My own private Emocide

As I just got to know — as I am typing these lines — the Austrian police is in the process of raiding the houses of multiple activists from Vienna to Tyrol (pretty much all over Austria), which have been active in the animal rights movement for years. Also the offices of Austrias arguably most active animal rights association VgT has been intruded by authorities. While I of course cannot vouch for everybody, as I am not with them 24/7, I have known some of them for 10+ years and know them to be very friendly and compassionate people and I doubt that any of the rumored felonies have much substance to them.
At around 6am local time Austrian authorities started raiding the houses of activists. Supposedly there are almost a dozen people listed to be prosecuted — it’s rumored that there are 30+ charges being prepared, which are most likely connected to the yearlong protests against the big clothing chain “Kleiderbauer”, who has been selling fur products and has yet refused to phase them out. There was a single illegal attack on one of their stores in the past couple of years, which caused windows to be broken at night. From what I know, it is completely unknown in this “scene who is responsible for this attack. Other than that, there have only been legal demonstrations on a weekly basis in front of multiple stores all over Austria. These protests have repeatedly been attacked verbally and physically by Kleiderbauer staff.
The first people have been arrested too. Charges seem to be in the “criminal organization” field; I.e. the Austrian police took the practices of authorities in the UK and the US and is trying to apply them to local activists now, by attempting to criminalize them and pin the use of ALF-tactics on their backs. As far as I am informed, all activists have simply been engaging in legal protests against Kleiderbauer, something that is granted to Austrians by their constitutional freedom of demonstration.
Politicians and lawyers have been informed — it is yet to be known if any more arrests have been or will be made.

Especially in the wake of these corporation-induced police state tactics, please come out to one of the many Veganmania events in the next weeks and show your support. It will be in Linz on the 24th of May and it’s free. Further dates may be googled.
If there is any other way to show support, do so. I will try to keep you updated here too.