Monument against police violence | Late regrets

In winter you freeze on the icy metal, in summer you burn yourself. Photo: Jens Weyers Last Saturday afternoon, a memorial for the victims of emetics by the police was inaugurated in downtown Bremen. A citizens' initiative had been fighting for this for more than 20 years. Right next to the Gerhard Marcks House, the Museum of Sculpture, the shattered letters of the English word "Force" - which can be translated as violence, power and police force - are now lying in stainless steel.

The South African artist Usha Seejarim created the design. “Death by Drowning” is the title of the work. But from the beginning: On December 27, 2004, police officers picked up the Sierra Leonean asylum seeker Laye-Alama Condé at the Sielwall intersection, not far from today's memorial site. He was suspected of trafficking cocaine and was taken to the police station. There he was tied hand and foot. He was given emetics and water through a nasal tube. In this way, any cocaine pellets that may have been swallowed should be secured. Condé vomited several times under the supervision of a doctor who attended the procedure. He fell into a coma and finally died on January 7th of the following year.

Bremen was one of the few federal states in which this procedure was used, as was Hamburg. In 2001, Nigerian asylum seeker Achidi John died. Activists named the square in front of the “Rote Flora” in the Schanzenviertel after him. In Bremen, which was governed by a grand coalition at the time, the Greens tried in vain to stop the operation.

In total, emetics have been administered in more than 1,000 cases in Bremen since 1991. Exclusively to people with dark skin. It was only after Condé died in this way that the administration of emetics was stopped here. Hamburg followed suit by condemning the practice as torture by the European Court of Human Rights in 2006.

Something then happened in Bremen that rarely happens in everyday political life in the Federal Republic: not a pragmatic, but a general rethinking of the matter. In the years after Condé's death, political and police leaders began to publicly regret the practice of administering emetics. In 2013, Condé's family received a compensation payment of 20,000 euros.

Something then happened in Bremen that rarely happens in everyday political life in the Federal Republic: not a pragmatic, but a general rethinking of the matter.

In her speech at the inauguration of the monument, Bremen Interior Senator Eva Högl (SPD) once again apologized for the inhumane practice. Police Chief Dirk Fasse emphasized the need for training to be critical officers who, when in doubt, should always choose humanity. In their speeches, both repeatedly addressed the victim's brother, Bangaly Condé, who had traveled from Sierra Leone.

Arie Hartog, director of the Gerhard Marcks House, praised the rebelliousness of Bremen's civil society in his speech. For many years, activists from different areas of society brought the scandal surrounding the emetics murder to the public. “Alama-Laye Condé is alive!” was read on the walls of houses; every year on the anniversary of his death, a demonstration marched through the city and left a temporary memorial with flowers, candles and a photo of Condé at the site of his arrest.

A mobile memorial has been traveling through the city since 2018. Built based on an idea by the Bremen artists Doris Weinberger and Jule Körperich - a wooden listening station that told the story of emetic torture in German, English and French. In 2020, the citizens of Bremen voted for the international tender for a permanent monument - which Usha Seejarim ultimately won.

Her work is cumbersome; you don't immediately recognize the word "force." The typeface is distorted, like graffiti drawn into the third dimension. Some parts of the letters look dangerously pointy and sharp-edged, while others appear to be sinking into the ground. Some of the letter bars look as if you could make yourself comfortable on them. The C is reminiscent of a beach bunk where you can lie around protected from sun and rain. If you look up, you can see the title “Death by Drowning” above you.

The letters never really get comfortable. The differences in height are too annoying when sitting on them, and the edges also cut into the backs of your knees. In winter you freeze on the icy metal, in summer you burn yourself.

From the monument you can see the Mitte police station, which is housed in a historic brick building. With its towers and gates, it is reminiscent of a castle. Directly opposite there is a classical gatehouse, which today houses the Wilhelm-Wagenfeld-Haus, a museum of design. It originally served as a prison. There is now a documentation center in the basement that deals with the building's time as a central Gestapo prison. From 1970 to 1996 it housed a deportation prison. So even from the monument, in all the reflection, a terrible panorama emerges.

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