Demonstrations against racism and police violence
The violent death of George Floyd by police hand in Minneapolis (USA) shocks. For minutes, a police officer pressed his knee on the neck of the 46-year-old man. Not only in the USA, in many other countries and also in Germany people show their sympathy. However, Germany is also showing an extreme side: the protests are "against racism and police violence". Undifferentiated, the police officers are accused of violence and structural racism here as well. Who benefits?
Racist police violence in the U.S
The U.S. citizen George Floyd was killed on 25. May 2020 accused by store security of paying for a pack of cigarettes with a fake $20 bill. Floyd denied this and refused to hand over the purchased cigarettes. Employees called the police. They assessed Floyd as drunk and described their impression to arriving police. A total of four police officers dealt with the facts of the case. George Floyd initially did not want to get out of his passenger car, but eventually cooperated. Before the patrol car, Floyd panicked, stating that he was claustrophobic and could not sit in the patrol car. Here he reported breathing problems for the first time. When he was put in the back seat, there was a scuffle between him and a police officer. Another then pulled him out of the patrol car, three policemen fixed him on the ground, one by kneeling on his neck. Passers-by started filming this scene and heard Floyd's pained words "I can't breathe", moreover they saw that he was bleeding from his nose. They asked the policeman to let go of the man. In total, this sat unchanged on the neck of the man for eight minutes and 46 seconds. During this, George Floyd had lost consciousness, also police could no longer feel a pulse even while he was being restrained.
George Floyd's death, which was detained, sparked a wave of protest in the U.S. The images of his suffering, his last words filled with pain and the apparent indifference with which the police officers proceeded are document of an inhumane treatment of the state executive branch. The act is considered a racist homicide.
The U.S. has an inglorious tradition of unequal treatment of African Americans:
Already from the 17. In the nineteenth century, persecution and arrest occurred when they went on the road. Even in the 1960s, there were various inequalities between whites and blacks, ranging from opportunities to study to the use of the same swimming pool in a hotel. What today appears to be generally inhumane lives on in some people's minds.
Even within the American police force, phenomena of unequal treatment sometimes exist, such as the phenomenon of "driving while black" (increased checks on African Americans in their cars). Legally, the situation has been clarified: Racial profiling was banned in the USA in February 2001 (Georg W. Bush: "Racial Profiling is wrong."). Practices such as the so-called. "stop-and-frisk programs" were declared unconstitutional in 2012. For decades, the police service has included many African Americans, yet incidents of what is classified as racist police violence continue to occur. Nevertheless, this should not be generalized to all police officers in the U.S., because this simply does not correspond to reality.
Situation and discussions in Germany
The situation of the police in the USA and in Germany is not easily transferable. Recruitment and training are subject to different requirements and conditions in this country. Racial profiling, however, is also addressed in the context of the treatment of German police officers. The term means the unequal treatment of people by police officers on the basis of external appearance characteristics. There is no legal definition of racial profiling in Germany. The ban stems from Art. 3 para. 3 sentence 1 GG (national law) and from Art. 14 ECHR i.V.m. Type. 8 para. 1, 1. Alt. ECHR, Art. 26 sentence 2 IPbpR and Art. 2 Abs. 1 Book. a) UN Convention against Racism (international law). Measures taken on the basis of origin, skin color, etc., can only be solved by all. are thus unlawful.
There were also isolated allegations of police violence in Germany, including fatalities. For example, the circumstances of the death of Oury Jollah in 2005 have not been fully clarified to date. The police in Dessau (Saxony-Anhalt) and also the Ministry of the Interior did not cut a good figure in this context, they blocked investigations. This they must take credit for and answer for contributing to the general suspicion against the police throughout Germany. However, "findings" such as those generated in the study KViaPol of the Ruhr University Bochum must also be critically questioned: If police counterparts are to assess for themselves whether unlawful violence has been inflicted on them by police officers, then it must be
a) the possibility of a conflict of interest must be taken into account and
b) note that a legal assessment is required from non-lawyers.
In addition, the information provided by the anonymous subjects, who were asked to provide self-disclosure u.a. recruited via social media are not subject to truthfulness checks. While the research team took this into account in their interim report and stressed several times that the study was not representative, it is often cited in the media as a status quo and reference for police violence.
In addition to the differentiated approach to the topic of violence by police officers, the other side must also be considered, namely everyday violence against police officers on duty. The BKA now announced the figures for the reporting year 2019. In this, in the police crime statistics (PKS) 36.959 cases of "resistance to and assault on state authority" recorded. Compared to the previous year (2018: 34.168 cases), this means an increase of 8.2%. The suspects are known in 98.0% of the cases (2018: 98.4%). The Berlin police alone register an average of 20 cases of physical violence against police officers per day. Now, of course – and especially if you accuse the police of being exclusively bad anyway – you can also question the recorded figures of the PKS, because after all they are recorded by the police themselves. However, one could also make an effort to the insurance companies and aid offices of the police officers and, for example, investigate failures and consequential damages after acts of violence in more detail – which would be costly, but certainly an important aspect to capture the extent and to investigate the violence between police and police counterparts in more detail.
Benefits for left-wing extremists and criminals
The current debates on police violence in Germany are guided by the mood in the U.S. A number of participants in the demonstrations in Berlin, Stuttgart Hamburg and many other cities do not differentiate and instead place the police under general suspicion. Especially members of the left scene use the current situation to make an anti-police attitude acceptable. Thus, they use the act against George Floyd and his agonizing death to create sentiment in Germany about. So, those who are now forgetting all principles in the wake of the Corona crisis in order to hurriedly "set an example" should take the time to think about this fact as well.
The prosecution of crimes is governed by very clear principles to which police officers must adhere. So they are trained and constantly updated. Criminal policy measures in Germany must also comply with applicable law. Criminal members of family clans, as well as other people known to the police, now prefer to interpret police control measures as "racist police controls" and refer to themselves in the press and on social media as "the new Jews". This victim role must be understood as a strategic protective factor that u.a. has already been observed for some time in criminal proceedings by corresponding defense lawyers. Nevertheless, they get the achieved backing, especially from police-critical action alliances. In this context, the psychologist and publicist Ahmad Mansour points to a real double standard that harms society and helps criminals to style themselves as victims. Mansour sees the danger of insecurity of police officers who, due to social insinuations, are worried in the future about carrying out necessary measures because they fear stigmatization as racially motivated.
Conclusion
Meanwhile, the demonstrations in the U.S. show many faces: Alongside angry protesters, police officers in full gear knelt down and expressed their solidarity with them and George Floyd. Elsewhere, angry white protesters attack dark-skinned police officers. On the other hand, police officers beat representatives of the press or try to intimidate them with rubber bullets and obstruct reporting. It is the task of the media to present these different facets and also to research and differentiate the transferability of police violence in the USA to Germany well. Any waves of protest "against something" are booming in Germany. With the necessary critical view towards the state and its executive branch, this must not become an unquestioned agitation against police officers. This benefits criminals and enemies of the state alone.
The article reflects the personal opinion of the author.