Also on Friday climate activists of the “last generation” occupied streets in Berlin. A video now shows how the police violently break up a blockade.
During a street blockade by the “Last Generation” in Berlin, there was a dispute between the police and a climate activist. “MDR investigativ” published a video on Friday evening showing the incident. It shows a police officer from the Berlin police warning an activist not to have to hurt him if he doesn’t leave the street on his own.
“If I cause you pain, if you force me to do it, you will have pain when chewing and swallowing for the next few days – not just today,” says the police officer in the direction of a member of the “Last Generation”. The man sitting on the street replied: “It’s not that bad. You don’t have to do that.”
Activist is painfully removed from the street
As a result, the officer again asks him to leave the street on his own, “otherwise I will cause you pain”. After the activist again shows no movement, two police officers grab the man and carry him off the street using physical force – so-called pain holds are also used. The activist screams several times in pain.
The video is currently going viral on the internet. Also because the use of the police is criticized. Some see police violence in this, others justify the use of the fact that the officer had previously announced that he would have to inflict pain on the activist if he did not leave the street on his own.
Last generation speaks of “torture-like methods”
The “Last Generation” speaks of “torture-like methods used on peaceful protesters” in connection with pain grips and calls on the police to “stop this practice of pain grips in peaceful protests. Torture traumatizes people who are tortured as well as those who torture”. .
In an interview with “MDR investigativ”, legal scholar and criminologist Tobias Singelnstein sees illegal police violence on the video: “The police always have to check what is the mildest way to achieve their goal. In the case of such peaceful sit-ins, carrying away is usually the case be milder means. From a legal point of view, pain grips are therefore not a proven means.”
Manuel Ostermann, Deputy Federal Chairman of the “DPolG Federal Police Union”, has a different opinion. He sees on the video “exercise of coercion after a previous threat. The disruptor did not comply with the request in advance and as a result the next mildest and most suitable means was chosen,” he writes on Twitter. “The behavior of the disruptor is less surprising, since that is exactly what is trained in ‘climate camps’. For me, everything is clean and well processed here.”
