Jul 29, 2014)

<smirk> "the costs have yet to be determined" - really 1700 cops in riot gear?? Cool pics - love the one of the guy in green facing off the line of cops.


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## drewski (Jul 29, 2014)

They should just leave everything where it is all over the street and turn it into a modern art gallery. Cha ching!


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## buffalobill (Jul 29, 2014)

That's interesting I really like the cardboard police car it looks like it said STP on the side haha


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## Hylyx (Jul 29, 2014)

Damn. I wish people had that sort of fight in them here.


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## Matt Derrick (Jul 30, 2014)

wow, yeah i've been seeing this on squat.net and some twitter posts... this looks like the craziest eviction since that one in norway a while back (i could never pronounce the name of it) and 1700 cops? that's fucking insane. it's amazing they can justify that kind of manpower on 30 squatters in one building.


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## Odin (Sep 2, 2015)

1700 cops is insane. That's a small army. What the hell...
God damn tank with the plow makes me think of the way crowds were scooped up in Soylent green... 
Not being funny... sick feeling in my stomach.


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## uniparemassilmas (Jan 25, 2016)

I was visiting this place if it was still active. Really cool place and such a friendly people. And then on december 2014 I was in vienna again and I wanted to check what's going on with this house ( I knew it was evicted), and door was open... Some building workers were outside working, but nobody noticed me, so I just run in. 









I still feel sad about this squat, if I think about it. Crazy story. It was apartment house, where downstairs used to be pizzeria. Owner of the house wanted to get rid of it, but some families did not wanted to move out. So owner basically allowed some punk group to use this pizzeria part of the house, with a hope, that these families will move out, if some loud punx are hanging out there. - what a stupid idea, of course they become friends with these familes and invited more and more punks to live there.  
They also had this real original pizza oven, and they used it every sunday. If vegan dinners are quite common in squats, then they just had pizza dinners  I totally felled in love with this house, and I even had a plan, that at some point I would like to join their community... but well, life is brutal sometimes.


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## Matt Derrick (Jan 25, 2016)

uniparemassilmas said:


> I was visiting this place if it was still active. Really cool place and such a friendly people. And then on december 2014 I was in vienna again and I wanted to check what's going on with this house ( I knew it was evicted), and door was open... Some building workers were outside working, but nobody noticed me, so I just run in.
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that's awesome man, i wish more people would post follow up posts


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