(Amnesty Int.) Germany: police ill-treatment and excessive use of force

[Dirk39]

Introduction

"My mother told me that if I worked hard everything would be alright. I worked hard and built up my own business. But this has destroyed everything - I cannot even smile anymore. I cannot laugh anymore. The laughter has gone - the laughter has gone."

Josef Hoss is a small businessman operating his own tile-laying business. Shortly after departing for work on 8 December 2000 the then 49-year-old Josef Hoss' van was blocked by two unmarked police vehicles, from in front and behind, in a narrow lane near to his home in the small town of St. Augustin, near Bonn. Masked police officers sprang from the two vehicles, rushed towards Josef Hoss' van, smashed in the passenger-side window with a hammer and pulled him out of the vehicle onto the road. The police officers allegedly hit the man with their batons and fists and kicked him repeatedly after he was thrown to the ground and handcuffed. Josef Hoss was said to have lost consciousness and woke up slumped against a wall, still handcuffed, with a cloth bag over his head. He sustained multiple injuries as a result of the incident, including two fractured ribs and multiple bruising and abrasions. The ill-fated episode of that December morning, however, has had much longer-term implications for Josef Hoss' health, his ability to work and subsequently his family's financial security. The basis for the police operation appeared to be a statement made by one of Josef Hoss' neighbours, a serving police officer with whom there had been a quarrel, implicating Josef Hoss with the possession of illegal firearms. However, no illegal firearms were found and no charges were ever filed against Josef Hoss. To date, none of the police officers accused of ill-treating him have faced criminal charges.

Though extremely disquieting, this episode has been only one of a significant number of incidents of alleged ill-treatment or excessive use of force which have come to the attention of Amnesty International in recent times. In certain instances, the consequences of the actions of the police have been fatal. In May 2002 North Rhine-Westphalia's political establishment was rocked by the police scandal which came to light as a result of the tragic death of 31-year-old Stephan Neisius in Cologne. Prior to his death Stephan Neisius had spent 13 days on a life support ventilation system in a Cologne hospital after being repeatedly kicked and hit by a group of police officers as he lay handcuffed on the floor of a police station in the city. Charges of bodily harm resulting in death were filed against six police officers, who came to trial in late June 2003. Although Cologne District Court convicted all six police officers of bodily harm resulting in death on 25 July 2003, none of the accused were sentenced to periods of imprisonment. Instead, Cologne District Court sentenced the six police officers to suspended prison terms of between 12 and 16 months."

More: http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGEUR230012004

Hello from Germany,
Dirk

[stevedeshazer]

1. Thank you for the post, Dirk

I was not aware of the extent this is happening in Germany. Violence by police is a universal problem.a

[Bonobo]

2. Yeah, but somehow scarier

when it happens in Germany (again). Still, I warrant the Germans would be happy to have their civil rights record compared against Miami or LA cops.

[Dirk39]

3. What's so special about Germany is the complete lack...

of transparency. Esp. compared to the USA. I'm not in the mood and I don't think, it would make much sense to find out, who's "better" or worse.
But if I compare, what's happening in the USA, when some lawyers start to offend corporate crime or start to intervene, when things happe like the cases, amnesty is reporting about, to the reactions in Germany: the civil society in the US is still looking much better.
And since our right-wing neoliberal "Greens" and the "social" "democrats" are in office, it's worse than ever before.
Our socialdemocrat - and former Green - Minister of the Interior (it's what Ashcroft is in the US) Otto Schilly makes even Ashcroft look like a democrat.
After September 11, some laws have passed our congress, that might would have caused much more resistance in the USA than they caused in Germany.
Hey, Americans still refuse to have ID cards, 'cause they see it as a kind of violations of their individual rights...
Dirk

[stevedeshazer]

5. That is amazing

Are you saying that Germany is less transparent today than the U.S.?

Americans are identified by their Social Security number. It is fiction that we don't have a national identification number.

And in the US media, the Germans are second only to the French in being hated. Television and radio news here are uniformly against the Euros (except the United Kingdom).

After September 11, 2001 the U.S. Congress passed the USA PATRIOT Act. You know the rest, I think.

[Mairead]

7. Dirk, do folk still pile up gifts at the feet of traffic police in the

hols? When I lived in Germany in the '60s, I thought that a truly charming custom that spoke well of the police and their relationship to the people.

What you report in this thread sounds as though that relationship might be a back number, now.

[LifeDuringWartime]

4. welcome to america

er… maybe not :shrug:

[Dirk39]

6. Just a little foretaste

http://www.dw-world.de/dwelle/allgemein/bilder_show/0,3772,18776_1,00.jpg
US Attorney General John Ashcroft and German Interior Minister Otto Schily after their meeting Friday in Berlin

In Germany, Interior Minister Otto Schily has proposed loosening regulations on phone taps and the monitoring of e-mail and bank accounts, giving investigators rights to pry without any stated suspicion. Mr Schily stated that "the principle of protecting the people's personal data must not stand in the way of fighting crime and terrorism" (Herald Tribune, 6 December 2001).
Sounds familiar somehow?


http://www.dw-world.de/english/0,3367,1434_A_354759,00.html

Dirk

[Turley]

8. Some of them can be pretty bad

An American guy I know (he's black) got beat up by some local yahoos at a Fasching parade. Cops showed up and guess who they carted off? Yep the "coloured" beating victim. He spent two days in an unheated cell (February) with the window open for "Luften" before someone I knew casually mentioned it to me. I got ahold of his DOD employer and they got him out. No phone call for two days, no formal charges (they were, of course dropped) and nearly froze to death in there.

But hey, it beats the hell out of being an Arab in a French jail.

[Dirk39]

9. The racism among some police-officers...

is a shame.
One guy I know, who's living in spain and has a spanish passport comes to Germany from time to time, to buy a used car and send it to Nigeria or Jamaica. One time, the police somehow suspected him. They forced him to drive the car, although he refused to do it first, 'cause he doesn't have a driving license for Germany. After they pressurized him even more, he did what they demanded. Then they arrested him for driving without a driving license. After half a night in a cell, they simply put him in their car, drove for about half an hour and threw him out in the middle of the night. He didn't have any money with him and they made somehow sure, that he doesn't know where he is at all and that no public transport is in reach. This is pretty common, esp. when they know that they've catched someone, who isn't aware of his rights.
In Hamburg, it happened years before, that police officers were arresting africans, who live in Germany and were suspected being small drug dealers, drove them to a beach, beating them up and drove away.
Another typical procedure: when africans are controlled at the airport, they look at them again and again and again, look at their passport, look at them and make remarks like: these blacks all look the same anyway, is this really you?
Although these police-officers seem to have problems to recognize a face, they only go for people, who look like refugees, people, who look as if they're not in Germany for long. Wouldn't happen to a black, who's looking like a buisness-guy.

Not all police-officers are like this and I have experienced real gentle ones, too. But that things like this can happen at all, without consequences is frightening. I took a lawyer for the girl described above and her brother, too (the guy with the used car). We nearly reached nothing. He even had to pay for driving without driving license.

I know this racism against arab or arab-looking people in France, too.
A friend of mine, who's an american and a jew, but who looks a bit arab - never thought about it before - was treated like shit by french police guys. BTW: Hey David, why aren't you at DU???

Dirk