For some people the police is an institution who cares about security. But for a lot of people police is a threat in daily life. The police is patrolling and controlling in our neighborhoods and in public places. Those controls seem arbitrary. But they are not. They are based on social and economical concepts of discrimination. People face police contact for example because they are poor, young, black or people of color or migrants. Racial profiling and other discriminatory controls, physical violence and murder by the police threaten the lives of many people in everyday life. On top of that the police is getting more and more competences and tools, as we could see with the new police law, implemented at the beginning of 2020. With more and more tools, the police can harass more people.
We are a group of people that got together during the protest against the new police law in Saxony in 2018. Police these days is a political actor who has its own agenda that is pushed through corridors of power. We believe that there is no transparency in their actions. This transparency can only be achieved through collective efforts of the population. Government coalitions change and their policies as well, that’s why we believe that actions in interest of the public should be organized by the public itself.
During the protest against the new police law there was discussion about an independent office for complaints of police misconduct. This discussion was never transformed into a real project by political parties. So with politicians being not able to control part of the executive branch of power we decided that this can be done only by the people.
We are working voluntarily to collect data on police actions, publish information and provide support to those affected. To provide individual support we are constantly educating ourselves and working together with other initiatives who are experienced in counseling.
We do not apply for financing from political parties and foundation as well as we do not accept donations from political parties, foundations, governmental structures, big businesses and companies. We believe that society should maintain structures that it has an interest in. By keeping political and business money out of the collective we believe we can stay independent from political influences of those.
However with that mentioned we are not apolitical. Members of our group have their own political ideas. Together in the group we believe that in many cases public and state interest are standing in opposite corners of the room. That’s why we believe that only through grassroot organizations we can build up structures that can represent interest of the public.