r/europe • u/Dazzling_Lobster3656 • 1d ago

Irish protester ‘repeatedly punched in the face by police’ during Gaza protest in Berlin

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/irish-protester-repeatedly-punched-in-the-face-by-police-during-gaza-protest-in-berlin/a249856773.html
2.2k Upvotes

85% Upvoted

681 comments sorted by

View all comments

23

u/[deleted] 1d ago edited 1d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

7

u/Schnorch 1d ago

That won't happen.

You have to understand that in Germany there is no authority whose job it is to independently investigate possible police violence. Here, the police officer's colleagues are simply tasked with the “investigation.”

That's why German police officers are pretty much protected from prosecution, which is confirmed by practically every statistic available on the subject. There are other factors at play here, such as prosecutors who want to stay on good terms with the police because they work with them, etc., but that would be going too far now.

0

u/Dazzling_Lobster3656 1d ago

That's insane in 2025

Even irekand has an independent ombudsman

2

u/Schnorch 1d ago

There is even an ombudsman like this in Berlin. But it's just a fig leaf. It's basically just one guy who has hardly any authority and is in no way capable of conducting a truly independent investigation. He can look at files (which, of course, were created by the police) and ask nice questions, and that's about it.

Investigations in such cases continue to be carried out by the colleagues of the possible offender.

6

u/manyworldsim 1d ago

Why does gender matter? Remember we're all equal right? Right?

-1

u/SilentBass75 1d ago

Men who relish punching women are still scumbags. Regardless of egalitarianism

6

u/[deleted] 1d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

15

u/[deleted] 1d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/[deleted] 1d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

8

u/gobocork 1d ago

Oh no, did the words hurt their feelings? How dreadful! She very obviously did not assault the cops, which is why they used the very tenuous phrasing: "offended physically". You better believe, if she had actually assaulted anyone that is what they would have said.

27

u/SilentBass75 1d ago

She did not assault the cop so.... she said some mean words

0

u/Much-Jackfruit2599 1d ago

insults can actually be a crime over here and you can - though it’s not advisable - use appropriate force to stop them.

however, that video shows, to my eyes, excessive police violence. an officer that behaves like this shouldn’t work with people.

4

u/SilentBass75 1d ago

I agree with all you've said, I was just trying to pin the above commenters bs that the protester assaulted the police officer first.

-1

u/bart416 1d ago

Which can land you in quite some trouble in Germany: https://www.dw.com/en/is-it-illegal-to-call-someone-a-nazi/a-42313527

Basically, don't go to Germany and call people a nazi; being punched in the face might be the least of her troubles.

2

u/SilentBass75 1d ago

Slander is a crime there, yes, though calling someone a nazi does not have its own law. Had this person been detained or arrested, there would be less controversy. Instead, we saw a police officer relish punching someone in the face.

He earned the facist nickname I guess

9

u/Far_Advertising1005 1d ago

Complete and pathetic bootlicking from you.

“She called him a meanie word! Of course it’s fine that he violently assaulted her!” He’s a pathetic baby who should be fired immediately if he can’t handle being (rightfully) insulted

8

u/Dazzling_Lobster3656 1d ago

https://youtu.be/8SUln5weESQ?si=aSOleHvM8dYfc301

1

u/vomicyclin Berlin (Germany) 1d ago

so...?

Insult an police officer in Germany as a "nazi" and you will find out. This "everybody with another opinion than me is a nazi"-nonsense will get you consequences here.

18

u/Sexul_constructivist 1d ago

If you called me a nazi, and i started beating you in the face, would you call the police on me?

2

u/Detozi Ireland 1d ago

Of course they would. Right after they finished balling their eyes out.

21

u/noorderlijk 1d ago

If a cop behaves like a nazi, then he deserves to be called like that. We fought a war to get rid of such thugs, you know. Nazis and Gestapo like police have no place in our world.

7

u/biggronklus 1d ago

If you call a cop a Nazi for clearing a protest and they beat you senseless they’re kinda acting like a Nazi lmao

0

u/vomicyclin Berlin (Germany) 1d ago

So your definition of "Nazi" is "a person who beats people"?

try to use the thing between your ears once in a while...

2

u/biggronklus 1d ago

A state that beats people in the street for protesting the mass murder and starvation of innocents in a ghetto of a million people just might be a bit in the wrong bud

1

u/qwq1792 1d ago

If a woman called you a nazi you would punch her? The f*ck is wrong with you?

0

u/Ok_Row_4920 1d ago

Right, so she didn't assault the woman beater.

-10

u/[deleted] 1d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

8

u/Dazzling_Lobster3656 1d ago

Jesus

There you go folks

-6

u/Svorky Germany 1d ago edited 1d ago

If you go to an illegal protest and then push back against police trying to remove you, you might get punched.

So nothing will happen. Legally they have a lot of leeway to "break resitance against Police measures". Use of force is valid here, it would just be a question of a judge judging it excessive or not. But it's almost certainly just not excessive enough to get police into trouble here.

As a bonus tip for her, I would not pursue legal action. She pushed him first, and police will (in this case likely successfully) countersue.

28

u/Dazzling_Lobster3656 1d ago

Right to protest is as german as Bier

11

u/justadubliner Ireland 1d ago

Not for pro Palestinian protesters. Even anti Zionist Jews get this treatment. Germany police have been beating up and arresting pro Palestinian protesters for many years. Germany wants to ensure the Palestinians continue to pay the price for Germanys sins. It's why they are second only to the US in providing the genociders with the means to commit the genocide.

4

u/Habitatti 1d ago

The real kicker is that Israel wasn’t even founded for holocaust surviors, but for rich ethnic Jews (clarifying as religion has little to do with Zionism). Countless of less fortunate Jews were rejected from Israeli citizenship after the holocaust, namely Polish and Ukranian Jews.

2

u/justadubliner Ireland 1d ago

Ethiopian Jews also didn't get a rousing welcome. Wasn't it as recent as decade ago they were forcing contraception on Ethiopians?! Truth is Israel was always going to end up as a brutal apartheid state. The type of character who believes they have the right to disposessess and subjugate native people in this day and age was always going to result in a country that resembles MAGA on steroids.

1

u/justadubliner Ireland 1d ago

And they refused Ugandan Jews apparently but not white South African Jewish converts. Shades of the current Trumpistan attitude to refugees. https://www.reddit.com/r/IsraelCrimes/s/ra2MOqSlXG

0

u/Svorky Germany 1d ago

You have the right to protest, police have the power to order you to disperse, you have the right to take it to the courts.

Do you see who strayed from the law where.

22

u/Dazzling_Lobster3656 1d ago

Yes no argument there

There is "proportional response required"

This is not that

1

u/UNOvven Germany 1d ago

Yeah, the police. You do not have a right to punch people in the face, you especailly dont have the right to do that with banned quartz sand gloves.

1

u/Sea-Bend-5914 1d ago

This is how it started in Russia. Everyone has the right to protest. But the police also had the power to order the people to disperse. Everyone who didn't like it had the right to complain to the courts. Now we know how this story ended.

1

u/Svorky Germany 1d ago

Right ok. Name a country where police don't have that power.

6

u/ZestycloseBeach5946 1d ago

As per Germanys own laws force must be “moderate and proportionate”. Is repeatedly punching a woman in the face for shoving you proportionate ?

I agree she laid hands on a police officer so if she got cuffed and removed I’d have to no sympathy but getting concussed is excessive.

7

u/the_Dachshund 1d ago

Well it seems like you haven’t seen the video…

And it’s part of the job to control yourself. If all it needs for you to get that violent because of a little push, then you are wrong in your job.

6

u/UNOvven Germany 1d ago

The protest was legal, the police had no right to attempt to remove anyone, he was using quartz sand gloves which are banned, and the use of force was excessive. This is probably one of the easiest lawsuits to win in a while. The police is already getting into trouble for constantly trying to illegally stop protests.

2

u/Fluffy-Republic8610 1d ago

A little push back to get a shield out of your face is not violence. Are you suggesting a protester should move as if they are on wheels? It's not pushing forward into a defended place. It's just standing your ground on the public street, making a protest. The public street belongs to the public. The police are not the owners of the street. They are there to help secure the street for people. This protest was being attended by some other the people they are there to protect.

It's supposed to be noisy. It can sometimes not be applied for in advance. There is a genocide on. We have to show authority that if they dont act we are capable of causing disturbance.

None of that allows authority to punch you in the face, twice.

-2

u/TheManlyManperor 1d ago

A German defending genocide and Nazi police actions, color me shocked!

-32

u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

5

u/meckez 1d ago

Still wouldn't excuse the police officer to punch her in the face. At least not in Germany.

1

u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

0

u/itinerantmarshmallow 1d ago

I like how "you should be ashamed of yourselves" is included among verbal insults.

Low fucking bar isn't it for an insult.

-11

u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

9

u/meckez 1d ago

Don't know what you were looking but the video that has been shared above clearly shows the cop punching the protester several times in the face from around 1:10 on

0

u/Either-Detective-479 1d ago

Don’t bother. These people aren’t arguing in good faith

7

u/EcstaticYesterday605 Ireland 1d ago

He clearly hit her in the face. Where do you think the blood came from? are you visually impaired somewhat?

2

u/mrz_ Hamburg (Germany) 1d ago

So?