When does police control become violation of justice? Violation of justice is described by law as “disproportional (physical) use of force by an officer in service”. Use of force by a police officer is legally seen as disproportional when a police officer uses coercion and their authority which leads to an unreasonable use of force. This definition throws up a few problems.
An act of violation is not described here as a specific act. The behaviour of a police officer is only classified as violation in the context in which it is carried out. This is because the use of physical violence is openly allowed by the public monopoly of violence that the police force have and also because it is only extreme forms of force like torture and execution that are forbidden.
A police officer who beats people up does not find himself immediately outside of the law, but it is only when their methods and ways used to carry out the violence can be seen as being unreasonable that they find themselves outside of the law. According to police principles, a police officer has “many possibilities and single measures to hurt those people who at least infringe upon rights of the individual officer and adversely affect the general public” . However the concept of unreasonable behaviour is interpreted differently according to people’s perceptions. For example if a suspect is subject to insults and being beaten and kicked when they are arrested, the police officer could, in retrospect, construe this violence towards the suspect as reasonable because they could, for example, allege that they used violence in resistance against the suspect. Correspondingly, in the case of alleged police violation, it is important to contact lots of witnesses in order to be able to oppose the legal representation of the police officer.
In general, one has to grasp the concept, that the use of force by police officers is only first seen as a violation when it is looked at in the context in which it has been carried out and is thereafter seen as disproportionate.
A further problem can be seen in the limitations of the term “violation of justice”, when it means the disproportional physical use of force. Police officers also misuse their authority through verbal insults, curses, by carrying out unlawful and harassing inspections and by threatening violence. The reality of the matter shows that physical abuse follows on from psychological abuse. Police officers also often use insults and provocation deliberately in order to be able to justisfy using physical violence on the basis of the reaction they get from the person that they have contact with. Unfortunately, however, the law hardly takes notice of psychological abuse.
Where does police violation of justice take place? For the majority of people violation does not occur in a public place, with the exception of violence at demonstrations, but rather privately for example in cells, under police watch or in police cars, thus assumingly shutting out witnesses from the start.
Along with these, people who take part in demonstrations such as journalists are often also victims of violation of justice. It is shocking to know that in the past few centuries superfluous and unneccessary police violence has been primarily aimed at immigrants. This corresponds to the factual creation of basic asylum laws and the increasing repression against refugees (compulsory rules of residency, laws of earning asylum status and the principle of material possessions, etc.). Together with the system of counter-reports and non-sanctioning through laws, Amnesty International was provoked to speak out about a “pattern” of police violence against foreigners in Germany.
Where does police violation of justice take place? For the majority of people violation does not occur in a public place, with the exception of violence at demonstrations, but rather privately for example in cells, under police watch or in police cars, thus assumingly shutting out witnesses from the start.
For the perpretrator it is hardly ever about one single person as violation of justice nearly always involves a collective of perpretators. Even when only one police officer insults someone or beats someone there are colleagues who tolerate this and later discover that by doing so they are just as criminal as those who commit the crime. This aggravates and mostly prevents a legal conviction against police violation of justice. (see article: Police Violation in a Law Free Area)
Most people do not notice violation of justice in public places. It only comes into the public eye in a few exceptional cases. In the majority of cases it is only noticed by senators or police officers and even then they try to present the victim as the perpetrator. As well as that, the prejudices that the public have are frequently realised: demonstrators are frequently represented as “people who cause chaos” and “people who go on the rampage” and immigrants are made out to be criminals. This view is supported by the guilty police officer in which they present the opposite side of the argument against the victim. It is only when the violation can no longer be denied – for example through the documentation of the violation with video and photographic material – that it is recognised and publically regretted. However in the majority of cases the perpretrator is labelled as a “black sheep” which is now a generally given cause, where structural causes and deficiencies are denied and the case is minimised. Only in a few cases has violation of justice resulted in serious consequences for the police officer’s career or other punishable consequences.
© Anti-Diskriminierungsbüro (ADB) Berlin e.V.
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