It is depressing to watch history repeat itself: police killing people, police acquitted or never tried for those crimes, individuals within a movement frustrated by a lack of democratic process becoming more extreme. Parallels in history are all too apparent.
On June 2, 1967 students in West Berlin were protesting the
reception of the Shah of Iran by their government. Some protesters threw paint
balloons which fell far short of the Shah’s motorcade; but this was as
disorderly as the crowd became. After the Shah had entered the Berlin Opera
House, the protesters were dispersing.
“Then the police attacked, wielding their truncheons without
giving the usual warning first…demonstrators collapsed, covered with
blood…Detective Sergeant Karl-Heinz Kurras...of the Political Police…thought he
spotted a ringleader…the police gave chase, reached him and showered blows on
him. The student hung limp in their arms and slumped slowly to the ground.
Karl-Heinz Kurras was among those on the spot at this moment, holding his 7.65-mm
pistol with the safety catch off. The muzzle was less than half a metre away
from the demonstrator’s head, or that was how it appeared to eye-witnesses.
Suddenly a shot rang out. The bullet hit the man above the right ear, entered
his brain and smashed the cranium…The dead man was Benno Ohnesorg, twenty-six
years old, studying Romance languages and literature, a pacifist” (Aust, pp.
26-27).
Kurras was shortly acquitted in two trials and subsequently
promoted. “In January 2012, an investigation carried out by federal prosecutors and Der Spiegel magazine ruled that the shooting of Ohnesorg
was not in self-defence and was certainly premeditated” (Wikipedia/Der Spiegel
citation below). Police violence against protesters, check. Police murder,
check. Police acquittal, check.
The result of these murders, then as now, was increased
radicalism and the perception that the offending officers represented a Police
State rather than a Democratic Republic. On the same night of the police riot
and Ohnesorg’s assassination, demonstrators met at the Berlin SDS centre. “A
slim young woman with long blonde hair was weeping uncontrollably, crying,
‘This fascist state means to kill us all. We must organize resistance. Violence
is the only way to answer violence” (Aust, p. 27). This once innocent,
young woman was Gudrun Ensslin; a future leader in the Baader-Meinhof Group who
was to commit deadly acts of terrorism in the coming years. Those who feel that
this example applies only to Germany need only look to the Police Riot of the
1968 Chicago Democratic Convention and the rise of the Weather Underground for
comparisons.
All parties must take responsibility: police and
demonstrators; past and present. Yes, the individuals of the Baader-Meinhof
Group were personally responsible for becoming terrorists; for carrying-out
extreme measures in response to extreme repression. Many of their fellow
students continued to protest against the Shah or the Vietnam War without
resorting to violence. But we must recognize that without police violence, it
is unlikely that these students would have turned to hatred, thought of the
state as fascistic and assumed violent tactics.
In Brooklyn, a disturbed Ismaaiyl Brinsley has already
murdered NYPD officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu, claiming it as revenge for
the police murders of Eric Garner and Michael Brown. This will not be the last extremist
response. Demonstrators, motivated by Ferguson and other killings of non-white minorities, see that they are not being heard and are responding with
increasingly radical acts. One, much milder but telling, example is the highway
blockage of I-93 leading into Boston. It was peaceful, but was the impotent act
of a frustrated protest movement that only served to anger commuters. No
official response assuring justice for murdered African American males has
resulted from this protest. As protesters continue to be unheard and injustice
persists, their actions will become increasingly angry.
Authorities are acquitting murderers. More minority males are being murdered. There is a perception that the police receive special
treatment when on trial for murder. The democratic process appears compromised.
People see this across a political spectrum from uninvolved citizens to the demonstrators
themselves. It is too reminiscent of the past.
The elected officials must now intervene, to both show the
protesters (and the rest of us) that there is justice. They must enact that
justice, before things go regrettably further. As exhibited by the example of
western democracies during the late 1960s, failure to act will result in
escalating discord. We elect the
representatives of civic and national government. They hold the leash by which
the police are restrained. If they do not act to restrain police violence and
bring murdering officers to justice, they must be replaced. This is how a
democratic republic works. Let us not repeat the errors of the 1960s.
Aust, Stefan. Baader-Meinhof. The Inside Story of the Red
Army Faction. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.
Wikipedia: "Police
Covered Up Truth Behind Infamous Student Shooting".
SPIEGEL ONLINE international. 2012-01-23. Retrieved 2012-02-25.
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