UN expert sees system failure in police violence in Germany

by time news

IAccording to a UN human rights expert, there is a “system failure” in Germany when it comes to dealing with police violence. This is the conclusion drawn by the previous UN Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, Nils Melzer, from his exchange with the federal government, as he told the German Press Agency. The newspaper Die Welt had previously reported on it.

In the summer of 2021, Melzer was startled by several videos that apparently showed police violence in Berlin demonstrations against corona measures. He expressed concern about it and asked the federal government for a statement. “I was concerned about the government’s reaction,” he said now. In the opinion of the federal government, it was proportionate that police officers, for example, pushed a non-aggressive demonstrator off his bike and threw it on the ground. “The authorities’ perception of what is proportionate is distorted,” said Melzer.

He asked the federal government for statistics on how many police officers were prosecuted for disproportionate violence, said Melzer. The answer was: in two years there was only one, and in several federal states there are no statistics at all. “This is not a sign of good behavior, but of system failure,” said Melzer. “The authorities don’t see how blind they are.”

“Arrogance is dangerous”

While demonstrators would sometimes be sentenced in summary proceedings, proceedings against police officers would be stopped or delayed “until nobody is looking anymore”. His conclusion: “Police surveillance doesn’t work in Germany.” Arrogance is dangerous, said Melzer: “It destroys citizens’ trust in the police.”

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