A video of a German police officer beating a civilian has gone viral on the internet. According to claimants, the incident happened during a protest by citizens against “record-high inflation and energy shortages.”
DUBAWA has analysed the video and found the statement false. The incident happened ahead of a football game between rival clubs FC St. Pauli and Hamburger SV.
Full text
Social media users are sharing a video featuring some German police officers using force on some civilians. There is a focus on one particular man who is being punched in his ribs and head area whilst being restrained to the ground.
According to some users, the incident occurred during a protest against the country’s high inflation and energy shortages.
An Indian media outlet, Republic World, made a report about the incident here.
A screenshot of the publication by Republic World features a Twitter post making the same assertion.
Economist Steve Hanke, who has been very vocal about rising inflation in various countries including Ghana, also shared the video on Twitter, making the same purportion.
Other posts with similar declarations can be found here, here, and here.
DUBAWA investigated the allegation after observing that some other users provided a different context for the video.
According to them, the incident happened moments before a game between St. Pauli and Hamburger SV on Friday, October 14, 2022.
Verification
In investigating the video, we relied on reports from some leading news portals from Germany, such as Sportbild, NDR, and Bild. The pieces were initially published in German but had to be translated using Google.
The publications observed by DUBAWA from the four news agencies mentioned above indicated a violent situation involving police officers and football fans ahead of the FC St. Pauli and Hamburger SV game.
Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR), in its video report about the incident, included some scenes from the viral video. German Police Scientist Rafael Behr and State Chairman of the German Police Union Thomas Jungfer all commented on the incident in the report.
We observed that the details of a building featured in the viral video are the same as those in NDR’s video report.
A comparison between a building captured in NDR’s report and another seen in the viral video. The areas marked with different shapes and colours indicate notable similarities.
We relied on Google Earth images to confirm if the building had any relationship with FC St. Pauli or Hamburger SV. The building was the entrance to the Millerntor-Stadion – which is the home stadium of FC St. Pauli.
A series of Twitter posts by Hamburg Police confirms the incident of a violent situation ahead of the FC St. Pauli – Hamburger SV game. One of the posts said, “a video circulating on the internet shows one such detention, in which a police officer uses coercion in the form of physical violence.”
A news article by Bild published on Sunday, October 16 and headlined “Criminal proceedings opened against police officers,” uses an image from the circulating video.
A publication by Sports Bild on the incident also used an image from the viral video.
When translated to English, a Twitter post by FC St. Pauli on the day of the match talks about “a massive police operation on the Heiligengeistfeld,” which is about four minutes away from Millerntor-Stadion.
Conclusion
The use of force on a civilian by the German police did not happen during a protest against rising inflation. The incident occurred ahead of a football game between two rival clubs, FC St. Pauli and Hamburger SV.
