Die Voices of the Balduintreppe wurden auf Wunsch der interviewten Personen neu eingesprochen.

A: There was a time when the Police, the civil Police arrested ‘Lamin’¹ , very aggressively, you know. They were holding the man, you know, blow him on the ground. You know, these are the kind of things that have been happening here like, when the Police they saw you… something, it’s like they get angry. Instead for them to come and arrest you in a civilized way, they will come like fighting and this is not ok, because I’m standing, even I sell, the Policeman come and grab me like this. And I think he is a criminal or somebody who try to attack me. But you come, you know, you pull your card and show it to me: „I‘m a Policeman, you are under arrest, we saw you dealing“, yeah, no problem, then we can do whatever. But they will come in group, with bicycles, like they come and fight you physically. Even they have control over you, they put the cuff on you, they will still knocking your head on the ground, put their knees on top of your head, and they go to court and they will say: „He fights the police.” […] They send somebody to prison here for nine months for this. The police, they accused him for fighting, and he doesn’t fight them. The police, they fight him. […] They be lying. […] [A]nd they go and change the narrative, you know, to accuse the guy, because he doesn‘t have any other power, there is no one to defend him, no witness, and they will provide their own witnesses. You know, so, these are the kind of violent attacks we have been facing here, you know.

¹ Name has been changed.

B: […] [M]any people […] may think that what the cops say is always right or the cops are working for the better of the country, they are securing the country. Although we never hate the cops if they do the right job but we see ourselves sometimes discriminated, humiliated, no even respect word from the cops, we never expect that. We expect that the cops will come with the rule of law […] They have to approach us with respect. […] They will even keep you away from the street with no reason. They will say: “You are illegal. You don’t have document. You are illegal.” But who order you to arrest the illegal people? You have no order from your boss that to arrest the illegal people. You are sent here to just come and monitor whether people are making drug dealing or something like that or crimes, different crimes but when you came that because you see somebody you don’t like his face, it’s too Black, you have a sentiment. You say: “Well, I have to control him.” Ya. I don’t really appreciate in that way. Yes, because many work in the street. You don’t know who are they and which condition they are. You cannot
always see them in the street and say: “Well, I have to take them away. I have to search them. I have to…” That’s out of human. That’s out of human. We are humans. We see lot of time, lot of time we see no white people has been stopped in the street and asked for document just for control without no doing any reaction, but Black person can be walking on the street without no reaction, no nothing, you can be stopped and controlled. What is that? We think that in Germany there is the best democracy and the rule of law, but why should we come here and still depressed. And it will be very hard for people to understand but it can be understood also when you are willing to understand. […]

A: So, the police they might be tagging us as criminals, sending people to prison for just a gram of Marihuana, even half gram of Marihuana. Sometimes they send some people to prison while they don’t do anything, just accusation because we are Black. Not all these police recognize us. […] They come in the garden and accuse somebody. You don’t have any right. You don’t have any power. You go to court. They will bring three other polices to witness it. You don’t have any one to stand for you. This is really stressful. People go to jail here for other people’s problem. You sleep in the prison for a crime that you didn’t commit. It can, it can traumatize you. It can make you depressed. So, this is it. This is the life we are facing, you know. Sometimes you go to prison without doing anything. They just accuse you or saw you selling while you don’t even sell. I have an example: I was sent to prison last April for somebody’s problem because we wear the same jacket. I came in St. Pauli less than three minutes and the police said they saw me selling. I said: “Selling for where?” They said: “Because you sell on the top of the stairs.” I said: “I am just coming.” They said: “You sell.” I said: “I did not sell. I was not the one who sell.” And they keep me in the prison. […]

B: […] The mass here, they will humiliate you in the street, and in the prison it gets worse. Prison, it‘s not like…. something. Prison can be easy for you when you are very patient. And 3 people are not equal in patience. Some people kill themselves in prison, I see that, just because they have to stay for five years. They kill themselves. Because once when you are there, you don‘t own your key, somebody has to open the door for you. If you are sick, you have to call for somebody, and if he is cruel, he can refuse you. You feel all humiliation there, no respect for you, no dignity for you. You should go there for a reason, not for looking for your survival, or looking for food, and then you have been taken there for unjust. I don‘t think it should never happen in anywhere.

B: […] [I]n prison you can die. I have an abscess in prison, very big abscess on my private part. And I asked a request, Antrag, to the doctor. […] After three days when the doctor calls me. He said to me: “Well, you have written an Antrag to see a Doctor. What’s the matter?” I said: “Well, I write you three days ago and today is the day you are calling me?” He said to me: “No, I just heard your Antrag just today.” And I saw it on the Antrag. The day that I write, they scratch my date and put a new date on the other side of the Antrag. I said to the doctor: “But you can see that this is not my […] handwriting. You can see that. And this is the day that I write it. You see they scratched it. It was the same Antrag, but they scratched my date.” And he said to me: “What was the matter then?” I show him my injurie. He said: “This should be emergency.” And he said to me: “Do you need any help again?” I said: “No. I don’t need any help.” I was very upset. I was very, very angry. But I can’t do nothing. I can’t do nothing… […] [Pause] […] We have passed through that, through the desert and the Mediterranean Sea. So, anything that we see is injustice or is very hard […]. We are used to it, but it should not be normal for anybody to be used to that kind of life. Changes must be done. We didn’t expect that. I get very hot when I used to talk something like this. Because I have experienced so many things like that. I am always patient and hopeful because I know that the hope is better than the last bread. But we should be considered. We should be considered, this is unjust. We can do something better. And we are not your enemies. We are not the enemies of the cops or the state or any individual person. We are also humans. We deserve better.