Stanislav Tomáš, who died two years ago in the summer after an intervention by the police, has a new tombstone at the Teplice cemetery. The police was exonerated, a conclusion that many did not accept. On his tomb, there is simply the word “Pativ”, here standing for respect.
Unfortunately, another one of those (on both sides). Roma were arrested in Kharkiv region in Ukraine for having swindled pensioneers. They were arrested and will be tried.
The issue as usual is that this is depicted as an ethnic trait.
Bad.
A lecture by a federal police officer at the federal government’s open day in Berlin last weekend sparked sharp criticism from the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma and the religious policy spokesman for the Green parliamentary group, Volker Beck.
According to the Central Council and Beck, the representative of the Berlin Directorate of the Federal Police gave a public lecture in the Federal Ministry of the Interior entitled “Beware of thieves! How pickpockets use tricks and how you can successfully ruin their criminal journey.” In it, Roma are said to have been generally referred to as “large criminal families” organized into “criminal clans” that move through Europe. Other ethnic groups were also racially discriminated against: each ethnic group, North African or Polish, had “its own criminal methods”.
The police do not officially keep statistics on crime committed by Roma, but the police can say that in municipalities with a large number of Roma, they cause up to 90 percent of all crime.
In Ivančna Gorica, the situation is so serious that the locals decided to organize the so-called village guards.
Roma gathered today in Gračanica, Kosovo, at a protest organized by the Association of Roma in Kosovo “Opre Roma”, due to the beating of a Rom by the Kosovo Police.
The Green politician Renate Künast’s move to stop using the term “clan criminality” by the North Rhine-Westphalia, a term that was heavily criticised by Roma organisations was rejected. NRW Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU) told the “Bild” (Saturday edition): “You have to name problems if you want to solve them. Out of sheer fear of stigmatization, clan criminality was ignored for 30 years. We have to spoon up the soup now”.
Lawyers of the European Roma Rights Center (ERRC) and the Forum for Human Rights (FORUM) filed a lawsuit with the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) against the Czech Republic over the death of Roma Stanislav Tomáš during a police intervention in Teplice in 2021. The Czech Constitutional Court rejected a complaint by the organization in April 2023. The case before the court is being conducted on behalf of the surviving family member of the deceased Roma.
Sinti from Osnabrück, Germany are asking for explanations following a search in a Sinti camp in the city. The police far exceeded the scope of the search warrant they had.
Last week, the German police raided a Sinti camp in Osnabrück, on the suspicion that a condemned criminal was there. So far, no issue. But then they searched every one in the camp, which is an issue, as this went way beyond their warrant.
Several articles criticising the police report on clan criminality from Lower Saxony as being racist and based against Sinti and Roma.
The story of a police Razzia in a Sinti camp in Osnabrück, Germany. The police went too far, unfortunately not an exception. They had an arrest warrant for one person, and took the opportunity to search all…
At the end of June, the Ministry of the Interior and Justice in Hanover presented the “Clan Crime Situation Report 2022”. The Central Council of Sinti and Roma is now criticizing the police stigmatization of minorities and is calling for investigations into racist discrimination to be stopped.
Romani Rose, the chairman of the Central Council, stated that the report is a “continuation of the racist and antiziganist recording”, which is being continued despite the painful history of this minority and despite the ban in the constitution.
Well, the latest survey of the attitudes of the German police come as no surprise. 17% stated they would have issues if Roma settled in their neighbourhood … And there is more.
The Bulgarian police raised several mahala (Roma settlements) in Bulgaria in Plovdiv, Kazanlak, Gurkovo etc. They were searching for drugs, but also vote buying and other offences.
A scandal broke out at a festival in Miskolc, Hungary. Gyula Horváth, the president of a Roma organisation had all the permission to collect donations and distribute balloons at the festival. The city police, however, harassed him and told him to leave.
“They have been harassing me since the morning, since the Festival started. First they wanted to disturb me, then they threatened me, then they wanted to ring out the stand with a cordon. There were about ten people here, they checked my papers, but I have all the official permits,” Horváth told.
The president negotiated with the police for two hours. In the meantime, they took photos of him, and then the police sent the photos to the mayor.
The case of two Roma who were assaulted by the police has been reopened in Romania. This is a first in Romania where the court contradicted the prosecution who wanted the case dismissed.
The very long story of the police brutality against Roma in Košice which started in 2009 and saw Roma who had sued the police being brought to court is finally coming to an end. The European Court of Human Rights who had condemned Slovakia in the process awarded 20’000 EUR to each of the Roma.
At long last!
The European Roma Right Centre and the Vojvoðanski romski centar are taking legal action against the Serbian police for having invaded a Roma home and brutally attacked the Roma.
Let’s see what comes out of it…
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