On September the 16th, the police conducted raids against cops in Mülheim, Northrine-Westfalia (NRW). The reason for the raids was the participation of 29 officers in five extreme right-wing chats on WhatsApp were they found videos where black guys got shot.
The Police Department of Mülheim (Ruhr) is part of the Police Department of Essen, which is known for racist terror against the people. Chief of Police Frank Richter said to the Press: “In the German police, there is no racism at all. There are single cases but that’s it.” We realize that this is part of the dictatorship of the Bourgeoisie, when we take a look how the investigations against cops always mysteriously hit a dead end and cops cover each other. All those cops being part of the investigation are from a unit in Mülheim and even their boss took part in the chats. Frank Richter said, that there is a clever pre-warning system in place which consists someone responsible for taking care that there is no racism. This position however is currently taken by who else but Richter’s wife. How good this works you see, when you look at the chats, denying the existence of racist attacks against the people and cops who make fotos with fascists.
That the police’s conduct in Essen gets so much attention is to a large part that since the murder of working-class immigrant Adel B. racist police violence has been denounced again and again. The raids and the subsequent press conference now are a smoke screen and make-believe that the state would no tolerate fascists in their ranks. That his is merely putting on an act, can be seen if one takes a sober look at the other cases that surfaced this year in NRW. In Hamm, a fascist cop – part of a nazi cell – handed out gun licenses to who knows whom. In Aachen, where they have the exact same chat groups, two police men station in front of a synagogue played audio snippets of “Sieg Heil” over the official police radio. Here, we do not have raids, there is no public outcry and there are certainly no raids.
Hence, the situation in Essen is obviously different. The police department Essen is under heavy pressure and attempts to put on a show of making a “clean break”. Racism in the ranks has become so obvious that even the Minister of the Interior of NRW, Herbert Reul, cant lie about its existence anymore. Racism is no single case like Frank Richter says, racist comments and police violence are normality. Chauvinism in the ranks of the police is promoted and nourished and serves the state in enforcing his rule. Those racist attacks against the masses wont stop just because a few officers who have been gone to far get suspended now. Racism is part of imperialism ensures the dictatorship of bourgeoisie. The State is worried and tries to show himself as the defender of democracy by sacrificing some pawns. However, they have lied before and claimed there would be “no problem with racism in the police” and they will claim this again and next time even more fervently. But we can’t let us be fooled by it and have to go on fighting against the splitting of the class.
