Anti-Repression

Solidarity is a weapon

If you experienced repression in the context of Interkiezionale-actions or evictions, you will not be left alone. We want to have a solidary approach with repression and show strength by a commun acting against the authorities and owners of housing. We support each other with advice and financial support. We also discuss together which strategy we choose to respond to the repression. It is important to us that we all hold together and do not endanger each other (unknowingly). This means that you should not make statements to the police and do not distance yourself from the action.

Do not be intimidated by the repression – we’ll do it together!

On this page:
Repression during the action
Destroy “evidence”
In case of a raid 
Possible accusations
Lawsuit prosecution
Strategy
Networking
Solidarian money/Soligeld
Resources
Points of contact
Contact

Repression during the action

If you have been arrested in an action or have observed arrests, it makes sense to write a memory protocol (to write down your memories in detail).

If you have harms, you can also have them documented (attest). Be sure to go to a doctor inmediantly, preferably the same or the following day after the harm.

If you are mentally / emotionally ill (nightmares, depression, sadness), then you should know that such feelings are completely normal after experiences of police violence. ‘Out of action‘ provides information and help on this topic, i.a. regular conversation offers. If you want mental support or just like to meet people to talk about (repression), feel free to contact us.

Destroy “evidence”

Despite chaotic scenes on the demonstration actions the cops usually take a lot of video footage. Additionally, many by-standers are filming and tend to publish these on social media. To protect yourself from a later legal proceeding, you should get rid of evidence such as clothing, shoes, other accessories. If you took videos on your private phone, you should either delete them/format your storage or encrypt the storage (ideally you should encrypt your phone anyhow).

Raids

In case you have a raid, try to stay calm. A common mistake is, to try and warn people around you, which only leads the cops to these people. Act in a normal fashion (which includes of course to meet your close relationships) and discuss beforehand with your affinity groups, how you can savely communicate in these cases. More information in German here.

Possible accusations

In contexts of occupations, these accusations can be expected:

accusation	paragraph	to expect*
Trespassing	§ 123 StGb	30-40 daily rates
resistance	§ 113 StGb	starting from 30 daily rates
physical attack (tätlicher Angriff)	§ 114 StGb	inprisonment starting from 3 month
Violation of the assembly law (disguise)	§17a VersG	30 daily rates
Breach of the peace/Landfriedensbruch	§125 StGB	starting from 30 daily rates
heavy Breach of the peace/schwerer Landfriedensbruch	§125a StGB	inprisonment starting from 6 month
prisoner release	§120 StGB	starting from 30 daily rates

* How high the punishment looks like in a specific case can vary considerably, depending on whether you’ve been noticed by the police, how high your income is, or whether the state is currently particularly interested in intimidation.

In the course of 2018 and 2019 a few criminal charges have
surfaced, for which we thnik that the reasoning particularly
far-fetched. Be aware that the police always have the opportunity to
construct accusations with false statements. We should not be
intimidated by it, but to understand the criticism of these practices
of the police as part of Antirepression work.

Examples of such fictional punishments from our context are:

Heavy trespassing
Breach of the peace/Landfriedensbruch
Mayhem/Körperverletzung
Tried prisoner release

Expiry prosecution

Summons (1st letter)

The first letter informs you that a case is underway and is being
investigated. It is listed, what you are accused of. However, that
can be different from the one you will be sentenced for later. You
will also be asked to comment either in writing or verbally on the
accusation.

→ You do not have to do that and you should not. We do not talk to the police. This is a principle that is important to us because in such a conversation you only endanger yourself or others through your statements. If you want to read more about the background, check the Resources section.

Penal orders (2nd letter)

Written penal orders are shortened judgments. This means that you
will be sentenced in court without a hearing, unless you file an
appeal within 2 weeks. The second letter can also be an indictment,
then follows the summons to the court date. This is the case when the
judges * and / or the public prosecutor’s office insist on a trial,
which usually happens in more severe accusations.

→ You should definitely appeal against the penal order! You do not have to justify that and you can take it back it until the final judgment is pronounced without any disadvantages. Why we recommend this you can read in the strategy section.

Personal details (letter in between)

Sometimes you still get a letter in between, in which you are
asked for information about yourself.

→ Basically, you never have to specify more than the details on
your ID card. Not responding to this letter can lead to a fine. Since
the police already have the information you are providing anyway, we
would recommend you just give it to them.

If you get one of these letters (or another) in context, then please let us know.

Strategy

There are several ways in which we can respond to legal
repression. There are always individual reasons for what is going on
and what is not. We did not choose the repression. Possible goals
when dealing with repression can be:

As low as possible punishment, acquittal or termination of the procedure
As low as possible overall costs
scandal
Use court as a stage for political content
Empowerment
Ridicule and obstruction of the state / court
Infos win over police tactics, owner …
…

Objection!

Please always submit an objection first!

What that means:

The expresses that you do not agree with the verdict and usually leads to a trial. Until it comes to that, it takes in Belin but usually some months.

What are your options:

You do not have to substantiate the objection and it will not be interpreted in a negative way. I can be to the point of the final judgment without damage. In that case, you would accept the original verdict from the penalty order.

Why is that meaningful?

Time for networking
Time to think about common strategies
No disadvantages for you
First of all only causes costs for the state, not for you

You can file an objection with these textures:

In dem Strafverfahren (Aktenzeichen) gegen mich:

Gegen den Strafbefehl vom (Datum), mir zugestellt am (Datum), lege ich Einspruch ein.
Ich beantrage Akteneinsicht gemäß § 147 Abs. 4 StPO und bitte um Mitteilung, wann und wo diese genommen werden kann.

(Datum + Unterschrift)

(If you have a lawyer, you can use it for the appeal.)

Accept or Negotiate?

After the objection, you can still pull and accept the punishment
order. Then you get the penalty and the procedure is finished.

If you do not pull the objection back, it will eventually come to
a negotiating date. The heist that you want to court loaded and one
judge in a judgment case. There are the following options:

Acquittal (you will not receive a penalty)
terminating the proceeding without sanctions (you will not be declared guilty, it might have influence on upcoming proceedings and judgments and unrolled when there are new charges)
terminating the proceeding with sanctions (you will not be declared guilty, but you will have to work on social services, you will have influence on upcoming proceedings and judgments)
Conviction (you get a penalties that can be greater or less than your penalty order)

Thoughts on negotiations:

Expense for the state (authorities are overloaded)
Show that you do not agree
Witnesses (which must be loaded) annoying
Creating publicity is possible
Punishment can be reduced or increased
Effort for you
Probably associated with legal fees

Lawyer * in or self-defense?

In your process, you can decide if you want support from a lawyer * or not. However, since lawyers are expensive and our soligeld pot is limited, you’re not going to get a lawyer from the beginning. You can also file an appeal and accept a punishment order. We can assist with these steps.

Only when it comes to the negotiation it becomes more difficult. In most cases you are looking for a lawyer for support. If you decide, then you can contact us, we will then refer you to solidary lawyers.

You can also conduct the trial yourself (lay defense). However, we have little or no experience with it and hardly any people actively involved. But you can search for the network people who are also interested and open a working group. Information about this topic can be found in our resources.

Offensive political litigation?

The trial can be used to clarify the political goals of #besetzen.
The negotiation can be used to questionning the right to property
ownership by expressing arguments against the ownership of property
that is naturally presented.

Judges, public prosecutors and owners can be annoyed for example
by:

applications
full courtroom with supporters
political plea
personal statements
various actions in and outside the courtroom

This get possible because most of the court hearings are open to
the public and also to journalists and supporters. If we do not
simply follow the penalty and pay them, but choose political
litigation, the authorities and the owners will cost more time and
effort. The can be dropped.

Demand legal proceeding?

– Only possible with trespassing –

Trespassing is an offence that need to be applied. This means that
the house the owners need to apply for it and also can withdraw it on
any point of time.

The previous attempts to put pressure on the house owners were not
successful, but it remains an option for our anti – repression
strategies.

Networking

// Alone they make you //

It is important to us that we understand anti-repression work as a
collective task. That means that we:

Sharing our experiences
Thinking together about strategies
Assist in the decision of individual
Emotional support
Bear the costs in solidarity
Distribute incoming tasks

To do that, you need good communication. Therefore please contact us as soon as possible, so that we have keep your case in mind and you can be included in the communication structures.

To meet

We initiate meetings, that handle special actions, to enable the exchange of the affected.

As soon as possible we will do a big Interkiezionale Antirepression meeting where we all want to get together and talk about our overall strategy together. Supporters can also come here to take responsibility.

Furthermore, we now offer an anti-rep meeting every first Wednesday of the month at 18:00 in the Kiezladen 154 on Sonneallee. Here you can talk to us and get advice from lawyers. More infos there.

Solidary money

We collect money for our soli-account in different ways. If any costs for you arose that you can’t cover, just contact us.
We want to cover the costs in solidarity and try to help all who contact us. The Rote Hilfe covers under certain circumstances (https://www.rote-hilfe.de/) half of the expenses (the fine, the lawyer, process costs). We would love to support everybody but unfortunatley the reality looks different. We are really far from being able to cover all the costs.
This is why we have a waiting list system: If you need (soli-)money but you can wait a bit longer, then tell us how long and we can let really urgent cases have their money first.
If you want, you can collect money for our repression yourself (maybe with you friends?) through for example soli-events. That would really help us. If you have any money left you can of course also donate. We created an account for that; you can find it under:

Resources

If you’re still looking for more information, just have a look here:

everything is in german

about penalty order
Why refuse the statement
Objectives of offensive litigation
more tips on offensive litigation
Information about house searches

Points of contact

Rote Hilfe Consultation

Spend 50% of the costs, inform you and help organize solidary support groups
District parts Lunte (Neukölln)
- every Wednesday from 6:30 to 8:00 pm
- Weisestraße 53 12049 Berlin
Clipper 8 (wedding)
- every 1st & 3rd Tuesday at 19 o’clock
- Schererstrasse 8 13347 Berlin
Secondhand bookshop idleness (Kreuzberg)
- every 2nd & 4th Thursday at 6 pm
- Oranienstr. 14a (Heinrichplatz) 10999 Berlin
berlin@rote-hilfe.de
http://www.berlin.rote-hilfe.de/

Interkiezionale Counceling hours:

Dealing with repression
Every frist Thursday of the month from 6 pm
Kiezladen– Sonnenallee 154

ABC Berlin

Support affected persons and organize solidarity actions
abc-berlin@immerda.ch
https://www.abc-berlin.net/

EA office hours

Questions about repression
Tues 20 – 21 clock
Gneisenaustraße 2a
2nd courtyard on the right, 1st floor on the right
https://ea-berlin.net/

Out of Action Berlin

Information and support about mental aftermath and violence in case of repression
every 1st and 3th Tues of a month 19 – 21 clock
Waldemarstr. 36
in the Cafe of the Heilehaus
https://outofaction.blackblogs.org/?page_id=99

Contact

You can reach us via: antirep-ik@riseup.net (best encrypted)

Important: Remember that when it is about Antirep, you can be
relatively easily deanonymized, so please take care from which email
address you contact us.

Please contact us as soon as possible. Because we want to get an overview of the current status in order to be able to coordinate the antirep work. It would help us if you would answer the following questions:

What are the accusations?
When and where did it happen?
Did you got a letter, already? If yes, what is ist about and by whom?
What kind of support do you wish?

When the punishment order came:

How can we contact you to invite you to Antirep meetings?
Did you claim file inspection?
Do you have a lawyer (name and office)?
Have you already done something?
What are the accusations?
When did the letters arrive (subpoena, information)?
Have you already filed an appeal?
Who is your judge?
What are the accusations and what are the respective and all legal consequences (daily rates in which amount and number, etc.)?
When did the punishment order come?

Thank you to our friends at #besetzen, from whom we copied most of this page!