As riots triggered by the death of George Floyd spread across the US, many activists in Germany want the police to face its own accusations of racist violence. Several people of color have been killed by police or died in custody in the last 20 years — the most well-known being Sierra Leonean asylum-seeker Oury Jalloh, whose burned body was found in a police cell in Dessau in 2005.
And there have been many others: From Cameroonian asylum-seeker Achidi John, who died after being forced to take emetics, a drug that causes vomiting, while in custody in Hamburg in 2001, to Hussam Hussein, an Iraqi refugee who was shot dead outside a refugee home in Berlin in 2016.
Everyday experience
These cases might have scandalized many, but for black people in Germany they are simply deadly examples of racial profiling they face every day, even though that has long been officially banned. "The African community has never had the experience that the police is there to protect them," said Sylvie Nantcha, founder and head of The African Network of Germany (TANG). "Rather they have the impression that the police is there to suspect them."
