“Because it is already written here it cannot be denied”

On the „Updates from shut-down-Lindenstraße“ we mentioned on 3.4.2020 among other things a houseban that was given to a resident of camp Lindenstraße the day before, the day of the second protest (on the parking site outside the camp). With the houseban AWO is accusing the young boy to have set off the firealarm during the protest and as a punishment he had to leave the camp in the evening.

Another resident of Lindenstraße commented that day with these words:

They are upset for sure and this can be seen very clearly, but I ask all the people who live in the camp (Lindenstraße) to abstain although it will not be easy and they will try maybe accusing us of not respecting the 1.5m (which is not possible because we all live together), having triggered the alarm (because they had no other means of persecuting us) or provoke us (because we want to protect ourselves from this disease and which is entirely our right)“

In the AWO statement that was published on 20.4.2020 they are referring to this as one of the “fake news”

“Claim: Employees in the Landeserstaufnahme would behave repressively towards the residents and “punish” them for their participation in a protest action. It is true: that a resident was banned from the house by the authorities because he had unjustifiably set off a fire alarm. It is also true that staff members have sought dialogue with the group of residents* who expressed their displeasure about their situation and have tried to explain their point of view. At the same time, the disappointment of individual employees was also expressed about the fact that individual residents spread untruths about them in public.


https://www.awo-bremen.de/aktuelles/landeserstaufnahmeeinrichtung-der-lindenstrasse (translated by TWAB)

As the accusation was repeated and thus not only the accused person but several residents and witnesses of that day were declared to tell the untruth Lamin who was given the houseban on 2.4.2020 decided to speak out and tell everybody who wants to listen how he experienced that day he was thrown out of Lindenstrasse.

L: The firealarm about that they accused me on that day, I don`t even know, which time it is. We were at the demonstration outside and after it I come back to enter at the gate where securities are and we are used to mark our card at the door. Some Nigerian women and some other boys before me were asked to give their card but they said no. But when it was my turn, I didn`t know what is going on, they said my card is not making the sound, so they said I should give them my card and I gave it to them. They take it and write down my name. Afterwards inside the other people said to me you should not have given your card to them because they also asked all of us and we said no. So they recommend me to go to office 1 and ask what is going on. I went to the office and explained and they check my card in their computer and then they say I don`t have any problem. So because of this I think, maybe there was really only a problem with the card marking and I went to my room to sleep.

Around 7 to 8pm that day they come to me with that paper and they said I have transfer. And I said how can I have transfer after the demonstration just like this, my lawyer didn`t contact me. So I said please can you read this paper to me what it means in English, I don`t understand. After she read it to me I understand I should go to transfer because I touched the firealarm. I said which time? They said the second firealarm. I said I don`t even know what time this is. They said, there is people who see you and know this. But I don`t know about this because I was outside in the place where the demonstration was. And then they said somebody see you coming. They said it doesn`t mean that I touched the firealarm but that I was there and they are not clear with information they say but it is because of my trouser. They say someone see someone who wear my trouser. At that moment we see more than 4 people around us who wear the same trouser, this one.

Question: The one you are wearing right now, a black jogging pant with a white stripe on the sides?

L: Many people are there with me in this moment and they say let us go to the office with this problem. They go to the office and then they come back and explain: Another person there said that someone saw you the time there was firealarm you press the firealarm. I said, yes, but for me, I was not inside, for the time, I was outside at the demonstration and we showed them the video with me and everyone at the demonstration. But anyhow they say I have transfer now, they say sorry, really, but they say that you should go on transfer. Because it is already written here it cannot be denied.

Q: Hang on, in this situation, when you were explaining and showing the video, the AWO worker actually believed you?

L: The manager of the camp who bring that she said this about the trouser, that maybe the time I was wearing this trouser, and as more than 4 people wear the same trouser, only the trouser cannot be enough to say that I am the one…

Q: So even she had doubts in this moment?

L: Yes, exactly.

Q: So who made this houseban paper then?

L: She is the one who gives me the paper. But she also said that she is going down and ask to these people who say who is the one or that I am the one who touch it.

Q: But who is actually saying that you touched it?

L: I never know. I told them, please let me know. Maybe they can show me to this person to confirm, because people can make a mistake.

Q: To show your face to this person to confirm?

L: Yes to confirm. Because this accusation is not safe. But many people there say this is because of the demonstration that they start to make this kind of situation for the people.

Demonstration on the parking site outside camp Lindenstraße, 2.4.2020

And my friends say, we cannot allow this, that they do this to you, we stand all together. Because this accusation is not safe. So I say let them go with me to clarify this. To show my face to this person who says it is me to clarify where and when he saw me. But they say it is not possible to take me to this person because I could fight this person. But I say I will never do this, I don`t fight. I just want to clarify. Many people are sitting there with me and hear what was being said, that the houseban cannot be taken back. My friends say if they take me out they will also come. So they call the police, the police comes.

When police was already there, one of the the AWO workers said to me, I am normally not the kind of person to talk like this. I even feel it the time I talked to you like this, but in this moment when I talked to you I was very annoyed because of you, because of what you guys do.

Because earlier that day, after the demonstration, when I was in the office to find out why securities write my name, she is the AWO worker who was with me when I went to talk to the other office. This woman was very annoyed to me, she was talking to me like, for me, it was feeling really racist.

Q: What exactly happened there after you come back from the demonstration?

L: When I come to the office I meet her there and she started saying things like, you people here, you people there, you do this…As a people of color, for her is a white for me I am a black. If I come to her and ask for my problem, even if she cannot help in any way she can even say I am sorry. I don`t have time for this, or, I am doing this, I am busy there, busy there. But she is all annoyed and started saying things like „you guys are like this, you are like that“

Q: You mean, she puts the whole group into one?

L: Yes, she talked to me in that way. But she never talked to me before like that when I went there to ask for anything. But this day, what I feel inside me, it is only me who can know.

In that moment I feel like sick, I was standing there thinking, what is she doing to me, why is she like this with me, and then she just passed by me and go away. So later that day when I was in my room and I get this paper with the houseban and all came to see what is going on she also came. So I said, why are you coming now after how you talked to me this morning? And this is when she said, I am very sorry, but that time earlier I was very angry with you people, because you are doing all this, this demonstration without not telling them anything about it. You make this demonstration and you think the outside people can help you, but the outside people cannot help you. We are the people who can help you guys.

And I said, but how can you be here saying that you are helping me but talking to me like that. And she said, I am really sorry. And I said but when you said these things to me, you don`t know what I will be facing now, when I go out. The moment I go out you have not any business with me anymore. You cannot know. You just don`t know what the next situation will be like for me now. Any problem that comes next there is only me, because you people do this to me now.

To me that feels like racism, but you are telling me sorry. At the same time you accuse me of a problem I did not even know, I did not even do, that made me feel so bad in that moment.

And the others who were with me said, but anytime there is a problem, you never ask us, to have any clarification about anyone. You only take what the other people tell you. One black man, one of the securities, he was there with us and he said, I even know how you guys are living because I am seeing how these people behave to you guys. I faced it in different times, even in the eating place. The way they give you the food, the way they talk to you, the way they act on you. It even made you angry but for me, I am security, I cannot do anything there, I am working in a different part I cannot do anything there.

So this situation they accuse me of something I don`t know anything about, this made me feel very very sad. And even the security, not one, not two, but three or more are telling me in front of other people, they say, this boy is very calm, he never is doing anything wrong, or making any problems. He really showed me their sympathy in that moment. And they even give me advice, they say, when the police comes, don`t talk to them, just do what they say. And even one security talks to a policeman when they were talking at my door while I was inside packing my things and he says something like this boy is a good boy, there is maybe a mistake. And they even let me pack everything. Then the police says I have to go and I go.