Let’s talk about police violence!
Every year on March 15th is the International Day against Police Violence.
People like Laye-Alama Condé! Oury Jalloh! Yaya Jabbi! Amad Ahmad! Christy Schwundeck! Achidi John!
These people and many more have been treated badly by the police or even have been killed.
It happened in the past and it happens every day – it happens in Germany and all over the world. Why does the police treat people differently? Why does the police use violence against people who have done nothing?
The answer is: for the police certain people are “different” or they are “criminal” or “illegal”. These are people like for example:
* Black and People of Color
* Refugees
* People who live on the streets
* People with disabilities
* People who take drugs
* Sex workers*
* gays, lesbians, inter*people, transpersons, queer people
* left activists
When the police kills people, there is often no punishment. The police has a lot of power. Citizens believe in the police. Citizens believe that the police is good. Citizens look away when the police beats people on the street. Citizens want more police and more power for the state. We see that in Germany and worldwide.
We saw police violence at the 2017 G20 protests in Hamburg. Or when the police searched the houses of political leftists and destroyed their flats. Many policemen are politically right-wing (neo-Nazis). For example, threatening letters were sent to a lawyer in Frankfurt. The lawyer’s address and name came from the police. The threatening letter had the signature: NSU 2.0. NSU means National Socialist Underground. The NSU was a neo-Nazi terror group that killed people in Germany between 1999 and 2011. We see that there are more and more neo-Nazis.
There are new laws for the police that give the police even more power to control, monitor and treat people violently. It is difficult for these people to defend themselves. This is because the state and the police work together. State and police are racist and sexist.
Citizens trust the state and the police. Even if the police lies again and again. For example, the police says: There is no racist profiling (that means police controls of people of color or black people). But everyone knows that the police very often controls people who have black or dark skin. That’s racist. It is forbidden to treat people differently because they are black or of color.
When the police tortures or kills people, they say: “That was the mistake of only one policeman. That was an isolated case.” We say there is no single case.
What the police does or doesn’t do always has to do with the whole police force. Again, the police has racist and sexist laws. The police helps and protects only the white citizens who belong to the majority society.
March 15th is the International Day Against Police Violence. Here in Germany and all over the world. We want to show that we are against violence. We say that the police controls people without reason, beats them up and kills them. And we commemorate all the people the police has hurt or killed.
Let’s be loud and strong together! On March 15th and all days of the year! Start actions and demonstrations. Be in solidarity. Fight back!
Aktionsbündnis 15. März
* We are an alliance of different Germany-wide groups working on police violence and racism in the police: KOP (Kampagne für Opfer rassistischer Polizeigewalt) & CopWatch.
Contact and further information: https://buendnis1503.blackblogs.org/
CopWatch Leipzig 