Suspicion of fare evasion
The story behind the picture
September 2021
Protests against the IAA: A colourful picture, a nervous police force
Munich, 2021 - The city is under special observation: several groups and associations have announced protests against the International Motor Show (IAA). The police are preparing for one of the largest operations in two decades - Bavaria's Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann has already made this clear in advance. The car manufacturers are alarmed. They do not fear discussions about sustainable mobility, but images of blockades and burning barricades that could disrupt their green staging.
But on this Wednesday evening, a different picture emerges. Not a "left-wing extremist and left-wing autonomous milieu", as feared in certain political circles, but a diverse protest. A group of young people, colourful, loud, but peaceful. Their destination is Odeonsplatz, where they want to visit the so-called Open Spaces.
But even before the first demonstrators get off the underground, the police intervene. Officers position themselves at the exits, watch the arrivals, check bags and rucksacks. Nothing has happened yet, but the tension is palpable. It seems as if the police want to leave nothing to chance - and as if the message is clear: the demonstrators should not even arrive.
Apparently very few of the group are interested in a new Mercedes - but this assumption alone seems to be enough to set a massive police force in motion. Before the demonstrators can even leave the platform completely, they are stopped at the end of the escalator and surrounded.
What follows raises questions. The group is tightly packed together and detained for over an hour and a half. One by one, the individuals are taken away and their personal details are recorded. Keeping your distance - which is strongly recommended in times of corona anyway - is simply not possible under these conditions.
The police call it a measure to avert danger. But it feels different to those who are surrounded: as a signal that their protest is unwelcome - long before it has even begun.
When the group arrives, the police block the escalator
When the group arrives, the police block the escalator
When the group arrives, the police block the escalator
When the group arrives, the police block the escalator
Sandra S., 24, reports how she experienced the assignment: "I was completely searched for no reason, shouted at by police officers and personal belongings were confiscated. The situation and the close circle of police officers triggered a panic attack in me, but I was initially refused medication or the use of my asthma spray on the grounds that this was only permitted under medical supervision. “
When I asked the officer in charge, Mr Kasper, I was told that the reason for the measure was the suspicion of 'fraudulent use of services', i.e. fare evasion. "During individual questioning, I was suspected of fare evasion, even though I was in possession of a valid ticket, which I showed the whole time," Sandra S. reports.
Sandra was handcuffed and taken to the police station in Ettstraße, where she was not allowed to use the phone or the toilet. At 1.00 a.m. she was finally allowed to go home.
But the situation becomes even more absurd.
Sandra, who was not originally part of the encircled group, is suddenly targeted herself. She was standing outside the police cordon, waiting for her sister, trying to get her out of the situation. I had been talking to her just a short time before - uninvolved, on the sidelines.
Then a surprising offer: an officer points to the barrier and says she can simply go inside to speak to her sister. A few steps further and she is suddenly one of those detained.
It can happen that quickly. A moment of caring becomes an involuntary entry into a measure that hardly seems comprehensible from the outside. What remains is the feeling that not only protesters but also bystanders can get caught up in the maelstrom of police action - with questionable justifications and unclear consequences.
