G7 summit protesters send in the clowns — literally

Like something out of my most politically conscious nightmares, a group of clowns have descended on Germany to protest Sunday’s Group of Seven (G7) summit.

The Guardian reports that these clowns were but six protesters in a sea of thousands who had gathered in the Bavarian mountain resort town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen to demonstrate against the annual meeting of world leaders.

Many protesters, like the decidedly un-clown-like Thomas Schmidbauer, feel that tomorrow’s summit at the Schloss Elmau hotel prioritizes the business world’s interests over those of the people. “Big financial corporations have too much influence over politics,” he told Reuters.

One of the demonstration organizers, Simon Ernst, went so far as to call the world leaders from Germany, Japan, Italy, France, Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and the European Union “henchmen of bankers and corporations,” The Guardian reports.

Confrontations between police and protesters turned physical on Saturday, according to Reuters, and at least one demonstrator was injured enough to be carried away by paramedics. BBC News reports that an estimated 17,000 German police officers were enlisted to provide additional security at the G7 summit, far outnumbering the protesters.

This isn’t a very funny clown story.

Bad at filling out bios seeks same.