Since the beginning of April 2018, residents of the St. Pauli district and other people in solidarity have been protesting at the Balduintreppe to point out the state of siege by the police, racist controls and the criminalisation of our neighbourhood and to defend ourselves against it.
With the action form “Copwatch Hamburg”, we started to critically accompany, document and make public the police measures in front of our front doors and to take back the public space through a creative performance.
Uniformed with high-visibility waistcoats and body cams, but also in plain clothes disguised as bottle collectors or skateboarders, police officers of the so-called “Task Force Drugs” are on the streets of St. Pauli around the clock.
This constant presence gives the impression of living in a surveillance state.
The problem is racism!
Legitimised by the so-called “dangerous places” anchored in police law, suspicionless checks take place every day in St. Pauli, but also in Sternschanze and St. Georg. However, these places are primarily dangerous for residents and visitors who are affected by the practice of “racist profiling”.
Illegal according to several administrative court rulings, there is hardly any chance for the people checked here to defend themselves against it. As there is still no independent complaints body, there is no guarantee that the police will not arbitrarily arrest people in these places.
Our solidarity is with all those who are affected by racism. All kinds of racism: structural racism, racist asylum laws that do not allow people to work and exclude them from social participation, racist violence that is also repeatedly carried out by the police.What is staged on our doorsteps as “fighting publicly perceived drug crime” is in fact a fight against people in precarious living conditions.Again and again, the police try to criminalise witnesses of racist controls and to stir up fear. The suspicion arises that a critical public is unwanted and that illegal police measures should remain invisible.We stand in solidarity against these intimidation attempts and will continue to campaign for a public space for all.
What to do?
If you observe racist police checks, do not walk on, but stop, ask about the situation of the person concerned and offer your help. If you want help, ask the police officers about the purpose of the stop, ask for their names and badge numbers. Also ask for the name of the person concerned, their date of birth and where they will be taken if they are taken away. Inform supporters and/or write us an email with the requested data, date, time and place of the check.
Put an end to the spectre of threat hallucinated by politicians, police, media and some residents! Abolish the “dangerous places” and the “drugs task force”! Stop the racist controls on St. Pauli and elsewhere! Solidarity instead of repression!
More info at:
#CopwatchHH
Contact: copwatch-hh@systemli.org