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  • TESTIMONY 2: Nadja – ‘kidnapped’ by rogue cops

Berlin

TESTIMONY 2: Nadja – ‘kidnapped’ by rogue cops

February 23, 2010, 14:37 / Rosenthaler Straße, Mitte

For more about Nadja’s story, click here.

Caught in a fight with a reckless driver who had almost hit them, Nadja and two visiting relatives were stalked by the screaming man, who drove alongside them as they walked through Mitte. As the driver grew more and more violent and threatening, Nadja bumped into two Ordnungsamt ladies. “I explained the situation and asked them to tell the guy to leave us alone. Sympathetic but overwhelmed, they immediately called police to the rescue. ‘They will help you,’ they said encouragingly. Little did I know this would be the end of me!”

A man-woman team turned up. They sympathetically listened to the driver as he reported his side of the story – a crazy woman had attacked him and kicked his car. When Nadja explained in her accented German that he had actually tried to run them over and he had been stalking them for over 20 minutes, they answered: “Oh, really? Show us the injuries!” and “Following people is not forbidden in Germany.”

When she finally pleaded for an English speaker, they teased, condescendingly, “Don’t be such an actress, you speak German, look, you just did! Bravo! No mistakes you made!

The situation had gotten to a point of no return. They let the driver go and ordered her – her alone, and not her two young relatives – to get into the police car. When she challenged them with a “But why…”, their behaviour turned extremely violent. The policewoman screamed at Nadja at the top of her lungs, while the man violently pushed her against the police car and pressed a pair of handcuffs against her lower chest. She was finally forced into the car, locked up and driven off to the police station in Brunnenstraße.

“It happened in broad daylight, near Hackescher Markt – here I was being intimidated and pushed around and finally ‘kidnapped’ by two cops who were acting like thugs, while treating me like a criminal.”

Now Nadja is facing criminal charges from the driver. The two rogue cops have been cited as witnesses in the case.