| Discrimination and assaults committed by police officers |
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| Written by Anti-Diskriminierungsbüro Berlin e.V. | |
| Freitag, 22 Juni 2007 | |
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Many people in Germany experience defamation, kicks, punches, unwarranted false imprisonment and harassment when they have contact with the police. Especially members of social minorities – like prostitues, homeless people, left-wingers and especially refugees and immigrants – are affected by discrimination and violation commited by policemen and policewomen. At least since the “scandal of the Hamburg police” in 1994, the documentations of Amnesty International and the campaign “Aktion Courage” the public cannot deny the complex of problems within the police. Nevertheless violation by police-officers are denied by the police and other authorities in the very few cases realized by the public: Officials accuse the affected people and witnesses of lying in order to throw a bad light on the police. Moreover, officials impute that it is the victims’ own fault and that the behaviour of the police officers was adequate, because they were provoked by the victims. If it is not possible to reinterprate or deny the assault, the ministers of the interior act according to two possibilities: Either the violation is pointed out as a single incident, the offenders are played down as “black sheep” and that the reasons leading to the incident are ignored or the offenders are redefined as a victim of their working conditions – the violation is acceptable because police officers have to work in districts which provide much stress and hostility. In contrast to these belittlements the affected people give account of different experiences: There are assaults that start with suspected independent controls, continue with racist defamation and end up with physical violation. For the victims these assaults often mean complete powerlessness towards police and authorities. This feeling is intensified, because there is hardly any chance of accusing the offenders and that they are sentenced. Instead of clearing up the incident consistently and to prosecute the offenders, there are mainly inquiries against the affected people. Because of unfair accusations and turning a blind eye on investigating the incindent properly, the victim has to anticipate criminal conviction - not the offender.
ADB against police-violation
In the daily work of the Anti-Diskriminirungsbüro there are many victims who report about certain violations and discriminations commited by policemen and –women. In order to help the affected people and to raise public awareness for these problems, we designed the exhibition “From police-control to violation of justice” in 2001. The exhibition and the booklet was redesigned and it is possible to borrow this exhibition for free since March 2007.
To the project “from police control to violation of justice ”
Moreover, we organize the “campaign for victims of racist police violation” together with the institutions ReachOut, Netzwerk Selbshilfe and the Berliner Ermittlungsausschuss. There is judicial assistance for people who are affected by racistic violation commited by police officers and who want institute legal proceedings against the police.
Website of the campaign for victims of racist police violation: www.kop-berlin.de |
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| Last Updated ( Donnerstag, 20 März 2008 ) |
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