Civil rights activists in Germany have demanded an independent inquiry into alleged police racism after an officer shot a 21-year-old black man from behind, killing him after an altercation outside a nightclub.
The 27-year-old officer was suspended from duty over the shooting early on Sunday morning in the city of Oldenburg in north-west Germany pending a murder investigation, said state prosecutors. Fatal police shootings are relatively rare in Germany and prosecutors were quoted in local media as saying the suspension and investigation were “routine”.
Police have not identified the victim due to data protection laws but media and pressure groups have identified him as Lorenz A.
I suppose the inquiry will simply be about whether the dead guy was black or not.
Quick beat up some more Palestine protestors
The news report on this and some say that allegedly he threatened the officers with tear gas or a knife, but even if he did, in no way is shooting someone justified in this situation. Ever. His skin definitely played a role in this since racist and right-wing police in Germany is nothing new
This is not the US. And in contrast to the US, where such a shooting would barely make it to the local weekly paper, this is so outrageous for Germany that this is a topic for the national TV news for at least two days.
And: an American policeman would most likely get out of this unscarred, chances for the German policeman to continue in this job are rather dim.
Incorrect, according to German legislation, weapons may be used to protect life and prevent harm. Courts have recurrently ruled that an attacker with a knife approaching the police or innocent bystanders are considered beyond stoppable if they are in immediate reach of a potential victim (which has been said to be in a range of 6 meters and below).
What needs to be established now is whether the cop used unnecessary lethal force, since the guy has been hit 4 times (3 direct hits, once grazed), and at least one shot was from behind.
allegedly he threatened the officers with tear gas or a knife, but even he did, in no way is shooting someone justified in this situation.
Have to disagree with you here: If threatened with a stick, police have to pull out a bigger stick to do their job.
If a person starts a fist fight, the baton is the proper method to a) defend yourself and b) gain an advantage over the attacker. If the person then pulls a knife, the baton loses its advantage and a new tool is needed to regain it.
The issue in this case is not the choice of the tool for the job: Pulling the gun on someone attacking others with a knife. The issue is the attacker was shot in the back, which raises the question if he was still a threat.
Little fun fact: The vests regular police are wearing in Germany (at least in the southwest where I live) are bulletproof against small arms fire, but not stab proof. So “just tackle him and take it on the armour” is not an option.
Do cops in Germany not have Pepper Spray? Do they not have tazers? It seems like there were plenty of options to deal with the threat at hand without killing them. But the cop decided to take the US approach of shoot first ask questions later.
Pepper Spray
I am not sure how pepper spray is supposed to stop someone from wildly slashing around.
Not have tazers?
Been many times proven to be unreliable: Highly depends on what the attacker is wearing or which mental state he is in.
But the cops decided to take the US approach of shoot first ask questions later.
Guess we should task you with the investigation, since you appear to know a lot more than the rest of us.
You did see in the article where it says the guy was shot from behind right? Cuz it kind of kills all your little scenarios you’re coming up with here.
I am not sure how pepper spray is supposed to stop someone from wildly slashing around.
Blinding someone takes out a lot of their capabilities. It’s hard to hit a target you can’t see. And the vast majority of people with pepper spray in their eyes are going to grab at their eyes first from the pain/discomfort. I’m surprised I have to point this out.
Been many times proven to be unreliable: Highly depends on what the attacker is wearing or which mental state he is in.
The vast majority of people tend to tense up when tazed. Some people handle it better than others, but most people are getting stopped by a tazer. And again, pepper spray is another option if the tazer failed. The gun should have only been a last resort if no other options worked and the suspect was still trying to stab someone.
Guess we should task you with the investigation, since you appear to know a lot more than the rest of us.
They literally shot the man in the back three times, but K.
And the vast majority of people with pepper spray in their eyes […]
The vast majority of people tend to tense up when tazed. […]
You see a pattern there? I’m not sure whether I am comfortable with “in the vast majority of cases, I was not murderer by a guy charging at me with a knife”.
They literally shot the man in the back three times, but K.
And that implies what exactly? Could have been running away, maybe. Could have turned on someone else, also possible. We do not know. Which is the whole point of the investigation, which according to you is a close and shut case. For all we know, police could have used all of those things, and we just focus on the fact that he was killed in the end.
There are clear cases of police brutality and violations of citizen rights in Germany. A guy throwing tear gas and wielding a knife simply has a high probability of not being one of them.
The lack of it being mentioned by the police is a good reason to believe that Tazers and Pepper Spray were not used. Otherwise they would have lead with that when talking about this case. On top of that, the officer in question shot this man in the back. Three times. And I’m supposed to believe that all non-lethal means to stop this man were exhausted? I highly doubt it.
And just because a person does wrong and deserves punishment does not mean they deserve to be murdered by the state. This person had the potential to be dangerous. That doesn’t mean that he gets an automatic death sentence because some cop decided so. And I’d very much argue unloading a gun in a population center is far more dangerous then any agitated man with a knife.
I may not have been there personally, but you weren’t either. As far as I’m concerned, it’s just as valid to be critical of the police in question as I have been. After all: you’ve been doing essentially the exact same thing by defending the police’s actions without any evidence that they exhausted all other non-lethal means.
you’ve been doing essentially the exact same thing
No, you have been arguing that this is a case of police brutality simply off of the fact that the person was shot in the back. I have been arguing that this situation is not as black and white as you suggest due to various possible circumstances.
Your whole choice of words just shows, that you have already made up your mind despite, as you said yourself, not being there.
Also I assume the vests do not protect your neck, which is where a close range knife wound can quickly become fatal.
Germany has a problem with trigger happy nazi cops.
Don’t know why you’re getting downvoted for that.
No, it really doesn’t. German shoots and kills, on average, fewer than 10 people per year. The total amount of bullets discharged at people hovers around 50 to 60.
In a country of 83 million.
The US population is four times larger and the number of victims of police shootings is literally 100 times higher. An estimated 1173 in 2024 and the US internationally doesn’t even properly track this number.
Heck, even France’s police kill significantly more people than Germany’s “trigger happy nazi cops”.
In fairness to him, the number of people killed by police is rising and there are nazi cops. Still, can’t pull the trigger in Germany without an investigation and nazis can/do get kicked out of the police just for being one
Germany, like most countries, does have issues with law enforcement. But, as you noticed, so far our checks and balances hold - at least when it comes to fatal violence.
I don’t think you can extrapolate any trend from the extremely low annual numbers. 2024 was indeed an unusually violent year (even though official stats haven’t been finalized afaik), but looking at 2025s numbers so far, this does not appear to indicate any trend.
