Category Archives: english

Tonou Mbobda anniversary 2023_en-de

4th anniversary of the murder of Brother Tonou Mbobda at UKE Hospital

EN – DE unten

On this 21st of April 2023 we again remember our Brother William Tonou-Mbobda, who was brutally torn from his still young life 4 years ago in front of the UKE psychiatric clinic by a forcible restraint by 3 employees of the UKE security service KLE without judicial order and without medical supervision as well as in disregard of existing guidelines for the protection of patients* against inappropriate and life-threatening use of force. Our thoughts go in these following days until 26.04.2023 especially to the grieving relatives and friends, who have not yet received an appropriate personal apology, nor a comprehensible accountable clarification!
(More information at: https://blackcommunityhamburg.blackblogs.org/?s=mbobda)

The mother has submitted civil action at the Hamburg regional court in December 2022 together with the sister of Brother Tonou Mbobda – the UKE has still not commented on the allegations or provided the court with the necessary medical records despite lawyer and court requests. The inhuman and racist strategy of denial of violations of one’s own duty of care and violent practices towards patients, as well as the deliberate concealment and delay of legal clarification, is now being pursued seamlessly in the civil proceedings following the scandalous discontinuation of the criminal investigation.

Anti-black racism has a continuous and unresolved tradition at the UKE and in Hamburg, at the latest since the implementation of emetic torture against all Black suspects with the well-known case of the murder of Achidi John in 2001, as well as the forced X-ray practice on underage refugees for the purpose of scientifically untenable „age determinations“.

We call on the UKE to finally take a responsible stand and not to continue to willfully drag out the procedure!

Mental illness should not be a death sentence!
Being black should not be a death sentence!

We continue to work to dismantle the institutionally fabricated veil of silence, to denounce those responsible by name, and to establish a justice that actually deserves its name – for this must involve not only recognition, but also comprehensible changes to end ableist, racist, and repeatedly deadly practices.

We kindly invite you to keep laying flowers, wreaths, pictures and candles in front of the Psychiatry building (W37) and in the main entrance area of the UKE Hospital at Martinistraße during the period of April 21–26, 2023 to commemorate Brother Tonou Mbobda and the crime committed against him.

#JusticeForMbobda

No JUSTICE – No PEACE!
Touch ONE – Touch ALL!


DE

4. Jahrestag der Ermordung von Bruder Tonou Mbobda am UKE

Wir gedenken an diesem 21. April 2023 erneut an unseren Brother William Tonou-Mbobda, der vor 4 Jahren vor der UKE-Psychiatrie durch eine gewaltsame Zwangsfixierung durch 3 Mitarbeiter des UKE-Sicherheitsdienstes KLE ohne richterliche Anordnung und ohne ärztliche Aufsicht sowie unter Missachtung bestehender Richtlinien zum Schutz von Patient*innen vor unsachgemäßer und lebensgefährlicher Gewaltanwendung brutal aus seinem noch jungen Leben gerissen wurde. Unsere Gedanken gehen in diesen folgenden Tagen bis zum 26.04.2023 besonders an die trauernden Angehörigen und Freunde, die bis heute weder eine angemessene persönliche Entschuldigung, noch eine nachvollziehbar verantwortliche Aufklärung erfahren haben!
(Mehr Informationen unter: https://blackcommunityhamburg.blackblogs.org/?s=mbobda)

Die Mutter hat im Dezember 2022 gemeinsam mit der Schwester von Bruder Tonou Mbobda Zivilklage beim Hamburger Landgericht eingereicht – das UKE hat sich trotz anwaltlicher und gerichtlicher Aufforderung bis heute noch nicht zu den Vorwürfen geäußert bzw. dem Gericht die notwendigen Krankenunterlagen zur Verfügung gestellt. Die menschenverachtende und rassistische Strategie der Verleugnung der eigenen Sorgfaltspflichtverletzungen und gewalttätigen Praktiken gegenüber Patient*innen sowie die gezielte Verschleierung und Verschleppung der juristischen Aufklärung wird nach dem skandalöserweise eingestellten strafrechtlichen Ermittlungsverfahren nun auch im zivilrechtlichen Verfahren nahtlos fortgeführt.

Antischwarzer Rassismus hat am UKE und in Hamburg spätestens seit der Durchführung der Brechmittelfolter gegen ausnahmslos Schwarze Verdächtige mit dem bekannten Fall der Ermordung von Achidi John im Jahre 2001 sowie der Zwangsröntgenpraxis an minderjährigen Geflüchteten zwecks wissenschaftlich unhaltbarer „Altersfestsetzungen“ eine kontinuierliche wie unaufgearbeitete Tradition.

Wir fordern das UKE auf, endlich verantwortlich Stellung zu beziehen und das Verfahren nicht weiter mutwillig zu verschleppen!

Psychische Krankheiten sollten kein Todesurteil sein!
Schwarzsein sollte kein Todesurteil sein!

Wir arbeiten weiter daran, den institutionell gewobenen Mantel des Schweigens zerreißen, die Verantwortlichen beim Namen nennen und eine Gerechtigkeit herzustellen, die ihren Namen auch tatsächlich verdient – denn diese muss neben der Anerkennung auch nachvollziehbare Veränderungen zur Beendigung der ableistischen, rassistischen und immer wieder tödlichen Praktiken beinhalten.

Wir bitten darum, in der Zeit vom 21–26. April 2023 immer wieder Blumen, Kränze, Bilder und Kerzen vor dem Gebäude der Psychiatrie (W37) und im Haupteingangsbereich der Martinistraße abzulegen und damit Bruder Tonou Mbobda und dem an ihm verübten Verbrechen zu gedenken.

#JusticeForMbobda

No JUSTICE – No PEACE!
Touch ONE – Touch ALL!

INFO EVENT & MOBILIZATION To the DEMONSTRATION on January 7th 2023 in DESSAU

OURY JALLOH – THAT WAS MURDER!

(https://blackcommunityhamburg.blackblogs.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/920/2022/12/2019-12-22_Info-VA-Flyer-B5_EN.png)

Oury Jalloh was unlawfully arrested, unlawfully detained and shackled, unlawfully blood drawn, tortured, killed and burned to death by police officers of the Dessau police station on January 7, 2005. In the course of the independent investigation by the Initiative in Remembrance of Oury Jalloh, two other homicide crimes committed by the Dessau police also came to public attention:

  • On December 7, 1997, Hans-Jürgen Rose was severely brutalized at the Dessau police station and subsequently dumped in front of a house entrance in the close neighborhood – he succumbed to his severe internal injuries only a few hours later on December 8, 1997
  • On October 29, 2002, Mario Bichtemann was illegally taken into custody by Dessau police officers and „found“ dead the next day in custody cell no. 5 with a fractured skull base and a fatal brain hemorrhage.

To this day, law enforcement agencies, courts, and state politicians refuse to acknowledge these crimes and draw appropriate criminal consequences. The crimes have remained allegedly „unsolved“, unatoned, without official apologies and without compensation until today!

The brutal, racist murder of brother Oury Jalloh will now be 18 years ago on January 7, 2023.

In the face of the dehumanizing series of murders in the Dessau police station and their systematic impunity, we call on all people and especially our Black and migrant communities to join us in the commemoration demonstration in Dessau to remember those who died and were humiliated in the Dessau murder house, to demand official acknowledgement of the crimes and appropriate prosecution.

The murder, the burning and the previous torture of Oury Jalloh have long been extensively and scientifically proven by a large number of forensic reports – what is missing is the constitutional recognition of the facts and respective consequences.

For 18 years, public prosecutors, courts, and political leaders have sabotaged the investigation ex officio through untenable hypotheses, through systematic suppression and destruction of evidence, through purposeful manipulation of expert opinions and their results, and through deliberate restriction of the lines of investigation and charges.

The Initiative in Remembrance of Oury Jalloh, on the other hand, has impressively demonstrated in these 18 years, on the basis of fire reports, file reports, medical reports and forensic reconstructions, that

  • Oury Jalloh did not have a lighter and the alleged „evidence“ could not have been on death row
  • Oury Jalloh must have been at least incapacitated or unconscious or even already dead at the time of the setting of the fire, since neither fire gases in his blood nor stress factors in his urine were detectable
  • Oury Jalloh received severe head injuries and rib fractures shortly before his death
  • setting fire to the fireproof mattress without accelerant could not be successful from the point of view of fire physics
  • the fire pattern from cell no. 5 could not be achieved without the use of fire accelerant – and
  • that the cell door must probably have been open for the entire duration of the fire.

On Thursday, December 22, 2022, we therefore cordially invite you to an information event together with the Initiative in Remembrance of Oury Jalloh at the International Center B5 (Brigittenstraße 5, 20359 Hamburg-St. Pauli) to inform you about the current state of affairs, to answer your questions and to organize our joint journey to Dessau.

No JUSTICE – No PEACE

Touch ONE – Touch ALL

BREAK the SILENCE

demonstration in münchen – Justice for Johanna de sousa

Am Sonnabend, dem 26. November 2022 fand in München eine Demonstration für Aufklärung und Gerechtigkeit für Johanna DeSouza statt.

Schwester DeSouza befand sich im April 2022 in der Psychiatrie des Schwabinger Krankenhauses in München und wurde dort zwangsweise gegen ihren Willen behandelt. Sie beschwerte sich mehrfach über die gewaltsame Behandlung, bei der sie tagelang an Händen, Füßen und Rumpf fixiert wurde sowie über die starken Nebenwirkungen der ihr zwangsweise verabreichten Psychopharmaka.

Das Klinikpersonal verweigerte ihrer Mutter und einem Pastor den Besuch am Krankenbett und drohte stattdessen auch noch mit der Polizei zur Entfernung aus dem Krankenhaus.

Am 22. April 2022 kollabierte Johanna, nachdem ihr das Aufstehen zur Benutzung der Toilette erlaubt worden war und erlitt trotz Reanimationsversuchen und Verlegung ins Münchner Herzzentrum einen irreversiblen Herzstillstand.

Der Familie wurde die Durchführung einer unabhängigen Zweit-Autopsie zur Klärung der Todesursache verweigert. Ein zur Regelung der rechtlichen Angelegenheiten notwendiger Erbschein wurde der Familie monatelang vorenthalten.

Unser Redebeitrag (EN-DE) auf der Demonstration „Justice4Johanna“ am 26.11.22 vor dem Schwabinger Krankenhaus, in dem Johanna sterben musste:

Wir unterstützen den schmerzhaften Kampf der Familie für Aufklärung und Gerechtigkeit:

Petition „Johanna de Souza – Ihr plötzlicher Tod wirft Fragen auf, wir fordern Aufklärung!“ auf Change.org ⇨

Spendenkampagne „Gerechtigkeit – Justice for Johanna DeSouza“ auf GoFundMe.com ⇨

Mehr Informationen (DE-EN) ⇨ Justice for Johanna De Souza

Vermisste Person in Hamburg – Where is George

VERMISSTE PERSON – MISSING PERSON – HAMBURG

EN – DE↓

+++ UPDATE 23.09.2022 – 5 PM +++

GEORG was found! – GEORGE wurde gefunden!

Brother Hudu Mohamed (George) was found this afternoon – and he is safe & sound, receiving medical attention in hospital.

Through our intensive recherche we were able to locate Brother Hudu against all odds of refusing to give information from side of Hamburg Police and several hospitals. 

It was the police who took him to a hospital on September 2nd without forwarding this information to the friend who tried to establish a missing person report – nor to his Brother and us, who were reporting him missing yesterday.

His Brother Jamal Akim is now with him at the hospital and is relieved and happy as his wife and family are to know he’s alive and in safety.

We give thanks and ancestral blessings to all who cared and shared our call for him so far!

Continue reading Vermisste Person in Hamburg – Where is George

Statement of an Activist of Self-Organized #AfricansFromUkraine

Statement of an Activist of Self-Organized #AfricansFromUkraine

Speech on Rally at Jungfernstieg August 21st 2022

It’s been 6 months and we are still on the same topic. What is our status? Have we really escaped the war just to meet another kind of war ahead of us? It’s been 6 month since we left Ukraine in an attempt to escape the war and seek help in Germany, just like many Ukrainians. I have friends who are settled and are not passing through what we, as 3rd world nationals, face on a daily basis; the uncertainty, the threats to leave the country, the discrimination we face at the immigration office. They are taking our passports and forcing us into asylum.

We are not asylum seekers, we are refugees of war just like the Ukrainians but I don’t see any of them being forced into asylum. We are students just like the Ukrainians. We invested into the Ukraine. We studied there. We worked there. We have memories there. Our livelihood and properties has been destroyed just like theirs. The Ukrainians came looking for help from Germany, just like us. Were we wrong to believe that we could find help within the borders of Germany?

Continue reading Statement of an Activist of Self-Organized #AfricansFromUkraine

Statement Mouhamed Lamin Dramé

Mouhamed Lamin Dramé

– tortured with tear gas and Taser then shot to death by Dortmund police

The 16-year-old Mouhamed Lamin Dramé was an unaccompanied refugee from Senegal and on August 8, 2022 in such an extraordinary crisis situation, that he threatened to harm or even kill himself. At that time, he was in an inpatient placement in a youth residential group of the St. Elisabeth Youth Welfare Service at St. Antonius Church in Dortmund Nordstadt. A short time before, he had been treated at his own request for mental problems in a psychiatric clinic and expressed his suicidal intentions both to his caregivers and to the police officers called. He understood little or no German. His mother tongues were Wolof and French.

So we ask ourselves: How and in which language did the police actually communicate to calm him down in order to prevent suicide?

Mouhamed died in a hail of bullets from a submachine gun. The horror of the taking of such a young life should be dominating national headlines, yet, much of the reaction seems to be a “debate” or justification about the use of deadly force given that Mouhamed was holding a knife.

We condemn the general media narrative which distorts the course of events as if the police officers „had“ to shoot Mouhamed as a last resort, because the use of irritant spray gas and Tasers had „failed to calm him down“.

Why did the team of responders in a suicidal crisis not include mental health professionals or why did the police officers not wait for medical professionals to take adequate care but intervened excessively violent in the first step, unprofessionally escalating an already existing crisis situation?

How can police officers seriously „try“ to „prevent“ a suicide by means of a chemical warfare agent („tear gas“) and an electric pulse weapon (Taser)?

What are the competencies of police officers who are primarily called to deal with patients in psychologically critical situations? Is so called administrative assistance a license to violently intervene or moreover a license to kill?

Every medical doctor* would be held accountable for wrongful fatal treatments of patients – police officers, however, have an unconditional license to harm and kill, sanctioned by the state authorities and politicians as well as media made public opinion, without regard to their lack of competence and expertise or any accountability. While „speculations“ about known facts are morally and legally „forbidden“, the prejudiced and immediate construction of „self-defense situations“ is a routine normality in the public media discourse of police killings and its juridical persecution.

However, the use of violence against children, adolescents and people in need of protection is always an inhuman problem and can never and under no circumstances be assumed a goal-oriented „solution“!

Countless cases of police violence, race-related aggression and extralegal killings of vulnerable people by police officers, who have insufficient training/expertise in handling psychological crisis situations, are an unfortunately all too familiar phenomenon – yet learning processes or even error culture in the authorities are nowhere to be recognized. Rather the contrary is the status quo: impunity by all means providable.

As we grieve the loss of Mouhamed, we share in the grief, pain, rage, and sorrow of the recent killings of

August 2nd – a 23 year old Black man from Somalia was executed by a shot in his head in the early morning hours by police in Frankfurt

August 3rd – 48 year old Jozef Berditchevski, a street musician of Russian nationality was killed in his flat by 2 Köln civil police officers

August 7th – a 39 year old man in an obviously psychotic state of mind was killed by the police in Recklinghausen.

We also mourn the past killings of

Kamal Ibrahim – shot dead on October 3, 2021 by Stade police – 3 shots fired

Omar K. – shot on May 28, 2021 by Hamburg police – 7 shots fired

Mohamed Idrissi – shot on June 18, 2020 by Bremen police – 2 shots fired

Aman Alizada – shot on August 17, 2019 by Stade police – 5 shots

Adel B. – shot dead on June 18, 2019 by Essen police – 1 shot (through a door)

Matiullah Jabarkhil – shot dead by Fulda police on April 13, 2018 – 12 shots fired.

This list explicitly does not mean that German police officers do not shoot or otherwise kill White people in psychological crisis situations – but it illustrates that the inappropriate and counterproductive execution of vulnerable Black and People of Colour in crisis situations by police has no legal or institutional consequences.

Not a single one of these cases resulted in criminal charges or even officer discipline. Accountability is needed to deter future use of force and build community trust

We do understand all these cases as instances of racial health inequality and race-related brutality which is deeply rooted in institutional and systemic oppression.

We understand the historical context and condemn the systemic legalization of the dehumanization of Black lives in German Laws, German Administration, Media and societal practices.

 

We will not allow the death of 16year old Mouhamed Lamin Dramé to be in vain.

His killing is a sober reminder of the need, once again, to fight for the value of Black life in this country where a Black child in a mental crisis can be assassinated in impunity.

 

The BLACK COMMUNITY COALITION Of JUSTICE & SELF-DEFENCE calls on all courageous civil society initiatives and organisations to act swiftly and thoroughly to investigate and clarify the murder of Mouhamed as to bring justice for his grieving family.

Formally we demand thorough and comprehensive procedures by the German state of law well aware of our lived experiences of legal bias and cover up in all such cases ever since.

TOUCH ONE  –  TOUCH ALL

DANIEL – EVERY CHILD DESERVES A SAFE AND SECURE PLACE TO LIVE

Hamburg, 5.7.2022

EVERY CHILD DESERVES A SAFE AND SECURE PLACE TO LIVE

Daniel († 18 months) – driver reverses and runs over child in container camp

It is with deep sadness and sincere sympathy that we inform you that Daniel, an 18-month-old Nigerian child, was run over and killed by a driver while reversing on the access road to the container accommodation on Friday morning, June 24, 2022  on the premises of the Curslacker Neuer Deich refugee accommodation in Hamburg-Bergedorf. Resuscitation attempts were not successful – the child died due to severe head injuries.

The boy’s mother was a direct witness to the accident and had tried to stop the driver by shouting loudly. The family is in shock and mourning the tragic loss of their child and little brother.

Continue reading DANIEL – EVERY CHILD DESERVES A SAFE AND SECURE PLACE TO LIVE

JUNETEENTH Black Community Fundraiser 2022_EN

MUSIC IS WEAPON FOR RESISTANCE & SELF-CARE

We invite you to a 3-hour program of music, information, poetry and exchange!

SPREAD THE WORD – GET READY – COME ALONG
Celebrating Resilience and Liberation

On 19 June 2022

from 15:00 to 18:00

at Kampnagel (Hamburg)

FB_Event JUNETEENTH-Fundraiser BLACK COMMUNITY

The programme includes:

Keynote speech, Live music, Chants, performance, Traditional drum music, Video clips, Presentations, Live music and DJ

This fundraising event is part of our overall commitment and ongoing efforts for equality and justice through advocacy, public awareness, community care, empowerment and education.

Continue reading JUNETEENTH Black Community Fundraiser 2022_EN

Justice for Johanna De Souza

EN below

GERECHTIGKEIT – Justice for Johanna De Souza

München, Bayern, Deutschland April 2022 …

Schon wieder starb eine Schwarze Schwester in einem deutschen Psychiatrie-Krankenhaus …
Schon wieder erfolgte eine Zwangsbehandlung, die tödlich endete …
Schon wieder wurden die Beschwerden der Patientin über die starken Nebenwirkungen der Zwangsmedikation nicht ernst genommen …
Schon wieder wurden die Angehörigen nicht unmittelbar über die Zwangsbehandlung, die Notfallverlegung in ein Herzzentrum und den Tod der Patientin informiert …
Schon wieder soll ein „Herzinfarkt“ für den Tod der 34-jährigen Patientin verantwortlich sein …

Continue reading Justice for Johanna De Souza

World Refugge Day 2022 – Demonstration for Equality of Treatment

 
On this year’s World Refugee Day on June 20, we want to show solidarity especially with African and international refugees that fled the war in Ukraine and are being discriminated against on racial, ethnical or national grounds. They are refugees of the same war, have suffered the same trauma of war and flight from war, had to leave behind their valuables and belongings, their normal lives and achievements – but are treated differently through discrimination and exclusion from temporary protection.
 
We want to advocate for the right to equal treatment of ALL refugees of ALL wars or due to ALL other valid reasons to flee once country of living.
 
Pls read the Statement of the self-organized Refugee group “Africans From Ukraine” here: https://blackcommunityhamburg.blackblogs.org/2022/03/29/statement-africansfromua-on-equal-treatment/
 

Continue reading World Refugge Day 2022 – Demonstration for Equality of Treatment