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
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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.

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u/Dazzling_Lobster3656 1d ago

That's insane in 2025

Even irekand has an independent ombudsman

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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.