When I was like four years old, my mom got arrested. I wasn`t there but I heard about it. This experience was my first thought about police violence and that the police isn’t just our protector. Because no, my mom did not do anything bad to other humans or animals, she just sprayed a little grafitti. That was enough for the police to bring her to the police station. She had to stay there ‘til the next day. It wasn’t a big thing but for me as a 4-year-old, it was unbelievable. I want to talk about police violence, because it is important that everyone knows that the police is not just good and fair. Not every police officer makes the right decisions. The state controls the police and how we can see, the state also is not fair in many situations. So everything that the police is doing should be considered critically from every single human. A really good example for police violence happening in Berlin, is the Rigaerstraße in the northern part of Friedrichshain. I want to describe an evening when I was there.
Me and some friends are walking along the street. My view goes down the street. In a few meters there is an intersection. Many people are gathering there. We are getting closer. I see a good friend of mine. We are hurrying. I hug my friend. We are standing on the sidewalk. A Person which I don`t know, stands next to me on the street. And then, a police officer is coming and without any warning, he shoves the person off the street, back on the sidewalk. Just before the person is falling, we can hold the person. The Officer kicks into our group and goes back to his colleagues. They are standing there. They are tall and big and they have spooky helmets. We are getting closer to one of those houses, to get more distance from the street and to the police. But now, like fifteen officers are getting closer to us and now they`re beginning to walk around our group. Everywhere I see nothing but helmets, dark, tall, angry views, angry views. These eyes are looking at me. Frozen blue, ice blue, angry views. So much helmets, dark, tall, angry views. I am turning around and hold my friends. Dark, tall, helmets and angry views. I want to scream that they should go. But everywhere there are those tall, dark, helmets, angry views from cold, angry eyes. From outside of the circle there are many people screaming to the police. Tall, dark, helmets. Now the people outside are breaking through the police circle. My friend gasps because she was kicked by a police officer.
I hold her and some people are helping us to bring her in a house next to the intersection. But one of my friends stays there. She`ll help the others trying to get rid of the police. I’m looking to the people on the street. They are screaming at the police but those tall, dark figures with angry views and helmets and billets and pistols are angry and I see some people on the floor. They are sitting there to protest. They are sitting to fight. But the police pulls them up. The police is kicking the people until they are back on the sidewalk. Now the police is going back to the car and they are lining up. Still I can see the angry views, the ice-cold eyes and the tall and big body types. Helmets. Billets. All the people are getting more calm. But my friend is still not here. From the house comes an announcement. I can`t understand all the words. But I think it is something like that we have to fight repression. Right now, all the police officers are running closer to the house. Everybody is screaming at them. The fear rises in my heart. I start to shiver. All these tall, big, dark figures are pushing the people around them to the ground. And then: Many officers are grabbing one person. All the people around are screaming. They tug the person to the police car. Everyone screams. I can`t really understand which slogan but I know that I also have to scream. I scream. All the people around are screaming. The fear is getting bigger. Is it my friend there in the police car? Everyone is screaming. I scream. I can’t do anything. Because everywhere are tall, big, dark figures. Pistols, billets and angry views.
That was how I saw this situation. But the background of it, was mostly mutual provocation. The day wasn’t special. In the house at the intersection was just a little brunch and a little concert. Then the police officers came and now, all the people became angry that they ruined their good mood. Because it was just a nice evening, just talking with friends, listening to music and eating something. But the police had to stand there and destroy everything by angry views and later also violence. The cozy mood was gone. That was when it started that some people provoked the police by standing on the street or shouting a slogan because it is stupid and annoying what the police is doing. Then the police started to kick them back on the sidewalk. Or walking around a group. But at these moments, the police are doing more than they should and more then commanding. Their job is to keep people off the street but not to bully them violently on the sidewalk and indisciminately capture people who only have a nice afternoon there. With „there“ I mean the north part of Friedrichshain. A neighborhood that has the reputation of being dangerous and violent. But without the police, which has to annoy all the time, I think it would be a very peaceful neighborhood with houses, which are a great home to many people. But also providing spaces for political action and a lot of culture to the area. Without the police over there it would be a very peaceful area. Sometimes the police even shows up and uses violence when cotton candy is made for kids in the area. In the north part of Friedrichshain, the police is simply harder and more violent I think, because they know that some projects and houses over there are being illegally inhabited. But the police has nothing to do with it, if they don’t have an eviction order. And in my opinion also then, they should’nt go into houses, without the permission of the people who are living there. Most times, the order is just to hold the people away from the street. The fact that the house is maybe occupied or something is primarily something, which has to do with the owner and the police does not have the right to interverne. Also one has to consider, that the police is just doing their job, to keep the people away from the street – but they are using way more force than necessary. I don’t think that they should have the right to rule the peoples lives but if they do, the first thing should be ordering and then threat of violence and then violence. But pretty much times, the first thing that the police is doing in the northern neighborhood of Friedrichshain, is violence! This situation, which I’ve described, wasn’t the best example… There are many more situations, where the cops are more violent and unfair! But those situation are kind of too dangerous for me yet. And I wanted to write about a situation, where I was involved.