Several people who were protesting today denounced police violence against them. One of them said that the officers used violence, and that the violence stopped as soon as they saw the media. Another protester stressed that the officers also threw stones.
Protester: My friends and I had hidden from the police, because we knew they would catch us. They hit us in the lips. They beat us, and another girl was struck by a stone thrown by the police. When the media arrived, the officers stopped the violence.
Protester 2: They hit us with stones, which the police threw. When you arrived, they just pushed us, because they saw the cameras.
Protester 3: We are protesting for our rights. We want schools to be properly run, and pensions are very low too. The whole family works, and still the numbers don’t add up. What can you do with 500 thousand lekë? Food and everything else are extremely expensive. There is no one to stop them. We have received threats so that we don’t protest.