Campaign against the left | Rammo clicks

The left in debt to contact? Issa Rammo, who was seen at the Left election party on September 20th Photo: AFP/ODD ANDERSEN When the Berliner Ensemble performs Brecht's "Threepenny Opera" and Mackie Messer sings "What is breaking into a bank versus founding a bank?" in the finale, loud applause and support from the theater audience are guaranteed. The “Threepenny Opera” was set 200 years ago in London and premiered in Berlin in 1928. Almost another hundred years later, the extended Rammo family - as they call themselves, although the police and media often use the spelling Remmo - is credited with playing the role of today's Mackie Messer gang in Berlin: break-ins into bank vaults and art collections, robberies of cash-in-transit vehicles and many other property crimes.

These spectacular acts and the holding of a tiger cub for a photo shoot in the Rammo family villa are worthy of extensive coverage by police reporters from Springer, "Spiegel" and self-proclaimed quality media. It clicks well. This reporting and the pop culture treatment in series like “4 Blocks” make such a gangster life a desirable life plan for some of the young men from the inner-city districts and the high-rise developments, who had nothing to expect from the still ruling Senate other than a housing shortage, austerity measures and lousy wages. A success of the Berlin Left is that it also motivated these young people to vote. In rural areas, however, young men without much economic prospects are voting for the AfD.

Now it has become a scandal that the tiger cub short-term owner Firas Rammo chatted with the Bundestag's direct representative Ferat Koçak and that his father Issa Rammo showed up at a left-wing election party. This person is presented in the media as the “head of the family” and, according to the stigmatizing reporting, therefore bears (shared) responsibility for all actions that are attributed to the “clan”, i.e. the relatives. According to the “Bild” police reporter: “Issa Rammo has a clean criminal record – by the way.”

The “Tagesspiegel” also quotes “investigators” as saying that they are “currently not the subject of police observation.” This distinguishes him, for example, from the current Berlin SPD leader Steffen Krach, whose house was recently searched for bribery. The accusation of bribery is one of the worst accusations against politicians, as it generally undermines trust in politics.

This is also what is being foisted on Koçak without being said: he can be corrupted by criminals through his chat contacts. Krach was re-elected by the SPD despite the investigation. As with any other accused, the accusations against him must be preceded by the word “alleged”. As long as he is not convicted, he is not a non-person. This is how all people should be treated and not measured with different standards. Fabian Kunow

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