Article of the Campaign for victims of racist police violence (www.kop-berlin.de)

“Where are you going? Your ID, please!” Daniel was astonished and looked at the two men who were suddenly standing in front of him. Some moments ago he accompanied Thomas and Luc to the busstop. After the training they went for a drink, now Daniel was totally tired and he had no idea what the men wanted from him.

“Put the earphones out! I want your ID, boy!” “What the hell”, Daniel thought and was still bewildered of the whole situation. Something like that has never happened to him, the police? “I just said: put them out!” Suddenly one of the plainclothes policemen tugged at the cable of his mp3-player. Plastic slivered, he wanted to protest: “What the …?”

Before Daniel could react, he could feel a punch hitting him, he was pressed to the wall and he could hear handcuffs clicking. “Any weapons, drugs or dangerous objects that could hurt me?” One officer scanned his bags. What did he do? He was not too drunk. Before he had been pushed into the car, he heard: “Alright, we take this nigger to the police station…”

Although this story is totally fictitious, it represents the daily life of many people living in Germany. Bullying, defamation, kicks and punches by police officers are sad reality in the life of “foreigners” and people who are alleged as “Non-germans” respectively. Often these assaults start with the casual order to identify themselves. Because of “suspected independent controls” police doesn’t have to give a reason for checking citizens. It even is difficult to justify these activities, because authorities are often motivated by general suspicions against foreigners being criminals and cheaters asking for political asylum”. Because of that it is difficult to control these activities. Physical violation (with consequences reaching from bruises to fractures) are no exception unfortunately.

In a constitutional state it should be a matter of course that assaults committed by representatives of this state are investigated thoroughly and affected people should be protected. But they have to realize that this does not happen. Many times the investigations are closed quietly. The very few cases which lead to a trial often end up with the verdict of not guilty. Statistical figures from Berlin including the years 1995 to 2004 give an example in a clear way: Only 1.3% of the reported cases were brought in accusation and only 0.4% of the officers were sentenced.

Unfortunately that does not mean that violations commited by policemen don’t have a judicial aftermath. However, not the thugs in uniform are accused, but the victims are charged of unfair allegations. A very popular accusation is “civil disorder” because it justifies physical violation. In contrast to the proceedings against police-officers these accusations often end up with criminal conviction. For the affected people this means not only a feeling of total powerlessness against authorities, but it can also lead to deportation, if the residence permit is not evident.

First published in “Rosen auf den Weg gestreut ”, No. 3, Sep 2007, (student magazine from berlin)