Merle Emrich – Pike & Hurricane

Lessons on democracy: the blank vote

Merle Emrich — Sun, 14 Jun 2020 15:30:02 +0000

It is easy to claim that low voter turnout during elections is due to complacency, indifference and a lazy attitude of taking democratic rights and freedoms that others died, and are still dying, for granted. However, low turnouts, spoilt ballot papers and especially blank votes can be political statements in themselves.

Blank votes and democratic dissatisfaction

Who can be surprised by low turnouts, symptomatic for a lack of confidence in party politics, when policies do not overlap with rhetoric? When elections are presented as an opportunity to evoke positive change but positive change does not come. When the choice offered on the ballot paper seems to be that between plague and cholera. When people feel they need to vote tactically or that their vote does not count due to a winner-takes-it-all system or percentage barriers. Thus, low turnouts don’t necessarily hint at an increasing political indifference in Western society but at an increasing disillusionment with the representative democratic system as it is which makes people turn to informal rather than formal means of political participation.

This trend goes hand in hand with the increasing number of protests as well as blank votes. In the Spanish elections of 2011, 300 000 blank votes (ballot papers that have been left blank), 300 000 spoilt votes (ballot papers that have been filled in or submitted incorrectly) and 100 000 votes for the blank vote party Escaños en blanco (‘blank seats’) were counted which represents about 3 percent of the voters. In the second round of the 2017 French presidential elections 11.52 percent of the ballots cast, more than ever before, where either spoilt (3%) or blank (8.52%). As single cases they hint at the people’s dissatisfaction with the candidates in a specific election, when it becomes a trend it becomes evidence for more fundamental dissatisfaction with the system, says Chiara Superti (Columbia University).

Illusions of democracy

The solution certainly cannot be to brush of all those who do not vote or vote blank as indifferent or even undemocratic. Instead, non-voters, blank votes and spoilt ballot papers can offer insights into citizens’ political opinions. Lessons can be learned from them if we take a step back and reflect on our understanding of democracy.

In The UNESCO Courier sociologist Alain Touraine identifies two prerequisites for democracy: 1) freedom of political choice which makes possible a system in which power is distributed based majority decision, and 2) social conflict, for instance the workers’ movement. Granted, it would be a mistake to adopt a black-and-white thinking in which there exist only democratic and non-democratic systems instead of recognising the multitude of forms and levels of democracy. And, at the same time, if we critically inspect people’s freedom of political choice and democratic representation, we must admit to ourselves that our representative democracy is far from perfect.

In his video on democracy, the YouTuber Oliver Thorn (Philosophy Tube) presented a re-calculation of the Brexit referendum result taking into account the people who were not allowed to vote (prisoners and non-British residents). According to his calculation only 71.2% of the people who have an interest in the UK’s future were allowed to vote on it. Thus, merely 26.6% of the people living in the UK voted to leave the European Union. All debate about Brexit aside, it is fair to say that in this case, as in others, it was not a majority who made a ‘democratic’ decision. And even among those who are able to vote, the majority can overrule the voices of minorities and marginalised groups reducing the democratic system to democracy for the rich and the privileged.

The blank vote

Voting blank as political protest or statement is not a recent phenomenon. It can be traced back to the beginnings of modern Western democracy: in the 1881 French legislative elections around three percent of the votes were voided and in some areas up to 20 percent of the ballot papers were spoilt. Many of the comments that were scribbled on the ballot papers were written in a sophisticated language and showed an understanding of complex political concepts which suggests that the votes had been spoilt as protest based on an informed decision.

However, in many cases blank votes are not taken into consideration. In countries like the UK they are considered spoilt votes. And until recently this was also the case in France. Since 2014 blank votes are counted separately from spoilt votes but have no impact on the election results. Countries like Italy, the Netherlands, Costa Rica and Brazil have the same approach. Blank votes are in these cases merely symbolic. Yet, their recognition would have a real impact on election results. In 1995, Jacques Chirac would not have won the majority in presidential elections, and neither would have François Hollande in 2012, had blank votes been calculated into the election results.

Only few countries recognise the blank vote, and many of them not fully. In Sweden blank votes are only taken into account in referendums. And while Switzerland recognises blank votes, they merely have a noticeable impact in certain local elections since a relative majority is sufficient to win the presidential elections. In Spain blank votes are taken into consideration when calculating the participation threshold, yet only valid ballot papers are used to calculate the seat distribution in parliament. It is in Latin America where we can find countries that fully recognise the blank vote. In Colombia blank votes can invalidate an election making it necessary to repeat it. This second round, however, cannot be invalidated. Likewise, in Peru blank votes can bring about a repetition of the elections if they represent two thirds of the votes.

Recognising the blank vote

While the recognition of the blank vote might lead to voters favouring rejection over approval votes and a high number of blank votes might result in a political crisis, it can benefit democracy in many ways. It would not only better reflect the political will and opinion of the voters but might also lead to higher turnouts. The option of voting blank would provide additional incentive for politicians to present election programmes and policies that convince the voters rather than presenting nothing more than the lesser of two evils.

In countries like Italy, Chile and Colombia, Chiara Superti argues, often more votes are cast blank than are given to many minor or extreme parties that are generally considered the choice of protest voters. Politicians should see the blank vote as a sign of the people’s discontent before it augments to a level that erupts in widespread protests, says Olivier Durand, founding president of the Association pour la reconnaissance du vote blanc. He promotes the adoption of a system of recognition of blank votes in which a certain percentage of blank votes would lead to a third round in the French presidential elections with different candidates.

The debate on the recognition of the blank vote in France reemerged in the context of the Gilets jaunes movement. But its history predates the recent wave of protests. Since 1958 there have been 60 law drafts concerning the blank vote. In 2017, seven presidential candidates expressed their support for its recognition. And only Emmanuel Macron (La République en Marche), François Fillion (Les Républicains), Marine Le Pen (Rassemblement National) and Philippe Poutou (Nouveau Parti anticapitaliste) did not mention the blank vote in their election programmes.

The recognition of the blank vote might make elections more complex and complicated. Yet it might also make our democracies more democratic. And no matter which side we take in the debate on the blank vote, there is one thing at least that we can learn from it: democracy is not singular. Democracy contains multitudes of different forms and levels of democracy. It lives of constructive debates that do not hold on to the current form of democracy as the one truth, the ultimate democratic achievement but that are open to change in order to improve lived democracy.

by Merle Emrich

Photo Credits

What type of a democracy…, Tim Green, CC BY 2.0

Democracy, Nico Hogg, CC BY-NC 2.0

Brexit, Ungry Young Man, CC BY 2.0

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Photo story: Black Lives Matter Malmö [4 June 2020; 9 June 2020]

Merle Emrich — Sat, 13 Jun 2020 15:42:45 +0000

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Taking life in the name of ideology: Germany’s right-wing network

Merle Emrich — Sun, 17 May 2020 14:44:40 +0000

On 2 June 2019, the district president of the region of Kassel in central Germany, Walter Lübcke (CDU), was murdered. What was first suspected to be the crime of a lone perpetrator turned out to be the politically motivated killing of a man with profound connections to Germany’s right-wing network. What was long suspected by some, latest after the NSU (Nationalsocialist Underground) murders, and denied by others has become painfully obvious: 75 years after the defeat of the Third Reich, Germany is all but free of Nazis some of whom are willing to take other people’s life in the name of fascist ideology.

The assassination of Walter Lübcke

Almost a year after CDU politician Walter Lübcke was shot dead in his home, the federal prosecutor has filed charges against main suspect Stephan Ernst as well as his accomplice Markus H. Two weeks after the crime, DNA that could be traced back to Stephan Ernst had led to his arrest. Ernst confessed to the murder and stated that he acted alone. But then Ernst changed his lawyer to Frank Hannig, who is known to be part of the right-wing milieu by association with the Pegida movement, and withdrew his confession. He now claimed that he and Markus H. had intended to beat up Lübcke. According to Ernst, they got into a fight with the politician leading to Markus H. accidentally shooting him. Federal prosecution appears to dismiss the credibility of this second confession and views Ernst as the main suspect. But what were his motives?

In 2015, Lübcke spoke at a citizens’ assembly to inform the public on the setting up of a refugee centre close to Ernst’s home near Kassel. Members of the extreme right, including Ernst and Markus H., were in the audience and disturbed the event by making loud remarks on “the fucking state“. At some point, Lübcke seemed to have had enough and replied that whoever does not share its values “can leave this country at any time” which was followed by him being insulted as “traitor“. Markus H., then, uploaded a video of the event on YouTube resulting in several death threats by right-wing people against Lübcke.

Further aspects reinforce Ernst’s motive. He had made donations not only to the far-right AfD party but also to the Identitarian movement, and had spread hate comments online. He had been actively involved in the Hessian state elections by putting up campaign posters for the AfD, a party whose leading politicians frequently stand out through incidents such as describing Hitler and the NS regime as “bird poop in history” or being recognised as “fascist” by a legal court. Moreover, Ernst had been convicted seven times previously for serious bodily harm, attempted manslaughter and an attempted pipe bomb attack on a refugee centre. After his arrest for the murder of Lübcke two additional cases caught the investigator’s attention. Firstly, the attempted shooting of a teacher from Kassel known for his left-wing convictions in 2003. However, evidence is insufficient for the case to feature in the trial of Ernst. Secondly, a knife attack against Iraqi refugee Ahmed I. which might be relevant in court.

Deep into the brown bog

Not only is the murder of Walter Lübcke a politically motivated crime that sent ripples of shock throughout Germany, but it is also another one in a series of cases in which the German intelligence service (Verfassungsschutz) appears to have either underestimated or ignored the threat of far-right terror. Since 2009 Ernst had no longer been in the focus of the Verfassungsschutz which had categorised him as inconspicuous, and neither was Markus H., despite all evidence pointing towards both of them being active in far-right circles. Even after 2009, both Ernst and Markus H. were present at at times violent Nazi protests, including the attack on a DGB (German Trade Union Confederation) protest in 2009 and the escalated protest in Chemnitz in 2018. And although questions on the exact details remain unanswered, both Ernst and Markus H. seem to be directly or indirectly linked to the NSU on whose death list the name “Walter Lübcke” had been found.

It is furthermore assumed that Markus H. acquired the murder weapon for Ernst, made possible by another failure of the Verfassungsschutz. Initially, Markus H. had been banned from owning a weapon due to his right-wing ideology and previous convictions i.e. for the use of an unconstitutional number plate and for shouting “Sieg Heil” and doing the Hitler salute at a pub in 2006. He filed a complaint against this ban and the court asked the Verfassungsschutz if they had information on Markus H. that would speak against him owning a weapon which they negated due to lack of knowledge about a document mentioning Markus H. hardly anyone had access to. Thus, Markus H. was legally able to purchase weapons.

In fact, Ernst might have been involved far more in the extreme right movement than anyone dared to imagine when he was first suspected of having assassinated Lübcke. Evidence, in form of a photo, emerged which suggests that Ernst is part of the militant Nazi network Combat 18 (by now illegal in Germany); founded in Great Britain in 1992 and taking root in Germany in the early 2000s as a militant branch of the Blood & Honour network whose members helped out the clandestine NSU terrorists. After the arrest of Ernst, right-wing extremist Mike S. posted a comment on Facebook in solidarity with Ernst: “I stand behind comrade E., in good times as well as in bad times.” Information published by Der Spiegel, including a photo taken at the pub Stadt Stockholm after a NPD protest in 2002, proves that Ernst was not only an acquaintance of Mike S. but that he was also in contact with Combat 18 leader Stanley Röske who is rumoured to have hosted NSU terrorists Uwe Mundlos and Uwe Böhnhardt at his birthday party in 2006. German intelligence and security services however don’t seem to show much concern due to this network which prepares for right-wing terror and a “war of races”.

Hannibal, Uniter e.V. and the Nordkreuz network

Two years prior to the assassination of Lübcke another case shed light on Germany’s Nazi network. During razzias in August 2017, illegally hoarded weapons and ammunition along with 200 body bags and death lists including about 5000 names of left-wing politicians and anti-fascist activists were found. None of the accused people were convicted for attempted terror, but merely for illegal possession of weapons. Among them are right-wing populist and lawyer Jan-Hendrik H. and (by now former) detective superintendent Haik J. who were investigated on suspicion of terror as police had found a police-internal ground plan of a local politician’s flat who was under police protection. Marko G., police officer for the State Office of Criminal Investigation (LKA) and temporarily the Special Deployment Commando (SEK) who himself was hoarding ammunition, took part in the trials solely as a witness.

What connects the people whose homes were searched during these razzias is that they were part of the Nordkreuz group – one of many chat groups that could be traced back to a man named André S. alias “Hannibal”. Reconstructed chat conversations revealed the content of its members’ conversations: assassination fantasies about left-wing people, sympathising with the NSU, references to Hitler having “fought hard for the German ethnicity”, their perceived threat of Russia, Islamist terror and refugees.

Members of both Uniter – a club founded by André S. – and the right-wing chat groups hosted by him include former and active police officers and soldiers. The aim of André S. appears to have been to build a network of soldiers, police officers and representatives of public authorities who fear that in the case of a catastrophe the state won’t be able to upkeep public order. One of their strategies is to build a combat force called “Defence”. What led to the unearthing of this network, that neither the MAD (Military Counterintelligence Service) nor the Verfassungsschutz seemed to have noticed or taken seriously, was the arrest of one of the chat group’s members, Special Force Command soldier Franco A.

In early 2017, Franco A. was arrested at the Vienna airport because he had hidden a gun there. During the investigations it turned out that he was registered as Syrian refugee “David Benjamin”, possibly as part of a plan to commit attacks which were supposed to be the starting point for right-wing riots ultimately leading to a coup. He also appeared to have been involved in a plan to free imprisoned Holocaust denier Ursula Haverbeck and to blow up the memorial for the Jewish Rothschild family in Frankfurt. Apart from a death list and the gun Franco A. had hidden at the Vienna airport, additional weapons – some of which had swastikas carved into them – and explosives, a manual on how to build a bomb, a guerilla guide which is popular among members of the extreme right and Wehrmacht relics were found in his possession.

A further alarming detail in the case is that Maximilian T., fellow soldier and friend of Franco A., worked as assistant of Jan Nolte, member of parliament for the AfD. His position granted him access to parliament without having to go through a security check, as well as access to, among others, the office of Green party politician Claudia Roth whose name had been found on one of the network’s death lists.

The Higher Regional Court in Frankfurt, however, dismissed charges against Franco A. for the preparation of a serious criminal offense endangering the State. Only Mathias F., another friend and army comrade of Franco A., was convicted for illegal possession of weapons but merely received a suspended sentence. Meanwhile, the German government continued to deny the existence of any kind of right-wing network and the connection between the individual cases. Furthermore, many questions remain unanswered, among them, why Franco A. had not been noticed before. After all, he had clearly revealed his right-wing ideology in his Master thesis in 2014. He had argued that immigration was the cause of a contemporary genocide of Western European peoples and that the Jews were to blame for it, and justified the use of violence in contexts of “protection of the identity of the own people” against “foreign elements”. Even though the German army was aware of Franco A.’s Master thesis, they merely classified it as a bad academic work.

The murder of Lübcke and the cases connected to the Nordkreuz network demonstrate that the failures of the Verfassungsschutz in the context of the NSU are not a single case, but rather a symptomatic and structural problem. In part it might be related to personal faults of the former head of the Verfassungsschutz, Hans-Georg Maaßen, who had speculated on videos of the right-wing mob that chased after foreign looking people in Chemnitz (2018) being faked, who accused the Left party of being “left-wing radicals” and Antifa as “extremists”, and who is now criticising mainstream media for calling out conspiracy theories related to corona and those who spread them. But to a great extent, the blindness towards far-right extremism of the Verfassungsschutz and the government, might be due to the intransparent structures and processes of the Verfassungsschutz which lead to the disappearance or almost complete inaccessibility of documents and thus people like Stephan Ernst falling under the radar, as well as an unwillingness to admit that there is the danger of right-wing violence and terror in Germany of all places.

“Offer for idiots” (left). “Brown politics in blue colour” (right).

Anti-fascism

In his book Paris – Boulevard St. Martin No. 11 German-Jewish communist and résistant Peter Gingold wrote: “The most meaningful and precious thing in German history is and remains the anti-fascist resistance.” In an appeal to the generation born after him to continue in the tradition of antifascist resistance and to act based on a sense of justice he confessed to having it found unimaginable that, after 1945, “the following generations would be – yet again – confronted with nazism, racism, with reviving nationalism and militarism.” And yet, augmenting xenophobic sentiments and nationalism, the presence of fascist soldiers, lawyers and police officers, the existence of Nazi networks in Germany and beyond speaks a clear language, pointing precisely to this unimaginable scenario.

Since 1970 more than 250 people have died due to right-wing terror. Yet, it was not until the NSU murders – due to their scale and the failure of the Verfassungsschutz to uncover the clandestine fascist network earlier and thus prevent deaths – and the assassination of Walter Lübcke – a white man and member of the German political elite – that focus fell on the continued existence of Nazism in post-1945 Germany both in international and national media, and politics. A profound examination of the structures of the Verfassungsschutz needs to happen and Germany has to increase its awareness of the uncomfortable truth of fascist terror. Yet, while politics and intelligence services remain (partially) blind on the right eye, the ordinary citizen can still do their part, whether individually or as a group, to stand up and speak out against racism, fascism, xenophobia and other forms of hate, injustice and discrimination. And after all, antifascism, in Germany and elsewhere, does not start with the legal prosecution of those who have already committed violent acts. It starts with resisting and calling out fascist ideology already in its earliest stage.

by Merle Emrich

Photo Credits

Identitären-Demo in Berlin, 17.06.2016, Tim Lüddemann, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Chemnitz: AfD-Trauermarsch und Gegenkundgebung (1), Tim Lüddemann, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Chemnitz: AfD-Trauermarsch und Gegenkundgebung (2), Tim Lüddemann, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Solidarität verteidigen – United against racism & fascism, Rasande Tyskar, CC BY-NC 2.0

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A game of chess at the Greek-Turkish border

Merle Emrich — Sun, 19 Apr 2020 13:25:18 +0000

Shortly after the Turkish government announced that they would no longer prevent migrants from crossing the Greek border a video appeared on my social media feed: A brown field with a few specks of grass and a handful of leafless bushes, small figure moving in the background, a woman screaming, following after a man carrying a seemingly unconscious toddler under the winter sky veiled in clouds of tear gas.

In a climate of increasing xenophobia, the EU negotiated a deal with Turkey that would allocate billions of Euros to Turkey in exchange for the country preventing refugees and migrants crossing over to the EU. The influx of people was slowed down for a while but did not prevent continued attempts to enter the EU by land or sea putting pressure mostly on Mediterranean countries (Greece, Italy). In Greece, where the atmosphere is becoming increasingly hostile towards refugees, the right-wing New Democracy party replaced the left-wing Syriza government in snap elections in July 2019 following a campaign partly based on promises of heavy crackdowns on migration. Their latest move finds expression in the plan to build a floating 2.7 km long barrier in the Aegean Sea meant to ward off refugee boats heading for Lesbos.

When, in early 2020, the Greek government announced plans to build closed detention centres, locals on Chios and Lesbos stormed construction sites in opposition and clashed with riot police. The following weeks saw attacks on asylum seekers, humanitarian workers and journalists. In this climate of mounting tensions, thousands of people saw their hopes of finding humane refuge in the EU crushed as they gathered behind fences and barbed wire at the Greek–Turkish border in late February, and were met with tear gas, water cannons and flashbangs.

Europe’s “shield”

Expecting yet another wave of people fleeing the ongoing battle in Idlib, Syria, the Turkish government decided to open its border to the EU for more than 4 million refugees already located in the country. Some reports even speak of Turkish officials forcing refugees and migrants to leave the country and head towards Greece. In Europe, Turkey’s manoeuvre was largely perceived as an attempt to blackmail the EU into supporting Turkey’s military actions in northern Syria and force more concessions in relation to the 2016 migration deal. “This is a blatant attempt by Turkey to use desperate people to promote its geopolitical agenda and to divert attention from the horrible situation in Syria”, the Greek government said.

Video uploaded on ManotoNews (Persian) shows Turkish military police threatening to beat this Afghan group at gun point, telling them “why did you come here if you don’t want to cross to the Greek border”pic.twitter.com/jAQaYwlVss

— Daphne Tolis (@daphnetoli) March 7, 2020

With a look at the situation as a whole, however, it becomes impossible to find fault on part of Turkey alone. Both Turkey and the EU have made themselves culpable of having turned those who flee the horrors of war into mere pawns in their game of chess; be it to gather military and financial support and obtain more privileged relations with the EU, or to appease right-wing parties and movements and distract from the shortcomings of the Dublin Agreement. In the wake of this dehumanising game of chess, people’s lives, health and dignity have been put on the line without a moment’s consideration.

While Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, travelled to Greece to thank the country for its tough handling of the border situation and describing it as Europe’s “shield”, the Greek government, describing the influx of refugees as an “invasion”, suspended asylum applications for a month despite the right to asylum being granted under international law. And while Argyris Papastathis, deputy head of Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ press office claimed that Greek forces were not firing live ammunition, witnesses report shots being fired from the Greek side of the border, although it is unclear if they were fired by a police officer, soldiers or local vigilante.

An Afghan man who was treated at a Turkish hospital for burn injuries says a Greek border guard poured boiling water on him as he attempted to cross the land border in #Evros – via @enginbas pic.twitter.com/fpKk62wlkv

— Daphne Tolis (@daphnetoli) March 10, 2020

Only the dead have seen the end of war

In the midst of it all, concerns about the coronavirus spreading in overcrowded Greek refugee camps are growing. The situation in camps such as the Moria camp on Lesbos has been described as “living hell”. The camp was designed for 3 000 people. However, it currently hosts 20 000. Three square metres of living space are at times shared by five to six people. “That’s a catastrophic situation regarding water and sanitation”, Florian Westphal (MSF) told Deutsche Welle. “The lack of water in the Moria camp is really dramatic. (…) In some parts of the camp, people have built shelters from plastic sheeting. Up to 1 300 people are using a single source of water. (…) Up to 160 people on average are having to use one toilet. Our main demand to the European Union is very clear: You must start now to evacuate these people from Moria.” Ali, a 33-year-old from Idlib, describes Moria as “just a place for waiting for death. Life in Moria is impossible – believe me – most of us here have changed psychologically. Some people have lost their minds.”

The EU began as a neoliberal project designed to maintain peace in Europe. And while, at least in its beginnings, it was predominantly an economic union, the EU has evolved into an international organisation that likes to see itself as a defender of peace and human rights. The situation in the Mediterranean, however, sheds serious doubt on this self-image: Greece, weakened from the financial crisis of 2008, is largely left alone by other EU member states in managing the arrival of those in search for protection – unphased by the misery in Greece’s refugee camps, a migration policy is deployed that voluntarily accepts the drowning of human beings in order to prevent others from arriving, the EU continues to cooperate with the Libyan coast guard knowing about Libyan detention camps and the crimes committed against migrants, deals set to backfire and be broken sooner or later are made with Turkey to dodge responsibility, and those (NGOs and civilians) taking seriously the obligation to save refugees from drowning in face of the EU’s inaction are criminalised.

While European leaders seem to have forgotten the humanitarian spirit of Europe – and perhaps the political elite has always been the wrong place to look for it – can still be found in organisations such as Mission Lifeline, movements such as Seebrücke, and initiatives such as the complaint for crimes against humanity against the EU connected to its migration policy (Germany, France and Italy in particular) in front of the ICC by lawyers Omer Shatz and Juan Branco. It remains to hope that the EU (re)discovers its commitment to humanity and human rights instead of remaining caught up in a game of chess with Turkey that pushes back and forth blame and responsibility sacrificing human beings as it goes on.

by Merle Emrich

Photo Credits

Rescue at Mediterranean // 21/05/2018, Tim Lüddemann, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Syrian Refugees, Freedom House, Public Domain Mark 1.0

2018_01_28_Grecia_Manu_26, Fotomovimiento, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

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International Women’s Day 2020: Malmö

Merle Emrich — Tue, 24 Mar 2020 15:56:57 +0000

Ta Natten Tillbaka

[7 March 2020] Protest against violence against women and/or trans people.

Women’s March

[8 March 2020]

by Merle Emrich

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On rape, stereotypes and victim-blaming

Merle Emrich — Tue, 24 Mar 2020 14:36:38 +0000

Trigger warning: rape, sexual violence, mention of suicide

In the age of #MeToo, awareness on sexual offences and consent is increasing, yet it is still fairly easy to get away with rape and sexual assault – the crime with the least report and conviction rates. From victim blaming based on stereotypes connected to rape, over police officers not believing rape survivors, to humiliating and misguided inquiries into the complainant’s private life or even charges of false allegations, the abuse of these women continues even after the act of rape itself.

What is rape?

While the term sexual violence refers to all and any kinds of unwanted sexual activity, rape – at least according to English law – is defined as “penetration with a penis of the vagina, anus or mouth of another person without their consent”. Non-consentual sex without penetration carries the same sentence as rape but is called sexual assault. In 2018, Sweden changed its law so that sex without explicit consent (freely agreeing by choice when one is capable to do so, that is not when asleep, under the influence of drugs or a lot of alcohol, when being threatened, bullied or scared) can be considered rape. Thus, while previously decisive factors for rape convictions were the use of force, threats or taking advantage of someone in a vulnerable position, rape is legally considered as such also without the survivor having explicitly said “No!”.

While not all rape survivors are women, and not all rapists are men, statistics show a noticeable difference in this regard. In England and Wales 20 percent of women over 16 years are estimated to have been exposed to sexual assault, yet only 4 percent of men. In Sweden, 35.8 percent of women compared to 4.7% of men aged 20 to 24 have experience sexual violence, and on an EU level nine out of ten rapes and eight out of ten sexual assaults are committed against women whereas the persons convicted of these crimes are men. What is furthermore noticeable are the report and conviction rates for sexual violence which are far lower than for any other crime. Only about 15 percent of sexual violence cases are reported to the police and of these cases only about six percent in England and Wales and 17 percent in Sweden end with a conviction.

Women are not “asking for it”

The #MeToo movement has undoubtedly raised awareness on sexual violence and rape culture, yet we are still far from a social atmosphere and a justice system that is not based on stereotypes around rape and humiliating legal procedures for rape survivors. A major obstacle to the conviction of rapists, apart from the issue of presenting concrete evidence, is that those who make rape complaints are often not believed. Of the few reported cases of rape almost a third is considered as no crime by the police, and only those cases investigated that are likely to be won go to court.

The main issue in this regard are the stereotypes connected to rape; from the image of rape as a stranger dragging a woman into the bushes and taking advantage of her to considering it women’s responsibility to stay safe rather then men’s to not rape and consequently blaming the victim, especially when she was drunk, had condoms with her, or was wearing the “wrong” clothes. Alcohol consumption is considered as “asking for it”, clothes and make up are seen as “implying consent”, and at times the woman’s sex life is taken apart in court. When, in 2006, a teenager called the police because she had been gang raped in a park in London with the rapists filming her abuse, she was accused by the officers of being “mentally unsound” after stating that she had been raped previously. They did not even bother arresting the rapists and considered the video as evidence of the girl’s “consent”.

In dubio pro reo

Rape is not only the most under-reported crime, and the crime with the lowest conviction rate, but women are also often accused of making false allegations. And while there is widespread reporting on such false allegations, there are indeed not more false rape claims than there are false allegations for any other crime.

A month after the teenage girl’s rape, it was her, not the men who had raped her, who was arrested. She was accused of perverting the course of justice by lying about her rape. Fortunately for her the charges were dropped, yet, her rapists were never convicted. Other women had similar experiences. One of them is Lucy Green who was sued for slander. “All of a sudden I was in court as a defendant, not a victim of rape”, she said. “If he had won I would have been forced to make a public apology and pay him money for raping me.” Similarly, 23-year-old Eleanor de Freitas was sued for perverting the course of justice after reporting a case of sexual assault. Shortly before her trial she killed herself.

In dubio pro reo (“when in doubt, for the accused”) is a good and useful principle. But in the case of rape and sexual assault it all too often appears to be turned into “if possible, for the perpetrator”. Women are held responsible for the crime committed against them, especially when they have previously filed rape charges leading to women who are raped or assaulted more than once and report the crime being even less likely to get justice.

A society that blames women for being raped due to how they dress, how much they drink, who they sleep with and how often, police officers that are unable or unwilling to properly investigate potential cases of sexual violence and courts that are influenced by the same biases and stereotypes as police and society are preventing too large a number of rape survivors from obtaining justice, or even worse paint them as perpetrators of a crime themselves. In dubio pro reo can only be an effective principle to apply to charges of sexual violence when the complainants are taken seriously, and when the responsibility of women to “not get raped” is transformed into the responsibility of men to not rape.

by Merle Emrich

Photo Credits

Barbie violence, Isabella Quintana, pixabay [no attribution required]

#womensmarch2018 Philly Philadelphia #MeToo, Rob Kall, CC BY 2.0

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Action beyond protest: “A different world is possible”

Merle Emrich — Sat, 22 Feb 2020 15:46:30 +0000

Much like any other polytheistic society, the Ancient Greeks had a god.dess for just about any important aspect of their lives. One of them was Adrestia, the goddess of revolt, just retribution and balance between good and evil. Her name translates to “the inescapable”, and if we look at history social conflict and revolts are indeed a recurring theme – from the French Revolution and Gandhi’s Salt March to the Monday Demonstrations that helped bring down the Berlin Wall. More recent waves of protests, including Occupy Wall Street, the growing environmental movement and social justice movements from Lebanon over France to Chile, demonstrate that revolt and protests are still as inescapable as a means to bring about social and political change as it seemed to be in Ancient Greece.

Cathartic protest

First and foremost, protests are a form of opposition against an actual, planned or feared course of action. As such it can be “an end in itself”, a form of catharsis that resolves social tensions, and citizens’ frustration and discontent. Protest marches, rallies and vigils have a function as sign of objection, they are a means of communicating to the authorities the discontent or wish for change of the population, or at least a part of it. As such they also offer a platform to blow off steam, to voice anger, fear and hope, to start a conversation with people who share the same opinion, or who oppose it. Catharsis in protest can come through songs and shouts, to chance encounters with fellow protesters, or merely the knowledge to have been part of it, to have done something about the issue at hand.

Especially when protest alone does not lead to change, however, it becomes necessary to channel its cathartic energy into the development of new strategies and finding solutions and alternatives to the present condition. As philosopher Auguste Comte put it, “nothing really essential and enduring can be accomplished in the practical fold when its theoretical implications are not clearly worked out, or are at least well on the way to solution.”

“We must be able to […] propose alternatives”

In France, the organisers of the Vrai Débat are trying to capture the energy and ideas of the Gilets jaunes movement. As a reaction to Macron’s grand débat, they collected ideas and comments online on issues people consider important, followed by a series of deliberative assemblies in several cities throughout the country starting in mid-June 2019. “They allow us to combine democracy with social movement”, says participant Anthony Brault. “You prioritise and think together, we will create a political programme that will not replace the Gilets jaunes but can be useful for them.” During the assemblies between 15 and 40 people work on the most popular propositions for two days. They are divided by topic and small working groups analyse them to sum up the most frequent ideas and arguments in a concise document. “We must be able to exchange ideas”, explains another participant, Daniel, “to propose alternatives.”

In a similar manner climate camps aim at providing a platform for discussion, networking and exploring alternatives. One of these climate camps takes place every year in the Rhineland, Germany where there are three coal pits and five power plants that together are responsible for a third of Germany’s carbon dioxide emissions. The Klimacamp im Rheinland combines Ende Gelände’s civil disobedience actions against coal mining with trying out “tomorrow’s society – social, ecological and based on grassroots democracy”. Cultural programmes as well as courses, workshops, panel discussions on topics “from theoretical analysis of climate change to practical stuff like building a windmill” are organised, and the camp is structured based on anti-authoritarian self-organisation.

Climate of change

In the same region the Hambach Forest is located, an ancient forest that was supposed to be cut down to expand a coal mine, and even though the forest is now supposed to remain it’s future is still not guaranteed as water that sustains the trees needs to be pumped out of the ground to prevent the flooding of the coal pits. There, environmental activists are combining protest with the development of alternative ways of living and organising society in a similar, yet more permanent, way as the climate camps. To prevent the destruction of the forest, the activists began to occupy the forest in 2012. They built tree houses to make eviction more difficult, and on a meadow nearby a communal kitchen, a building for assemblies, a library and a museum was set up.

780 kilometres away, the ZAD (zone to defend) of Notre-Dame-des-Landes (ZAD NDDL) that began as an occupation to prevent the destruction of 1650 hector of agricultural land and wetland for the construction of an airport has become a social project of an alternative form of structuring collective life, a vision of what society could look like. This shift of the ZAD as a means of protest and resistance to an end in itself has resulted in the Zadists’ refusal to leave the area even when the airport project was abandoned by the government in 2018. Over the course of its existence since 2000, the ZAD NDDL has become a political space “in which social and ecological experiments take place” within a framework of “self-governance, egalitarian sharing of tasks, hospitality, gratuity, and work without hierarchical subordination”.

“A different world is possible”

In an interview published on mediapart’s participative blog, activist and Gilet jaune Geneviève Legay said: “We must think of utopia as something attainable. Otherwise I would not continue to fight, if I thought it wasn’t possible. And if people hadn’t fought for utopias, we wouldn’t have the rights we have today. […] a different world is possible, it is necessary to build it together.” The same is emphasised by writer, director and environmental activist Cyril Dion. To bring about change we need NGOs and Zadists, civil disobedience and guerilla gardening as well as social entrepreneurs and novelists.

To increase the likelihood that “the inescapable” revolt results in the envisaged change and does not end with its first cathartic infant steps, a common effective strategy is necessary. Thus, in the beginning, according to Dion, is a set of questions that need to be answered: “Can we hope to find solutions within our democracies or not? Must the strategy to stop the destruction and the warming [of the planet] be political, citizen-based or both? Can it be done without using violence?”

by Merle Emrich

Photo Credits

Ende Gelaende 20119, Besetzung nder RWE Strukturen im rheinischen Braunkohlerevier: Der Goldene Finger bricht aus der Fridays for Future Demonstration bei Hochneukirch aus und stürmt über die Kante in den Tagebau Garzweiler. Alle Bagger werden abgeschalte, David Klammer, CC BY-NC 2.0

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Gendered power relations: the toll of austerity

Merle Emrich — Mon, 06 Jan 2020 19:24:00 +0000

Angela Merkel is not only one of Germany’s longest serving chancellors – next to Konrad Adenauer and Helmut Kohl – but also the country’s first female chancellor and arguably the world’s most powerful woman. And yet, one could say that she is far from being a symbol of female empowerment. Rather than challenging patriarchal structures, she fits into them while power positions and influence remain difficult if not impossible to reach for most other women, and the austerity policies continued or introduced by Merkel’s government are, to a great extent, placed on the shoulders of women, thus counteracting progress in the field of gender equality.

European austerity

The European Women’s Lobby (EWL) warned in a 2012 report that European austerity policies are an infringement on women’s rights and gender equality since they lead to a perpetuation of existing and a creation of new inequalities . In 2017, the then shadow equalities minister Sarah Champion (Labour) presented number showing that, since 2010, 86% of the burden of austerity policies had been placed on women’s shoulders. And while Theresa May claimed the Conservative party to be a stronger advocate for gender equality having produced the country’s only two female prime ministers, Mary-Ann Stephenson (co-director of the Women’s Budget Group) pointed out: “The chancellor’s [Philip Hammond] decision to continue with the decisions of his predecessor to cut social security for these low income families, at the same time as cutting taxes, is effectively a transfer from the purses of poorer women into the wallets of richer men.”

In Germany, austerity measures that prevailed in Europe after the 2008 financial crisis had already been implemented as of 2002. The neo-liberal reforms of the Agenda 2010, introduced by the Social Democrat/ Green party government preceding Merkel’s successive Christian Democrat-led governments that continued these austerity policies, increased the German economy’s resilience and competitiveness allowing Germany to recover quickly from the 2008 crisis. Yet, Oxfam highlights that at this policy approach shifted “the balance of power between capital and labour considerably in favour of capital.” It is a shift that comes at a high social cost, particularly for women and especially for those belonging to minority or marginalised groups.

Economy and human rights

Be it employment, the care and health system or general women’s rights, women are particularly affected by austerity measures. Not only are men’s jobs usually prioritised over women’s employment, but cuts in public sector job lead to women being more affected than men as women constituted by far more than half of public sector employees. Women are thus increasingly pushed into precarious employment situations with very low wages and little or no social security or protection of workers’ rights.

At the same time, women are forced to fill the gaps created by the state in the care and health system by cuts to public spending. As state funded care work decreases, especially in an aging society, care is reprivatized, and traditional gender roles are reinforced. Once occupied with unpaid care work, these women have less time for paid employment, free time activities and political engagement. On top, women’s voices are further marginalised by destroying gender equality institutions in stride with austerity measures that pose a struggle to organisations ranging from advocacy groups to service providers such as organisations supporting survivors of violence.

Yet, while austerity policies are a stumbling block in the way of the advancement of women’s rights and gender equality, as well as creating general economic imbalances within the Eurozone, among others the German government under Merkel’s lead holds on to their aim of a balanced budget. The social consequences of this goal will continue to be a burden that is dumped on women, especially single mothers, young women, women with disabilities, older women, migrant and refugee women, LGBTQI+ women, women belonging to ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities, women in rural areas and those who live in poverty or extreme poverty.

“Discriminatory economic policies cannot be justified on the basis of the need to achieve macro-economic target and without regard to the human rights of women and gender equality”, Juan Pablo Boholavsky, and independent expert on foreign debt and human rights, argued in a report to the UN General Assembly. In a 2018 report, the OHCHR recommends a series of measures to improve gender equality. Among others the report called on governments to recognise unpaid care and domestic work as valuable work, invest in public services such as care services to redistribute care and domestic work “not just from women to men but from individuals to families to state-funded provisions”, and to strengthen women’s working rights and social security through targeted policies.

To be continued…

While the number of female leaders is growing, austerity policies – particularly when implemented by one of these female leaders such as German chancellor Merkel – highlight feminist, journalist and author Susan Faludi’s statement: “You can’t change the world for women by simply inserting female faces at the top of an unchanged system of social and economic power.” This is not to say, that no progress is being made – in Germany where reforms were undertaken introducing i.e. paid parental leave for fathers as well as mothers, or elsewhere. However, the gender pay gap, female under-representation in positions in politics as well as in business and austerity policies standing in the way of gender equality continue to be a considerable social issue.

by Merle Emrich

Photo Credits

Hands Fingers, Karl-Heinz Gutmann

Austerity isn’t working, wandererwandering, CC BY 2.0

Stew and Sympathy, Neil Moralee, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

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Sámi music and activism: a historic and contemporary struggle

Merle Emrich — Wed, 04 Dec 2019 16:51:30 +0000

The joik is the traditional music of the Sámi, the indigenous people of northern parts of the Fennoscandian Peninsula. It’s scales differ from those of Western music, it is purely vocal and if it includes instruments, it’s drums – at least that’s how it’s been for generations. Now a new generation of Sámi musicians is combining traditional joiking with other genres such as pop, jazz and hiphop – and in recent years the music of artists like Sofia Jannok and Maxida Märak has become increasingly popular.

They not only mix joiking with other musical styles, but also the music itself with activism for Sámi rights and environmental protection, as well as against racism. The colonial oppression of the Sámi people is reflected in songs such as Snölejonnina (“Snow lioness”, Sofia Jannok) and Andas (“Breathe”, Maxida Märak). And in This Is My Land Sofia Jannok sings: “This is my home, this is my heaven, this is the earth where I belong and if you want to ruin it all with big wounds in the mountains then you’re not worthy of listening to this song.“

A history of oppression

Starting in the late Middle Ages and lasting well into the 20th century, the Sámi were subjected to colonial discrimination and assimilation policies. Race biology that was supposed to prove the Sámi’s racial inferiority served as justification to take their land from them. Joiking was discouraged and, since it served as refuge from and a form of resistance to colonial oppression, it was later banned. Likewise, the Sámi were forbidden from speaking their own language. By the time these assimilation policies were officially ended, both joiking and Sámi languages had disappeared from several regions.

Since then Fennoscandian countries have granted the Sámi language and cultural rights, although, unlike Norway, Sweden and Finland have not ratified the ILO’s convention of indigenous people. The Sámi have schools teaching their language, as well as their own parliaments. But still, it would be naive to say that the north of Europe has left behind colonial discrimination in its entirety. “It’s like ‘Do you even exist?’ (…) That has been, and still is, very challenging, especially living in a society that is considered the most democratic in the world”, said Sofia Jannok in an interview with NewsDeeply. And in an Amnesty International campaign video, Maxida Märak stated that “to me the violation are the same as they were 400 years ago. Only that they’ve been modernised.”

An ongoing struggle

With a law passed in 2007 the Norwegian government is limiting the size of reindeer herds. Not only might smaller herds lead to a smaller income which could result in their herding licences being revoked by the state should they not make enough profit, but for the Sámi, reindeer herding is more than a job, it is a way of life and an integral part of their culture. Therefore, because he “could not see my culture die”, reindeer herder Jousset Ante Sara sued the Norwegian state. Elle Márjá Eira, whose father launched another case against the state due to an energy project that threatened to diminish their summer grazing lands, pointed out that they would have to find another, not yet occupied, place for their reindeer. “By pushing us into smaller areas they are forcing us into conflicts with each other.”

The ongoing struggle of the Sámi is not only tied to political conflicts, but also to social issues. In 2016, the Arctic village Girjas (Sweden) was granted exclusive rights over hunting and fishing which the Swedish state had taken from the Sámi in 1993. Not only were the state lawyers accused of using “rhetorics of race biology”, but the village’s Chairman, Matti Berg, faced threats of violence when the case began as many local Swede’s are worrying that their snowmobiling and hunting activities will be further restricted in future. And both in the real and the virtual world a multitude of examples of hate against Sámi can be found: from insults, over accusations that Sámi herders kill their own reindeer to reap financial compensation, to (often unsolved) cases of killed reindeer.

Over the last 100 years undisturbed reindeer habitat has decreased by 70%. Lapland is not only serene mountains, endless snow fields under northern lights and rocky, mosquito-haunted plains; the land holds resources that conjures up dollar signs in some people’s eyes. In Sweden, which provides 90% of the EU’s iron ore, there are around 1000 mines. Most of them are located on traditional Sámi land where pasture land is reduced by the mines and the areas flooded to store – at times toxic – mining waste. Certainly, the mining industry creates jobs and offers a possibility to keep up the declining population of places such as Jokkmokk. But at the same time it poses a threat to wildlife and the traditional way of life of the Sámi. At the same time, the timber industry is replacing ancient forests holding a variety of tree species of different height and age creating an uneven canopy under which snow can accumulate unevenly leaving some areas grazeable with monoculture plantations. There, the trees grow fairly evenly resulting in a more uniform snow blanket that makes it harder for the reindeer to find food.

In addition, global warming might make free access to even more resources in northern Europe: not only are 5-13% of the world’s untapped oil and 20-30% of the world’s untapped gas located in the Barents region, the melting of Arctic ice would also open new shipping routes. It is this development on which Finland’s proposal to build a €2.9 bn railway to Europe’s first Arctic port in Norway is based. The railway would cut off the reindeer’s migration routes in six different herding areas, and could lead to reindeer being run over by trains. This infrastructure would make it possible for companies to encroach even further on the still untouched parts of Lapland. Sámi parliament president Tiina Sanila-Aikio told The Guardian that she only heard about the project in the media.She describes government and company practices as a “slow colonisation” that functions by dividing the land with railways and handing it over to outside industries.

Reindeer are an integral part of Sámi culture and way of life, but also of the Arctic ecosystem. Without reindeer fast growing grasses and shrubs will no longer be kept in check leading to less plant diversity and the higher growing shrubs creating a more uneven layer of snow that reflects less sunlight and thus contributes to increased global warming. Finish climate scientist Tero Mustonen argues that Lapland will be fundamentally transformed by the railway running through areas providing us with climate security. On top of that, it is a project that depends on global warming. Global warming, which threatens the survival of reindeer as spikes of warm winter weather lead to the melting and refreezing of snow. Thus, layers of ice appear on the ground that trap lichen – reindeer’s main winter food supply – underneath. The Sámi’s reindeer are then either at risk of starving or the reindeer herders must bear the extra cost of feeding their animals throughout the winter.

Music as activism

“In Saami I don’t have to say ‘This is our land’, ‘We are still here’, (…) it’s like saying planet Earth is round (…) But when I write in Swedish and English I have to write the most basic stuff”, Sofia Jannok explains the difference between her Swedish and English, and Sámi song texts. She says that she started writing in Swedish and English when she addressed people in power in her head. “By the reactions of listeners, politicians and journalists, I realized how necessary it was that we actually use words so that people understand (…).”

In Swedish schools not much is taught on the subject of the Sámi and their oppression, and often inaccurate information is mixed into the little that is taught: “But I can put it in a song and tell the truth through arts. And I think that is a more efficient way, and actually truer too, because the politicians and people in power are always describing our society with a hidden agenda.” In that sense, Sofia Jannok believes, music can be an effective tool of activism and decolonisation. Maxida Märak, too, argues that culture, including music, has contributed to the improvement of conditions for Sámi people, and remains important as “it was not neutral to have racists in the government (…) and now they sit in Parliament” and point to groups, including the Sámi, they perceive as a threat to Swedish society. “People watch World War II movies and talk about how it could happen, but it’s exactly the same thing that is happening now (…)”

by Merle Emrich

Photo Credits

Sofia Jannok EM1B1389, Bengt Nyman, CC BY 2.0

DSC_4496_Maxida Márak, Riddu Riddu, CC BY-SA 2.0

A day at work, Mats Andersson, CC BY 2.0

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“Do not talk to me of […] police violence”

Merle Emrich — Wed, 06 Nov 2019 12:46:37 +0000

“He knew that the maintenance of order obeyed strict rules, dictated by political power. No police was as submissive to the State as that of M.O., it incarnated the State in its essence. The order that is to be maintained or re-established, is always that of the State. […] the affair was political […]” – David Dufresne (Dernière sommation)

Shortly after the Gilets Jaunes movement began, the journalist David Dufresne started to keep track of injuries inflicted on protesters, medics and journalists by the police during the weekly protests. The statistics are sobering, the visual images circulating online – including photos and videos of head wounds, protesters being targeted with rubber bullets at close distance, violent interpellations, and protesters losing an eye or a hand due to the so-called “less-lethal” weapons used by the police – are horrifying.

Police violence does not, however, exist only since the beginning of the Gilets jaunes protests, nor only in France where, according to a video, created by multiple people and collectives, featuring journalists, activists and lawyers, 578 people have been killed by the police within the last 42 years, 12% of them aged under 18. Police violence might be more pronounced in France due to factors such as the police forces use of weapons (LBD 40, GLI F4, GMD) that are not used in most other European countries and the presence of the BAC (anti-criminality brigade) at protests even though they are not specialised in keeping public order. However, instances of police violence and disproportional use of force are very real – if to a lesser extent – in other EU countries, as well. The disproportionate use of pepper spray and water cannons against Stuttgart 21 protesters in Germany in 2010, violence against Extinction Rebellion activists in Brussels in October 2019 and the response to the Catalan independence movement are further examples.

“No irreparable violence”

The problem with police violence does not stop at the damage done but extends to the manner in which is dealt with its occurence. The French government point blank denies the existence of police violence, or even reinforces it through policy measures such as the loi anti-casseur passed earlier this year. “Do not talk to me of repression or police violence, these words are unacceptable in a constitutional state”, commented President Macron on one occasion during his grand débat. And Interior Minister Castaner claimed to “not know of any police officer who has attacked Gilets jaunes.“

More recently, Macron said: “No irreparable violence has been committed by the police.” However, the loss of an eye or a hand are very much irreparable. Not to speak of two recent incidents which led to the death of Zineb Redouane (Marseille, December 2018) and Steve Maia Caniço (Nantes, June 2019). Rather than “no irreparable” damage being caused by the police, it is the case that the responsibility for the harm done is lifted from them.

The death of Zineb Redouane

On December 1, 2018, Zineb Redouane, aged 80, went to close the window of her apartment in Marseille to prevent tear gas from the protest happening outside entering the flat. She was hit in the face by parts of a tear gas grenade and died the next day in hospital. Following the incident both Interior Minister Castaner and the responsible prosecutor declared that no link could be established between her death and the injuries caused by the tear gas grenade.

The prosecutor based his statement on the autopsy performed in Marseille on December 3. After Zineb Redouane’s body was repatriated to Algeria, her home country, local authorities performed a second autopsy that concluded a direct causal relation between her death and the injuries inflicted on her on December 1. In July 2019, it was revealed that the CRS officer in charge on the day of her death received a medal from the Interior Minister for his work as a police officer, aggravating the grief and anger of her family.

The inquiry into the circumstances of her death did not establish a basis for justice. The five CRS grenade launchers used near Zineb Redouane’s home on December 1 were not confiscated, the officers using the grenade launchers stated that they could not remember who fired the grenade responsible for the injuries and neither were they able to identify the shooter in video footage. The police officers’ radio exchanges went missing, and the only security camera present apparently malfunctioned.

Selon l’IGPN

In the night from 21 to 22 June, 24-year old Steve Maia Caniço went missing following a police charge at the fête de la Musique, a free party in Nantes, during which 33 tear gas grenades, 10 sting-ball grenades and 12 flash balls were used against the party-goers without warning and resulted in 14 people falling into the Loire. More than a month later, on 29 July, Steve Maia Caniço’s body was found in the river. The following day, Prime Minister Philippe announced that based on the report of a general inspection of the National Police (IGPN), the “police of the police”, no link could be established “between the police intervention and the death of Mr Steve Maia Caniço.“

The reaction to this statement on social media followed soon after. Using the hashtag #selonlIGPN (according to the IGPN), people expressed their indignation at the denial of responsibility pointing out the absurdity of the report’s conclusion. Comments ranged from “we could not establish a link between the intervention of the Prime Minister and the truth, either” to “#selonlIGPN no link could be established between the atomic bomb and Hiroshima.” And indeed, some time later more information was released to the public and generated even more doubt on the accurateness of the inquest. According to mediapart, accounts of witnesses confirming that they had fallen into the Loire since they were unable to see due to the tear gas as they tried to get away from the police were left out. Moreover, the IGPN used Steve Maia Caniço’s last text message, sent at 3:16 am, to conclude that he must have fallen into the river before the police intervention, whereas according to Le canard enchainé his phone continued to transmit signals until 4:33 am, that is, after the police intervention had begun.

Justice and responsibility

The existence of police violence cannot be denied and those who are responsible are rarely held accountable. A statistic published by the University Bochum and the Federal Statistical Office shows that 91 percent of the cases of police violence in Germany in 2017 were dropped, and only 2 percent were followed by charges or a penal order. More often than not filing charges against a police officer leads to being charged with resistance against an executory officer.

So, what are the alternatives to police investigating police – or, in fact, failing to do so properly? In Germany, Die Linke (left-wing party) suggested the establishment of an independent office processing complaints against police officers. Similarly, in France, there are voices being raised demanding the replacement of the IGPN with a more independent commission tasked with inquiries into the police force. Of course, the improvement of such procedures and institutions alone will not eradicate police violence but it might well be a first step towards reducing it.

by Merle Emrich

Photo Credits

La fresque en hommage à Steve Maia Caniço sur le quai Wilson à Nantes – Août 2019, Erwan Corre, CC BY-SA 4.0

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