(Summary)
The 8th of March is widely recognized and depicted as a feminist day of struggle, which prompted women and all gender-queer individuals to display their fight and struggle against the capitalist, patriarchal system.
A day prior to the demonstration, the local police force denounced it, claiming that it would be organized and attended by "radical leftists who are ready to exercise violence".
After the initial gathering area was blocked well in advance of time by the police, the demonstrators regrouped in front of an university before beginning to march the streets with banners, chanting against the system.
The police force blocked the demonstration of an estimated 250 individuals from both ends of a street, trapping it with no exit. Any attempt to step forward was met by a volley of rubber bullets and stun grenades.
Multiple acts of police brutality were reported and recorded, including an aggressive assault of the frontline which forcefully removed the protective banners of the demonstration before firing rubber bullets at point blank range, head level.
On another occasion, a video shows a police officer firing a blank shot in the direction of journalists and observers who were uninvolved and unrelated to the demonstration.
The gathering dissolved over time as individuals surrendered, where their identity was verified and confirmed by police before then being photographed and documented—a reported rights violation.
The police force has defended its conduct, claiming it, in hindsight, wouldn't have acted any differently that night. Left-oriented political parties heavily protested the police's actions.
Sources (primarily for images or media, includes German):
Video recording of one of the police assaults which was followed by point blank rubber bullet shots at demonstrators:
Overview of the situation & footage of the blank fired toward journalists.
General coverage:
- https://kommunistischejugend.ch/8-maerz-polizeirepressionen-in-basel/
- https://www.srf.ch/news/schweiz/weltfrauentag-polizei-kesselt-bei-demo-in-basel-rund-200-personen-ein
- https://www.bzbasel.ch/basel/basel-stadt/frauenkampftag-internationaler-tag-der-frau-unbewilligte-demonstration-in-basel-wird-von-polizei-eingekesselt-ld.2426241
Pictured: last stand of the final 50 demonstrators:
It's pretty self-explanatory that spineless Western media outlets are in dire need of content and public support to get their clicks and image boost. Even if someone were to bring up the point that the shelling is in fact not done by Russians, it'll go down the typical propaganda blur process, either:
For the last point: look up the Karl-Marx-Allee and see its history with regard to being "Stalin's bathroom". In short, about a decade ago, a person thought it'd be funny to claim this boulevard in Berlin was called "Stalin's bathroom" (due to some marble decoration) during the DDR times.
In the similar, repetitive fashion of anti-communist perspectives that the West takes on, an editor found it to be "credible enough". It was then rooted into the Wikipedia page and as a result led to a lot of media exposure, cementing the fact it was "Stalin's bathroom".
The same person tried to edit their joke out years later and the request got declined by a Wikipedia administrator. They later came out to be a journalist who detailed the situation in full, and that is the only reason it got enough awareness to be fixed. At the same time, it could have been highly possible the journalist would have been called a liar and not been trusted, meaning we'd still think this joke was real to this day.
Media ethics and digital competence are imperative to have for this exact reason. Too many people however simply refuse to or cannot acknowledge these things, either by own choice or not. It is really sad.