RACIST POLICE VIOLENCE ON THE RISE IN GERMANY
A disquieting series of serious police abuse in various states of Germany, mostly against foreigners, is raising concern about extremist right-wing infiltration of the German police forces. The recent resignation of the Interior Minister of Hamburg, Senator Werner Hack-mann, is seen as an indication that politicians are losing control of the police.
Hamburg's Interior Minister Hackmann resigned in mid-September after a police officer brought a complaint about racist violence at a police station in the city. The officer asserted that foreigners were regularly verbally abused by policemen at the station. As soon as the victims reacted against such deliberate provocation, they were seriously beaten up. It also emerged that a superior at the station was a member of an extreme-right paramilitary "sports group". The police board reacted by transferring him to another task - state protection . . .
In January 1993, a Senegalese man, Dialle D., was hospitalised with serious injuries after being beaten up by two policemen. The officers were sentenced to a fine in an internal procedure and were not suspended from service. As for the victim, he is awaiting deportation after ten years of residence in Germany.
In May, Oliver Ness, a journalist known for his anti-fascist positions was beaten and injured by police while covering and anti-Nazi protest rally.
Serious accusations of systematic and massive physical abuse have also been brought, among others, by Amnesty International, against special units of the Hamburg police, the so-called "E-shifts". These special intervention groups patrol "troubled" areas of the city.
In the space of four years, some 120 complaints, one for attempted homicide, have been brought against Hamburg policemen, but all cases were later dropped by the public prosecutor. Following Mr. Hackmann's resignation, embarrassing questions about a special relationship between police and the judiciary are now being openly raised by the media. The local newspaper, Hamburger Morgenpost, noted that extreme-right activities within the Hamburg police corps were well known since 1990 and wonders why, for four years, no action was taken by either the judiciary or the government. Ex-Senator Hackmann points to what he calls "a misconceived idea of camaraderie, an unfortunate corps mentality" within the police that prevented information on misconduct from leaking out. A representative of the federal organisation of "Critical Policemen" stressed that, in the police, "any one who expresses criticism, runs into problems".
Following the recent revelations, the Hamburg Interior Ministry was finally obliged to act. Approximately 120 cases of alleged police abuse are being re-examined, 27 police officers were suspended from service and an entire police platoon was dissolved in mid-September. But latest reports from the beginning of October say that, meanwhile, all 27 officers have been reinstated . . .
Hamburg no isolated case
In its 1994 Annual Report on Germany, Amnesty International notes a significant rise of reports on ill-treatment by police in 1993. The report expressly mentions a Hamburg police station.
During the summer, two policemen in Hannover hunted a 16 year old Kurd whom they had surprised while setting up posters in support of the Kurdish PKK guerillas late at night. The unarmed boy was shot and killed by one of the policemen. The police later claimed that the shot went off accidentally.
In September, the public prosecutor in Magdeburg charged a policemen with causing bodily injury while on duty. The officer is said to have kicked and beaten an Iraqi while arresting him. The incident occurred during anti-foreigner riots. The Magdeburg police have been accused with having denied the victims sufficient protection.
In Kiel, two policemen were charged with having beaten an Estonian with a leather belt in 1992.
In August 1994, a court in Leipzig sentenced four policemen. The main defendant, aged 24, was sentenced to three years and nine months imprisonment for ill-treatment of Vietnamese asylum seekers and a German.
In Hannoversch Münden (Lower Saxony), a 20 year old police trainee was put on a 4 months probation for having made the "Hitler salute".
In Giessen, a policemen was sentenced in April for having injured an Algerian asylum seeker.
In Berlin and Brandenburg, comprehensive investigations are under way against policemen suspected of having maltreated foreigners - mostly illegal Vietnamese cigarette dealers. Investigations are being conducted against no fewer than 50 Berlin policemen (see FECL No. 21, p. 8).
Several officers in the Hannover region are accused of having beaten an Israeli student in late July so seriously that he needed hospital treatment. The victim said that he had politely asked the policemen, who were having a party in a neighbouring apartment, to make less noise.
Sources: Süddeutsche Zeitung, 15.9.94; Frankfurter Rundschau, 15.9.94. For more information, contact: BAG Kritischer PolizistInnen, Bernward Boden, Eugen-Sänger-Str. 18, D-50739 Cologne; Tel/Fax: +49/221 5994489