On June 19, 2021 the czech police arrested a young romani man. In the streets and in broad daylight, one of the officers knelt on his neck for several minutes while another was handcuffing him. He later collapsed and died in an ambulance. There is video footage of this. You can hear a woman saying, "They are smothering him."
The autopsy report and the czech police are saying that the cause of the death was totally unrelated to the arrestation, but rather that the rom, who was allegedly a drug addict, died of an overdose. However, several other romani people are saying that is not true and that the man was not on drugs. A czech romani activist added : « He was reportedly taking Tramal for enormous spinal pain. Each of us can probably imagine what might happen if somebody were to kneel on the neck of a person who had a spinal ailment."
The police is pressuring and forbidding the local romani community to discuss the incident. The czech Interior Minister, Jan Hamáček, publicly backed the police officers by saying, "The intervening police officers have my full support. Anybody under the influence of addictive substances who breaks the law has to count on the police intervening. It is mainly thanks to the work of policemen and policewomen that we are among the top 10 safest countries in the world. »
This is wrong. There is actual video footage showing the police officers holding an unarmed man and kneeling on his neck for minutes while people are saying he is being smothered. Even if he was indeed on drugs, the police should have absolutely no right to decide who gets to live and who gets to die. Drug users shouldn’t get murdered in the streets in front of everyone while the government cheers. The police is supposed to be trained to handle individuals in all different kinds of situations, including when they are on drugs. They should have the emotional ability to deal with someone on drugs without smothering and potentially killing them.
The czech police has a history of murdering romani people.
The european police has a history of murdering romani people. Be it the french, dutch, british, italian, hungarian, polish, romanian, czech police, they all have a long history of surveying, arresting, enslaving, tracking down and hunting romani people for no reason. This is why we don’t trust them and why we would never associate ourselves with them in any way.
ACAB knows no frontiers. Please, please, please don’t be silent about this. It may seem distant to you if you are not romani and not european, but please don’t ignore this. It should not be legal to kill someone, a human being with a family and a community, just because they are romani.
Here are articles, if you want to read about it:
http://www.romea.cz/en/news/czech/czech-interior-minister-backs-police-intervention-against-romani-man-in-teplice-during-which-officers-knelt-on-detainee
http://www.romea.cz/en/news/czech/czech-police-release-new-video-footage-of-what-preceded-police-intervention-against-romani-man-who-died-thereafter
http://www.romea.cz/en/news/czech/romani-community-turns-site-of-young-man-apos-s-death-in-czech-town-into-a-place-of-reverence
http://www.romea.cz/en/news/czech/romani-man-dies-after-czech-police-kneel-on-his-neck-they-say-drugs-caused-his-death.romani-activists-see-parallels-to