On tuesday 30th june 2015 a spontaneous demonstration took place in Aachen. Cause for this action was the killing of Mitch Henriquez by the use of racist policeviolence in The Hague last Saturday. The 42 year old Arubian was beaten to death by police officers during his arrest after the festival „Night at the Park“.
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From the very beginning the police lied about what actual happenend so they said that Henrique started „to feel bad“ on the way to the police station but video recordings show clearly that Henrique already was out cold while the officers were sitting on him and afterwards throwing him into the police van.
On the very same day and the following days people went on the street
in Schilderswijk, The Hague to demonstrate against the ongoing police
violence and again a lot of violation by the police took place. For
years The Hague police department is well known for its execessive use
of force and has been at the center of many scandals because of (racist)
police brutality.
The spontaneous demonstration in Aachen started on tuesday evening at the theater at went through the inner city to the market place. While shouting slogans like „Mitch Henriquez das war Mord – Widerstand an jedem Ort!“ infoflyers were spreaded to interested passers-by.
At the market place a banner with the inscription „No Justice – No
Peace“ was placed at the stairs of the city hall. This action which
should have center Aachens attention on the incident in The Hague (cause
obviously there was no statement at all in the german mainstream media
about what happened with Mitch Henriquez) was terminated with the
arrival of the cops. Two civilcops and a crew of a patrol car tried with
massive use of peppespray and baton to detain the activists and check
their identity cards. While some activists tried to leave the stairs of
the city hall they were injured by pepperspray of the police. One person
was pushed down the stairs and lost consciousness after hitting the
cobbled street with his head. That didn‘t prevent the police to sit with
three officers on this person while holding him in pain compliance
hold. To the information of bystanders that the person on the ground is
unconscious one police guy just answered: „He’s fine, he’s still
beathing.“ Eventhough after this person got handcuffed the
police didn‘t bring him to the hospital but the police station.
The two civilcops (btw who didn‘t prove their identity) were also injured by the pepperspray of their colleagues.
Just after a group of students insistently called on the police to give another handcuffed and heavy peppersprayed demonstrant some water they did so.
In the meantime more and more police forces appeared on the market place who started to check peoples ID and detain bystanders at random so that even totally univolved pedestrian were controlled and criminalized.
10 of the detained people were brought to the police station. At 4am everyone got out, one person has been ID‘d (fingerprinted, photographed..).
We state:
A demonstration against police violence got breakup by police violence.
Afterwards the police trys to justify the excessive mission with
pointing the finger on the allegedly violent activists.
Fact is: all injury on the demonstrants side as well on the polices side
were caused by the pepperspray used by the police forces and not as
written in the police report from kicks and hits by the activists.
One police officer and one demonstrant were ambulant treated in the
hospital but the number of injured people was clearly higher. 10
detained people after a peaceful action, as well as the accusation of
bodily harm and breach of the public peace. This bill shows the
incredible disproportion of the current police mission and is an ensign
for the daily arbitrary practice of the police and repression in Aachen.
Original version (in german language): https://linksunten.indymedia.org/de/node/147204