Today some people got to experience the new German laws being carried out at its Northern borders.
Some kilometres before Heiligenhafen a FlixBus coming from Copenhagen, heading for Hamburg, was being piloted off the Autobahn by a Zoll (Customs) car. It was then guided through the picturesque little landscape to the customs station, situated next to a Penny Market, a Getränkemarkt and some living houses in the outskirts of Heiligenhafen.
On the big asphalt yard where the bus parked, surrounded by a gigantic modern barn, some hedges and a garage, which was connected to the customs station - all of which (the buildings) had a stone foundation – there were three customs vans, two BKA cars, one special customs van with a built-in X-ray-device in the rear part, some normal-looking vans and loads of cops in variying styles and sizes. Three cops entered the bus quickly and intrusively. The high-ranker in the front, grabbed the microphone. Initially in German and then in English, he explained that this was a joint operation from the BKA, the LKA and the German customs. He continued with explaining the procedure to be pursued. While he was talking more customs cops came inside and asked everyone which hand luggage belonged to them. First the passangers in the rear part were to exit the bus with their hand luggage and passports at hand, then they were to pick up the rest of their luggage from the bottom of the bus and go to the X-ray van. When their luggage was scanned, they were herded in to the garage where a ridiculous scene awaited them. Behind three tables there were different cops waiting for the passport to be handed over and some cops to search the bags with gloves. Next to the table situated closest to the centre of the room, there was a screen wall set up, running in a circle around half of the room. Within this circle there were some chairs for people to wait when they were done, while the others were being searched. Along the walls there were all kinds of tools, backup generators, fire extinguishiers etc. It looked to messy to be a customs arsenal and to ordered to be trophies wall. Behind a table in the rooms right corner, meaning behind the first layer of tables, there was a civilian dressed cop with a laptop, tipping in the information of the passports. For most of the people the most time consuming part of the procedure, was having their bags searched. For a very few others, having for instance a record or open investigations against them in Germany, they had to watch the cops discuss secretively around the laptop guy for 5-10 minutes. In the end, no one was detained or deported. As the procedure was conucted, four cops went through all thinkable and unthinkable spaces of the bus to search for hidden objects.
When the show was over, the cops were jokingly leaving the scene, heading off either to their office or to their cars, the BKA cars going back to the Autobahn and the others, to do whatever it is that cops do the best.
This is not written with the aim to aid the cops in their propaganda of fear and repression but to show as accurate as it can be remembered, being under a high dose of adrenaline out of withheld fury and fear, what new repressive measures we are facing in the Northern German context for an unforeseeable time.
B
Feed