A Brief Overview
On August 8, 2022, 16-year-old Mouhamed Lamine Dramé was killed by police in the garden of a youth center in Dortmund’s Nordstadt. Mouhamed, a teenager who had sought refuge from Senegal, was grappling with severe psychological struggles stemming from his traumatic journey to Germany, where he had arrived just a few months earlier, in April 2022.
That day, August 8, a social worker at the youth center called the police, reporting that Mouhamed was in severe emotional distress and displaying suicidal behavior. Shortly after, twelve police officers arrived on the scene and escalated the situation by using pepper spray and a taser against Mouhamed, despite no evidence suggesting he posed an immediate threat to them. Startled and likely reacting to the sudden violence, Mouhamed moved toward the officers. This movement supposedly prompted Fabian S., one of the officers, to fire six shots from a submachine gun—five of which struck Mouhamed, resulting in his death.
Two years later, on December 12, 2024, the Regional Court of Dortmund has now acquitted all five officers charged in connection with Mouhamed’s death. The court ruled that the officers had acted “rightfully and in self-defense” against Mouhamed. The public prosecutor’s office, which initially pressed charges of manslaughter and severe bodily harm, reversed its stance during the trial and demanded acquittals for four out of the five defendants. Days later, the lawyer, Lisa Grüter, representing the Dramé family as a joint plaintiff, filed an appeal against all five acquittals, while the prosecutor’s office contested only the acquittal of the operation commander.
Mouhamed’s case is not an isolated incident. His death is part of a broader, deeply entrenched pattern of state violence, especially against Black people in this country. As Britta Rabe, who observed the trial for the Committee for Fundamental Rights and Democracy, pointedly remarked, “The verdict today will not help prevent deadly police operations in the future. On the contrary, it sends a message to the police: ‘You can continue as before, there will be no consequences for deadly shootings.’”
The court’s acquittal of his killers not only exposes the shortcomings of the German “justice” system but also underscores the bleak reality that true justice often eludes systems rooted in the violent legacies of colonialism.
The Defamation of Victims and Systemic Police Violence
In cases of police violence, authorities often create narratives that shift blame onto the victims. In Mouhamed’s case, as in many others, police and state officials—including North Rhine-Westphalia’s Interior Minister Herbert Reul—and the mainstream media played a significant role in shaping public perception. Mouhamed was repeatedly labeled as “dangerous” and a “threat,” despite the court contradicting these claims. Media outlets, rather than challenging these narratives, often amplified them, dehumanizing Mouhamed by focusing on his identity as a refugee rather than as a young human being. This framing reduced him to a stereotype, erasing his individuality and perpetuating the racist rhetoric ingrained in public discourse.
Such language once again reflects the internalized, often unexamined, biases of a society that continues to normalize the devaluation of Black lives. This defamation tactic, reinforced by media complicity, serves as a common method to justify police brutality and evade accountability.
This situation also reflects a broader systemic pattern in Germany, where approximately 98% of complaints filed against police officers are either dismissed or the investigations discontinued, rendering any hope of accountability effectively non-existent. Further exacerbating the issue is the fact that the German state, unlike other countries, does not maintain official statistics on deaths caused by police violence, signaling a disturbing lack of transparency and responsibility.
The absence of accountability for state-sanctioned violence fuels ongoing oppression and racism. The state’s reluctance to gather and disclose critical data on police killings is not merely a bureaucratic oversight—it is part of a larger strategy to obscure the systemic nature of violence perpetrated especially against Black and Brown bodies.
The Colonial Roots of Modern Policing
To understand these systemic failures, it is essential to recognize that the system is not failing at all—it is functioning exactly as it was designed to.
The structures and practices of modern police forces, whether in Germany, the United States, or France, are rooted in a vision of “order” and control that prioritizes the interests of certain groups over others.
Many modern police forces have their origins in colonial policing systems. These institutions were created to maintain control over the indigenous populations of the land and suppress dissent. In the United States, for instance, early police forces evolved from slave patrols tasked with monitoring and controlling enslaved Black people. Similarly, in South Africa, police enforced racial segregation during apartheid.
In Germany, the police as we know them today developed during the 19th century, influenced by the colonial ambitions of the German Empire. In colonies like modern-day Namibia, Togo, and Cameroon, colonial police maintained imperial authority through violent repression and surveillance. These practices laid the groundwork for many of the methods and structures that persist in post-colonial societies today.
At its core, the concept of policing is inseparable from maintaining a social order based on hierarchy, control, and inequality. This order is not designed to ensure the safety or well-being of the public but to prioritize and protect state power and uphold capitalist interests. The police, as the executive power of the German state, systematically perpetuate state violence, particularly against Black people and other marginalized communities, through practices like racial profiling, constant surveillance, and murder.
Where Is the National Outrage?
It is unsurprising that political figures like Chancellor Olaf Scholz have remained silent about Mouhamed’s case. Such silence reflects an unwillingness to confront the uncomfortable truth that systemic racism and police violence are pervasive in Germany. However, the silence of the political elite is not as jarring as the lack of sustained mobilization from the public. The question remains: Where is the collective national outrage?
Mouhamed Lamine Dramé is not just a name to be remembered. His story, like those of Oury Jalloh, Lamine Touray, Amin Farah, and countless others, demands not only our remembrance but our action. Simply saying their names, without taking meaningful steps to confront the systemic racism and violence they and millions of others in this country are subjected to, is not just inadequate—it is hypocritical.
True justice requires more than symbolic gestures or fleeting outrage—it demands sustained action, accountability, and systemic change. The violence inflicted on particularly Black and Brown communities is not an anomaly; it is the product of an entrenched system that must be dismantled. While demanding reforms within the system may offer a first step, it will not erase or address the deep-seated violence that permeates the structures of policing and governance in this country. As the 20th anniversary of Oury Jalloh’s death approaches, marked by a memorial demonstration on January 7, 2025, in Dessau, we must remember that honoring these victims goes beyond memory—it requires a collective commitment to ending the state-sanctioned violence that continues to steal the lives of people such as Mouhamed Lamine Dramé.
