In Baden Württemberg there was once again very intensive police violence in the last week. Especially on the first of May in Stuttgart, the freedom of assembly was once again hit with the police baton.
If you look at the reports in the german bourgeois press about this year's First of May, the international day of struggle of the working class, the picture painted is clear. The German bourgeoisie proclaims its alleged success in the media, because after a media scare campaign about riots took place in advance, and hundreds of thousands of police officers were mobilized against the protests it finally stayed quite calm. This is what the press says. Only in Stuttgart is there said to have been a lot of trouble on the first of May. There is talk about supposedly violent riots. According to the police, left-wing demonstrators suddenly attacked police officers with pepper spray, wooden slats with screws and other punching tools, as they stopped the demonstration. In order to push the alleged drama even further in the media, the Stuttgart police also published pictures of seized objects that were allegedly used as weapons. The various major newspapers did what they always do, namely copy the police statement one-to-one in their reports.
In reality, however, the first of May in Stuttgart looked very different to how it was portrayed in the media.
Even before the police operation began, the Stuttgart police took a political action against the protests by putting pressure on the Stuttgart DGB and tried to force it to cancel the traditional trade union demonstration on the grounds of a supposed "risk of escalation". With success. The right trade union leadership buckled and played helper to the state repression by spontaneously canceling its annual demonstration. However, the workers in the union refused to put up with this and independently registered a demonstration, which this year took place without the union bosses.
Following the demonstration by the union base, the revolutionary May Day demonstration should take place. However, shortly before the start of the demonstration, it was suddenly stopped and attacked by the police, according to participants in the demonstration. The demonstration was brutally sprayed and beaten with punches, kicks and, above all, lots of pepper spray. Police horses and dogs were also used by the cops against the demonstrators. The result after a short and brutal attack was a police kettle in which 167 people were temporarily arrested and detained for hours.
While the media report lies about massive "left-wing extremist violence" against the police, the opposite is in fact the case.
On closer inspection, it quickly becomes clear that the police were not attacked with pepper spray from within the demonstration. Numerous videos of the police attack show cops spraying indiscriminately into the demonstration from several sides, sometimes even hitting their own colleagues. Classic friendly fire. The supposedly prepared objects that were publicly presented by the police also turn out, on closer inspection, to be simply holders for a high banner that were destroyed by the police. The police are trying to justify a planned, unprovoked attack on a registered demonstration with all kinds of absurd lies and the bourgeois "journalists" are helping them.
The police's official justification for this attack was merely the setting up of side banners, which this year was a violation of the demonstration regulations dictated by the police. Since October 7th last year in particular, the police have been repeatedly dictating strict demonstration regulations throughout Germany, which often have no legal basis at all. In the spirit of German fascism, the executive has, for example, banned legal political slogans such as "Free Palestine" or in some cases even forbidden Arabic language to be spoken at demonstrations. All without a legal decision by the judiciary. In this context, the ban on side banners, which are normal at almost every demonstration, is nothing more than targeted political bullying and a pretext for attacking the demonstration.
But it was not only in Stuttgart that police violence occurred last week. In Bad Friedrichshall, a small village in Baden Württemberg, firearms were used as a man was shot by the police during a house search. The Police says, he allegedly used a knife to defense against the officers who stormed his home. In the aftermath of the search, the police are now talking about a "serious criminal offense threatening the state" that was allegedly being prepared by the man. The person is currently in custody for the alleged attack with the knife
The police also used firearms outside of southern Germany last week. Last Saturday, for example, the Gambian worker Lamin Touray was murdered with eight shots by German police officers in Nienburg in Lower Saxony. He is also said to had a knife with which he supposedly tried to attack the officers. Friends of Lamin told the Taz newspaper that Lamin was in a state of psychic emergency and that the police escalated the situation from the beginning. Neighbors also observed the situation and reported that after killing Lamin, the police left his body lying naked like a dead animal in front of the entrance to the house for hours.
This practice of shooting people who are mentally ill without hesitation and at the same time beating up and arresting those who oppose the injustices of this society is typical of the activities of the police. It is clear that the police are a reactionary and racist group that commits massive crimes against the people.
Picture: The Police attacks the revolutionary demonstration on First of May in Stuttgart
Source: SWR.de
