Police fire tear gas at Brussels protest against austerity measures

BRUSSELS (AP) — Belgian police used tear gas and a water cannon in an attempt to disperse tens of thousands of people who flooded Brussels on Tuesday to protest Prime Minister Bart De Wever's proposed austerity measures.

Minor scuffles broke out between police and protesters, some of whom played drums and horns and set off flares and smoke bombs, while chanting against cuts to social welfare programs. The unusually large protest crippled traffic in the heart of the Belgian capital, blocking major roads. Strikes led to most flights being canceled at Brussels' airport.

Organizers estimated more than 150,000 people joined the demonstration, while the police put the crowd at 80,000.

Police vehicles chasing protesters were seen to smash up bicycles. Officers out of uniform but identified by red arm bands detained protesters, tying their hand with plastic bands. At one point, police officers on bicycles sheltered inside a hotel from a large group of protesters.

Belgium's Migration Minister Anneleen Van Bossuyt said on X that she had filmed protesters vandalizing the immigration office building downtown.

Belgium’s three major trade unions organized the protest and nationwide strikes against cuts to the pension, unemployment benefits, and health care systems proposed by De Wever.

He has vowed to slash spending to try and overcome the country's economic problems, which include a national debt totaling just over 100% of GDP, putting it among the worst in the 27-nation European Union.

“All the austerity measures, whether in terms of pensions, reductions of family allowances, all that, nothing is working anymore,” said Frédéric Kulcsar, a health care worker from the southern Belgian city of Charleroi.

Those policies drove people “to fight for greater job security and greater security for young people,” said Eric Manzi, Deputy Secretary General of the International Trade Union Confederation, a transnational labor rights organization.

“The Belgian government, as in most countries today, is implementing policies that do not really guarantee future employment, where work is becoming increasingly precarious and where retirement is not really granted," he said.

De Wever, a Flemish nationalist, took office in February with the formation of the so-called “Arizona Government,” named after the colors of the American state flag that resemble those of the Belgium’s ruling coalition parties.

Protesters threw sandbags and trash at a cardboard cut-outs of De Wever, Foreign Minister Maxime Prévot, and Finance Minister Jan Jambon, holding signs reading in French: “Imposing night shifts without bonus,” “More work for less pension," and “Less contribution from high earners,” referring to widespread criticism of the government's refusal to increase taxes on the wealthy.

“Arizona promised; Arizona lied,” read an enormous sign in Dutch at the protest.

Other signs showed a red line through the number 67, signifying disapproval of government plans to raise the retirement age by two years by 2030.

Peter Mertens, a lawmaker from the Workers' Party, said, "This is Belgium saying: enough is enough." “Together, we can make the government back down,” he said in a post on X.

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Associated Press writer Sam McNeil, in Brussels contributed to this report.

Police use a water cannon against protestors during a demonstration and general strike in Brussels, Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Sylvain Plazy)

Police use a water cannon against protestors during a demonstration and general strike in Brussels, Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Sylvain Plazy)

Demonstrators hold signs with photos of Belgian politicians which reads 'keep quiet, work and pay', during a general strike in Brussels, Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Harry Nakos)

People march with signs and balloons during a demonstration and general strike in Brussels, Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Harry Nakos)

People dressed as zombies march during a demonstration and general strike in Brussels, Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Harry Nakos)

People march with signs crossed out with the number 67, referring to pension age, during a demonstration and general strike in Brussels, Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Harry Nakos)

Two men hold a sign with a photo of Belgium's Prime Minister Bart De Wever, which reads 'Pension Theft', during a demonstration and general strike in Brussels, Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Harry Nakos)

UTICA, N.Y. (AP) — A New York prison guard who failed to intervene as he watched an inmate being beaten to death should be convicted of manslaughter, a prosecutor told a jury Thursday in the final trial of correctional officers whose pummeling, recorded by body-cameras, provoked outrage.

“For seven minutes — seven gut-churning, nauseating, disgusting minutes — he stood in that room close enough to touch him and he did nothing,” special prosecutor William Fitzpatrick told jurors during closing arguments. The jury began deliberating Thursday afternoon.

Former corrections officer Michael Fisher, 55, is charged with second-degree manslaughter in the death of Robert Brooks, who was beaten by guards upon his arrival at Marcy Correctional Facility on the night of Dec. 9, 2024, his agony recorded silently on the guards' body cameras.

Fisher’s attorney, Scott Iseman, said his client entered the infirmary after the beating began and could not have known the extent of his injuries.

Fisher was among 10 guards indicted in February. Three more agreed to plead guilty to reduced charges in return for cooperating with prosecutors. Of the 10 officers indicted in February, six pleaded guilty to manslaughter or lesser charges. Four rejected plea deals. One was convicted of murder, and two were acquitted in the first trial last fall.

Fisher, standing alone, is the last of the guards to face a jury.

The trial closes a chapter in a high-profile case led to reforms in New York's prisons. But advocates say the prisons remain plagued by understaffing and other problems, especially since a wildcat strike by guards last year.

Officials took action amid outrage over the images of the guards beating the 43-year-old Black man in the prison's infirmary. Officers could be seen striking Brooks in the chest with a shoe, lifting him by the neck and dropping him.

Video shown to the jury during closing arguments Thursday indicates Fisher stood by the doorway and didn't intervene.

“Did Michael Fisher recklessly cause the death of Robert Brooks? Of course he did. Not by himself. He had plenty of other helpers,” said Fitzpatrick, the Onondaga County district attorney.

Iseman asked jurors looking at the footage to consider what Fisher could have known at the time “without the benefit of 2020 hindsight.”

“Michael Fisher did not have a rewind button. He did not have the ability to enhance. He did not have the ability to pause. He did not have the ability to get a different perspective of what was happening in the room,” Iseman said.

Even before Brooks' death, critics claimed the prison system was beset by problems that included brutality, overworked staff and inconsistent services. By the time criminal indictments were unsealed in February, the system was reeling from an illegal three-week wildcat strike by corrections officers who were upset over working conditions. Gov. Kathy Hochul deployed National Guard troops to maintain operations. More than 2,000 guards were fired.

Prison deaths during the strike included Messiah Nantwi on March 1 at Mid-State Correctional Facility, which is across the road from the Marcy prison. 10 other guards were indicted in Nantwi's death in April, including two charged with murder.

There are still about 3,000 National Guard members serving the state prison system, according to state officials.

“The absence of staff in critical positions is affecting literally every aspect of prison operations. And I think the experience for incarcerated people is neglect,” Jennifer Scaife, executive director of the Correctional Association of New York, an independent monitoring group, said on the eve of Fisher's trial.

Hochul last month announced a broad reform agreement with lawmakers that includes a requirement that cameras be installed in all facilities and that video recordings related to deaths behind bars be promptly released to state investigators.

The state also lowered the hiring age for correction officers from 21 to 18 years of age.

FILE - This image provided by the New York State Attorney General office shows body camera footage of correction officers beating a handcuffed man, Robert Brooks, at the Marcy Correctional Facility in Oneida County, N.Y., Dec. 9, 2024. (New York State Attorney General office via AP, File)