Not a state of emergency – an introduction
by Heiner Busch
Fifty years after the passage of the emergency laws, domestic military operations have once more appeared on the political agenda, and counter-terrorism is used to legitimize the arming of police forces with new weaponry. The shift in the relationship between police and the military initially became visible during deployments abroad. However, it does not adhere to the concept of a state of emergency – dreamt up as the combating of insurgencies – that shaped the development of the governmental apparatus of force in the Federal Republic of Germany. Summaries weiterlesen →
Cities are considered to be spaces of insecurity and crime. Policing and other measures of security are traditionally legitimized by the fear of “dangerous classes“ and “foreigners“. Such “securizations“ are always a reaction to social processes. Currently this is particularly the case with processes of gentrification (i.e. the realization of capital through urbanization), migration questions and urban protests. Summaries weiterlesen →
Digital Wild West: Surveillance without frontier by Benjamin Derin
The constantly expanding digitalisation and multiplication of communication channels and their control entails the proliferation of surveillance both with regard to actual methods and in legal terms. At the same time these new opportunities are used more frequently and intensely. Summaries weiterlesen →
“De-radicalisation” as embedded prevention
by Dirk Burczyk
For the purpose of combating terrorism states do not only criminalise activities well in advance of a terrorist act. They also rely increasingly on interventions aiming to prevent or reverse “radicalisation”. Though the concept is contested, the prevention of “radicalisation” has become a testbed for censorship, propaganda and the co-optation of civil society engagement for a governmental rationale. Summaries weiterlesen →
Almost suspicious – an introduction by Heiner Busch
The man who killed twelve people by driving a truck into a Berlin Christmas market on 19 December 2016 was under close surveillance by the police. However, the evidence for making a criminal case was not sufficient. The German government is now planning to expand the powers against so-called “dangerous persons” and aims, among others, to amend the Residence Act and the Federal Criminal Police Office Act. Summaries weiterlesen →
New old aliens’ police – an introduction by Heiner Busch
The foreigner and asylum law was always also security law. But fuelled by absurd threat scenarios the law has been massively tightened by the German coalition government since autumn 2015. Summaries weiterlesen →
Thematic focus: The NSU complex – clarification denied
How to overcome a defeat – an introduction by Heiner Busch
While parliamentary enquiry commissions still seek to clarify the murderous history of the “National Socialist Underground” (NSU) and the role of the domestic intelligence agencies (Verfassungsschutz) in this complex, the federal and state ministers of the interior have found their own way to move on. The position of the Federal Office of the Protection of the Constitution has been strengthened, the dubious use of informers has been legalized, and the president of the federal office is demanding a massive increase of staff for his agency. Summaries weiterlesen →
Thematic focus: European state powers against migration
From the “refugee crisis” back to “normality“ by Heiner Busch
Since 19 April 2015, when around 900 people drowned during a shipwreck off Libya, EU migration politics are in overdrive. In May, the Commission tabled its European Agenda on Migration. Since September several EU Member States attempt stopping refugees on the “Balkans route” by closing their borders. Now, the EU is trying to return to “normality” – a normality which means that refugees and migrants are kept out of the EU or are at best treated as problem of the states at the external borders. Summaries weiterlesen →
Institut für Bürgerrechte & öffentliche Sicherheit e.V.
