A young woman mowed down by the police, another with hair pulled back by an agent ... "
The Boom
", a "
false event
" organized on the networks on the occasion of April 1, severely degenerated Thursday after having gathered, against all expectations, some 2000 people at the Bois de la Cambre park, in Brussels, Belgium.
Banned by the authorities due to the Covid pandemic, the giant party resulted in serious confrontations between law enforcement and participants, leading to 22 arrests.
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The police, deployed by the dozen, on horseback or on foot and in riot gear, suffered projectile jets when intervening, causing dozens of wounded in the ranks, according to local media
La Libre
.
At least one of them had to be hospitalized.
But it was the images of violence against revelers, most of them without masks, that caused the most reactions on social networks.
In a video that has gone viral, we can see a young woman, naked, being run over by a mounted patrol.
Another, seated, has her hair pulled and kicked.
Many water trucks were deployed Thursday to disperse the crowds.
On Wednesday, the Brussels public prosecutor's office warned that the call made on social networks to rally this park for a party was illegal due to anti-Covid restrictions.
The prosecution had deplored the organization of "
a false event entitled '' The Boom"
", warning that the participants exposed themselves to legal proceedings,"
given the risks generated by large gatherings
".
70,000 Facebook accounts were “
interested
” in the event promoted on the social network.
“
I was simply there to say that we have the right to go to a public place, not to demonstrate,
” one of the participants told AFP, “
and we were gassed for no reason
”.
"
People need to get some fresh air, but we cannot tolerate such gatherings in the Bois de la Cambre
", reacted on Twitter the mayor of Brussels, Philippe Close, putting in parallel these excesses with the efforts by caregivers against the virus.
“
Those who do not obey police orders risk arrest and prosecution.
Thank you to the police for the hard work and to the people who have been respecting the rules for over a year,
”added the elected Socialist.
As of Wednesday, the prosecution announced the opening of an investigation to identify the organizers of this rally.
Faced with the viral images of the young woman mowed down by the mounted police, the spokesperson for the Brussels police zone, questioned by
La Libre
, did not want to react directly.
“
As usual in video footage, we only have part of the story,
” said Ilse Van de Keere.
She nevertheless indicated that the charge of the riders was decided only after numerous summons and only after the intervention of a first line of police officers.
She urged people who believe they have been victims of violence to let it know.
The Minister of the Interior Annelies Verlinden has meanwhile assured that she would investigate the images of the incident.
“
Police action must of course always be proportional,
” she told VRT NWS.
Belgium entered a new phase of stricter restrictions last Saturday, including limited access to non-essential shops and the possibility of gathering outdoors for up to four adults.
Against the backdrop of the rapid spread of the English variant of the Covid, schools and universities closed their doors on Monday, anticipating the fifteen days of Easter school holidays by one week.
This Friday evening, a hundred people were present in the Bois de la Cambre park.
Police dispersed the scene around 9 p.m.
