{"id":44645,"date":"2025-09-05T04:49:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T04:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/44645\/"},"modified":"2025-09-05T04:49:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T04:49:09","slug":"irish-protester-kitty-obrien-accuses-berlin-police-of-widespread-violence-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/44645\/","title":{"rendered":"Irish protester Kitty O\u2019Brien accuses Berlin police of widespread violence \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kitty O\u2019Brien, the Irish protester assaulted by Berlin police<\/a> during a pro-Palestine demonstration, has said the incident was indicative of the treatment activists face in the city.<\/p>\n

In a video posted on Instagram on Thursday, the 25-year-old Dubliner said: \u201cThe video of me being beaten went viral because I\u2019m white, but the violence I experienced is just a drop in the ocean compared to what my Palestinian, Arab and other racialised comrades have endured at the hands of the German<\/a> state police over the past two years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Video footage captured O\u2019Brien twice being punched in the face<\/a> on the front line of a solidarity demonstration over Israel\u2019s killing of journalists in Gaza<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Opposition politicians and campaigners in Berlin have urged the Irish Government to increase pressure<\/a> on the city\u2019s government over their police\u2019s approach to pro-Palestine demonstrators. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf what happened to me outraged you, that same energy needs to be directed at every act of violence carried out by the Berlin police, because they are relentless,\u201d O\u2019Brien said. \u201cI\u2019m not exaggerating in the slightest when I say that I don\u2019t even know a single person in the movement who hasn\u2019t been physically assaulted in some way by the cops. Punched, choked, shoved, slapped, kicked \u2013 I am at a loss for words to describe how bad the police abuse situation here is.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AA police officer in Berlin punches Kitty O\u2019Brien during a demonstration. Photograph: Irish Bloc Berlin <\/p>\n

While highlighting police brutality in Berlin, O\u2019Brien is critical of the German state for blocking efforts by other EU members, including Ireland, to sanction Israel. In recent weeks, several German cities have offered to take in sick and traumatised children from Gaza, but O\u2019Brien claimed the federal government has failed to co-operate with them.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is the mark of a truly sick society when the state can deny help to severely ill children and face little opposition from the public,\u201d O\u2019Brien said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is what we were protesting on Thursday, but we\u2019ve been protesting on these streets for two years and what we need every person outside the movement in Berlin to understand is this: the violence that you saw in that video is the rule of the Berlin police, not the exception.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis isn\u2019t even the first black eye the Berlin police have given me and I\u2019m pretty sure it won\u2019t be the last.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien has encouraged people to focus on the aid-carrying flotilla attempting to provide food and humanitarian supplies to Gaza. <\/p>\n

\u201cKeep escalating pressure on your government and the international community to take real action but remember that it is up to us to look after each other and fight for each other.\u201d <\/p>\n

A spokesman for Berlin\u2019s police force denied accusations raised by the Irish Bloc demonstrators and other groups of excessive force by city police at demonstrations related to the Gaza conflict.<\/p>\n

Police spokesman Florian Nath said that \u201cmultiple complaints\u201d had been filed against the police officer seen in the video punching O\u2019Brien.<\/p>\n

The police officer in question remains on duty but the case has been handed over for investigation to another department under the authority of Berlin\u2019s public prosecutor.<\/p>\n

According to the spokesman, the officer has received multiple death threats since last week\u2019s incident. <\/p>\n

He described as \u201cfabricated\u201d a widespread claim that police have been given carte blanche by Berlin\u2019s city state government and its governing mayor, Kai Wegener, to use violence and other forms of intimidation against demonstrators.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Berlin police is bound by the rule of law, so the governing mayor has no direct right of intervention over the Berlin police,\u201d said Mr Nath.<\/p>\n

The response of officers at demonstrators was, he added, covered by \u201cthe law on the use of direct force in the state of Berlin\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are subject to the constitutional requirements of moderation … and every police measure must always be based on the principle of proportionality,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Police statistics since the start of the Gaza conflict to August 5th show 10,605 related offences at demonstrations in Berlin. In total Berlin police have identified 5,397 suspects in direct connection with these offences. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kitty O\u2019Brien, the Irish protester assaulted by Berlin police during a pro-Palestine demonstration, has said the incident was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44646,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[25123,9,10,18,13,14,3761,6621,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,72,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-44645","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-berlin","9":"tag-breaking-news","10":"tag-breakingnews","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-featured-news","13":"tag-featurednews","14":"tag-gaza-strip","15":"tag-germany","16":"tag-headlines","17":"tag-ie","18":"tag-ireland","19":"tag-latest-news","20":"tag-latestnews","21":"tag-main-news","22":"tag-mainnews","23":"tag-news","24":"tag-palestine","25":"tag-top-stories","26":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44645\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}