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GERMANY: Police racism

01 September 1994

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Since the spring German police have come under strong criticism for racism in their handling of migrants. Action has only been undertaken in one Land (region), Brandenburg where police officers were accused of ill treating Vietnamese dealers of smuggled cigarettes. Here the investigation proceeded due to the support of the Brandenburg Commissioners for Foreigners and the local police chief - both are women from the civil rights movement in the former GDR. In neighbouring Berlin officers conducting an investigation into similar cases have been publicly accused of making false accusations.

Discussion of police racism came to the fore in Hamburg. On 12 September the Interior Minister of Hamburg, Mr Hackmann, surprisingly resigned because he could not act on accusations of racism, largely because he got little response from the police. The week before Tageszeitung reported that a 44 year old Senegalese man, Mr Dialle D. was heavily beaten for having worn a sticker saying "no chance for Nazis". Two officers had been fined but not suspended until the newspaper publicised the attack. Mr D however had his passport confiscated and his residence permit revoked.

This came in the wake of major concerns about the actions of Hamburg police, especially the so-called E-units, special support police units about which the Social Democrat dominated Senate and Mr Kackmann had done nothing. Two days after Hackmann's resignation 27 Hamburg police officers were suspended from duty. But on 29 September Hackmann's successor Mr Wrocklage lifted the suspension on the grounds that there was not sufficient evidence to proceed with the investigation.

Tageszeitung, 14.9.94 & 30.9.94; Frankfurter Rundschau, 14.9.94; CILIP Berlin.

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