“Police Relies on Impunity”
Reacting upon a recent police violence case on an 8-year old boy in Şevket Sümer neighborhood, Human Rights Association (İHD) Mersin Branch Chairperson Ali Tanrıverdi told bianet that the case which existed in Kurdish populated area for long, was not exceptional.
“It exists because police violence goes unpunished,” he added.
Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) Mersin province deputy Ertuğrul Kürkçü also held a press conference at the parliament, saying that “having a riot police station in a Kurdish populated area was synonym with bringing together fire and gunpowder”. In addition, he criticized the fact that riot police stations housed play gardens and internet cafes:
“What are these children doing at police station with full of robocops with weapons, handcuffs, batons, gas bombs?”
Tanrıverdi: Peace process does not resonate in Mersin
“There are still arbitrary practices. A policeman can cause the hospitalization of a child, just saying that he insulted him. So far, such abuses have always left unpunished. This is what they are relying on.
“In this incident, while a police is beating a child, his co-worker is simply doing nothing. Then they are taking that child to the police station. They are threatening the child not to tell anything to anyone. They also told his family not to speak up and delegate this matter to God.
“A state strategy is being cooked up in Mersin where Kurdish youth are the alibi of each other. The peace process is underway but it doesn’t resonate in Mersin.
“Police authorities said that child beating policeman has been suspended. However, this is only make-up. So far, police violence always went unpunished. This one will also go back to work in a couple of days. He might even get a promotion.”
Kürkçü: They try to turn kids into spies
“This latest incident is very much routine around Şevket Sümer neighborhood area. Police violence is neither exceptional nor unusual there.
“There is a riot police station at a neighborhood where over 95 percent of dwellers are Kurdish. Bu Having a riot police station in a Kurdish populated area is synonym with bringing together fire and gunpowder. Because these kids are interested in politics due to their families. They are sensitive to the arbitrary measures of security forces. Therefore, tensions are always high between policemen and Kurdish children.
“Even though human rights activists in Mersin advocate for the removal of that police station from the neighborhood, it has been upgraded to a riot police station.
“Police authorities in Mersin attempted to turn these stations into surveillance centers for potential terrorists by building playgrounds and internet cafes inside.
“No need to say how horrible this practices is in terms of modern pedagogy. Police authorities are trying to take these children out of their parents’ control and take them under theirs.
“More than once I found the opportunity to discuss this matter with officials from Mersin Police Station. I asked them about what judicial ground they had for their actions. They told me that such regulation didn’t exist but they were doing what they were doing just because no other institution was doing so.
“First of all, there is no public funding to fulfill the needs of these children. Secondly, police is the last organization to take care of these children. They are trying to transform these children into spies.
“There can’t be any organic relation nor ties between police and children. School is where children must go. We can assign other institutions which will house children.
“A tool for society architecture”
“The children in this neighborhood are growing up at an environment where soon later they will be battered. The only possible way to save them from this is to name the phenomenon first. We all watch news on TV. No news says that these children are Kurdish. No news makes the correlation between ill-treatment and children being regarded as potential terrorists. Nobody is asking these children are doing at police station with full of robocops with weapons, handcuffs, batons, gas bombs? Nobody is asking what kind of pedagogic method is being used here. It is simply being reduced to a news where a policeman battered a child. It is not that easy.
“In fact, all former complaints related to soldiers are now being made on police officers who are under the influence of AKP. They are turn the police a tool for society architecture.
“Whatever benefit we had from the social architecture of the military, it is the same with the police. On the other hand, it will have more horrible consequences. Because barracks are away from residential areas. However, police stations are located in the heart of cities and society architecture through a security policy through transformation of children despite their families will bring no good.” (EKN/BM)
* Click here to read the original article in Turkish.