Demonstration against police brutality
Ehrenzeller Platz | Essen-Altendorf
20.06.2020 | 3pm
Dear friends, sisters and brothers, comrades-in-arms
on April 26, 2017 Mike Haile is shot by the police in Essen. On 18 June 2019, Adel was shot by the police through the locked door of his house, also without any concrete threat from the police. Since their death, the families and friends of Mike and Adel have been fighting for a legal and political clarification of the cases. Racist police violence must be named and persecuted everywhere, not only in the USA but also here in our neighbourhood. Because the names of Mike and Adel are part of a long chain of victims of racist police violence in Germany.
In 2020, three cases of racist police brutality again in Essen went viral on social media:
- In mid-February, Ridvan Demir is racially insulted, beaten up in the police station Altenessen. He'll break his nose.
- In early March, Mrs. Loveth Agbonlahor and her daughters are insulted, humiliated and beaten at the police station. Actually, she was just there to report the loss of her wallet.
- On April 25th, the Ayoub family is visited at home, allegedly because of a disturbance of the silence, and is not only humiliated but brutally beaten up.
The responsible persons and authorities in Essen refuse to clarify the cases and reject any accusation.
The rage over the murder of Mike and Adel, the anger over the cases that have become public knowledge forces the families and friends to take action and go to the streets once again. We call on the refugee and migrant communities to respond to the call and to strengthen the families concerned and to express our rage at the indifference of civil society and the responsible authorities towards racist attacks by the police. Above all, however, we want to manifest our solidarity with the families through our presence on the ground and strengthen them in their struggle for justice.
Spread the call of the families and come to Essen on Saturday. Please find the call below.
BREAK THE SILENCE
In solidarity we remain
YOUR CARAVAN for the rights of refugees and migrants - Wuppertal
Contact:
KARAWANE für die Rechte der Flüchtlinge und MigrantInnen
Büro Wuppertal, Marienstraße 52, 42103 Wuppertal
Telefon: +49 (0) 178 853 07 01
E-Mail: wuppkarawane@yahoo.de
https://www.facebook.com/caravannetwork/
https://www.facebook.com/karawanewuppertal/
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Justice for Adel - It is not a single case
The murder of George Floyd has shown the world how cruel racist police violence can be. Rightly, people are now taking to the streets and fighting for their rights. So do we, because racist police violence does not only exist in the USA. Cases of police assaults are also increasing in Essen, especially against people with a migration background. Equipped with additional powers as a result of the Corona pandemic and strengthened by the lack of a police force and political backing, harassment, arbitrary police checks and physical attacks are on the increase, especially in Essen's working class districts. The Central Aliens Authority (ZAB) (translators addition: or call it the deportation agency) and the Office for Public Order are also increasingly involved in this everyday terror. In the meantime, it is a sad reality that people with a migration background are killed in this city by the hands of the police.
The case of Adel
On June 18, 2019 Adel B. was shot by the police through the closed door of his hallway. Adel had previously contacted the emergency services and threatened to commit suicide in order to get psychological help. Adel had already called the emergency call the week before, a pastor was sent, and Adel was placed in psychiatric treatment. From this he was released again on the judge's decision. On the day of Adel's death, the emergency call centre did not send a pastor along again, but only officials from the Essen police force, who confronted Adel with a gun. Although Adel discussed with them, put the knife aside in the meantime and finally made his way home, he was finally shot by the police. In retrospect, it was claimed that Adel had attacked the policemen with a knife. Videos have proven that the statement of the police was wrong and refute the lies of the police.
The case of Maikel Haile
Mikael Haile, who was born in Eritrea, was also shot by police in Essen in 2017. The police then claimed to have acted in self-defense, as Mikael allegedly attacked her with a knife. There's no evidence of that. Since the beginning of this year, police assaults in Essen have increased even further: The best known case is that of the Ayoub family. Here the police appeared because of an alleged disturbance of silence. Under this pretext, two policemen wanted to enter the house of the Ayoub family. When Omar Ayoub demanded his rights and wanted to see a search warrant, he and his family were insulted and physically attacked by the police officers. In retrospect, the family is accused of having links with organised crime. The lies are intended to ensure that there is no solidarity with the Ayoub family. This and other cases, such as that of Ridvan Saado in February, who was beaten up in the Altenessen police station, or the attack on a family from Mülheim, who were chased by police through the whole city in March after they wanted to file a report in a police station, show that racist motivated police assaults in Essen are not an exception but a system.
Racism and police violence has a system
When those affected vent their anger at this racist approach and expose the behaviour of the police, lies hail from the police, slander from the press and proceedings from the public prosecutor. On the other hand, the "investigations" against police officers repeatedly run in the sand and are systematically swept under the carpet, as the case of Oury Jalloh has shown. With such a backing, police officers can beat or even shoot people without hindrance. They need not fear punishment. Entire districts such as Altendorf have been declared hazardous areas, which means, among other things, "without cause" or "without suspicion" checks on persons. The aim of the controls is to target young people with a migration background. Under the guise of fighting crime, the police are allowed to intimidate migrant sections of the population and criminalise them publicly and in the media, especially the "WAZ".
All this is a necessary part of imperialism. We should be divided into "Germans" and "migrants" from different countries of origin, so that we fight each other instead of the existing conditions. Thus racism in this country serves as a pretext to expose a large part of the working people to greater exploitation and oppression and paves the way for wars of aggression all over the world. Let's get one thing straight: We must not play this game and not let ourselves be played off against each other.
It is up to us to make a difference
We don't want to put up with this harassment anymore. Again and again, people with a migration background
The subsequent organizations call for the demonstration:
- the Ayoub family
- Relatives of Adel
- Friends from Mikael (Mike)
- Ruhr Youth (Ruhrjugend)
- Migrantifa NRW
- Initiative Justice for Adel
Local group
Campaign