Linke on public safety

The Left wants to abolish the designated danger zones in which police may carry out checks without specific suspicion. It justifies this by pointing to racial profiling, meaning checks based on appearance.

In some areas, the police may check anyone without a reason. The Left wants to abolish these areas. It says the police check people with dark skin more often. That should stop.

In the party's view, non-white residents of Bremen are stopped more often than average and experience racist police violence. The independent commissioner for police and fire services is to become better known through public outreach. More people should also know about the receipts issued after police checks. Racist continuities in state institutions are to be examined and ended.

The Left calls for a state strategy against far-right violence involving all government departments. It also wants a central reporting office and a specialized prosecutor's office for hate speech, plus permanently funded education and counseling projects.

The Left wants a state plan against far-right violence. Victims of online hate should be able to turn to one central office. A special prosecutor's office should pursue such cases. Projects against hatred of Jews and racism should get lasting funding.

The platform points to the attack on the Friese youth center, arson attacks in the surrounding area and the attack on the Bremerhaven synagogue. Projects such as akriba and the reporting office soliport currently depend on temporary federal money; the party wants to secure them long-term with state funds and push federally for permanent funding. The same applies to mobile counseling against right-wing extremism. In addition, a civil-society anti-discrimination counseling service is to be built, and the "Partnerschaft für Demokratie" is to be permanently funded and expanded. The Left wants to fight antisemitism in all its forms.

The Left wants community-oriented police with modern equipment and enough staff, arguing that safety must not depend on income. It also holds a concept of security that includes prevention and social justice.

The police should have enough staff and good equipment. Bremen should train more officers. Overtime should be paid out soon. There should be fewer weapons in private homes.

To reach the target number of officers, training is to be planned continuously and the college for public administration strengthened; training includes critical engagement with racism. In the short term, more career changers should be hired, including as salaried employees. Accumulated overtime is to be paid out and pay brought to the level appropriate for the office. Gun laws are to be tightened. At the main train station, the party favors street social work and designated tolerance areas over displacement through checks alone.

The Left opposes more video surveillance without specific cause, state spyware and wider use of tasers. Independent bodies, rather than fellow officers, should investigate police officers.

The Left does not want more cameras without a reason. The state should not secretly break into computers. When police officers make mistakes, an independent body should investigate. Experts should be present when people are in a mental crisis.

Telecommunications surveillance for preventing danger should stay within the narrow limits of the current police law. Existing video systems are to be scientifically evaluated and data protection at security agencies more strictly monitored. Body cameras should be set up so their footage can also serve as evidence for the people affected. The party wants a parliamentary review of the death of Mohamed Idrissi once criminal proceedings end. A pilot project is to allow controlled pyrotechnics in the Weser-Stadion; it rejects harassment of soccer fans.

The Left calls for dissolving the Verfassungsschutz (domestic intelligence agency). It argues that preventing danger and fighting terrorism are police tasks and that the agency has repeatedly put protecting its sources above people's safety.

The Verfassungsschutz is a domestic intelligence agency. The Left wants to abolish it. It says the police can do these tasks. Until then, the law for the agency should become stricter.

The platform cites the NSU case as an example of failure. It says the agency also crowds out academic and civil-society expertise on threats to democracy. In the last term, wider powers and further growth of the state office were prevented, according to the party. Bremen's law on the agency is to be thoroughly revised because independent oversight and robust parliamentary control of surveillance measures are lacking.

The Left wants to make deradicalization and prevention programs addressing Islamism permanent and expand them. The same approach is to apply to evangelical groups whose work the party describes as sexist and anti-queer.

The Left wants more programs against religious extremism. Teachers should get help from civil-society groups. This applies to Islamism and to strict Christian groups. Such groups should get no public money.

Teachers in particular should receive support from civil-society organizations. The party opposes what it calls the legalistic Islamism of the AKP and affiliated associations. At the same time, it declares solidarity with Muslims who face racist attacks. It wants to push back ideologies that question human rights through education, awareness work and withholding public funding.

The Left wants to staff the professional fire service so that it meets its targets for emergency medical response and firefighting. Volunteer fire brigades, disaster protection, the public order service, and citizen service offices are also to get more funding or staff.

The Left wants more staff for the fire service. Firefighters should arrive fast enough. The public order service should get more jobs too. City offices should work faster.

The two new fire stations are to get additional staff, training is to be reviewed, and starting pay is to be raised. Citing problems with racism, sexism, and hostility toward queer people, the program calls for a different leadership and workplace culture in the fire service. Volunteer brigades are to get modern vehicles and stations, and disaster protection is to be better equipped. The public order service is to grow to 100 full-time positions. Waiting times at the city office, registry office, vehicle registration, and migration office are to fall, partly through more online services.

The Left wants courts and prosecutors staffed well enough for cases to move quickly. At the same time, support for crime victims, victim-offender mediation, and programs to avoid imprisonment are to be expanded.

The Left wants faster court cases. Courts should have enough staff for that. Victims of crime should get more advice and help. There should also be more ways to avoid prison.

The program names rehabilitation and avoiding imprisonment as its goals and points to experience in Scandinavia. The temporary extra positions created for the EncroChat trials are to become permanent. Psychosocial support during trials, especially for sexual and violent offenses, is to be secured permanently. Victim-offender mediation is to be fully funded and expanded. A specialized prosecution unit for hate crime and anti-queer hostility is to be set up, following Berlin's example.

The Left wants to abolish Ersatzfreiheitsstrafen, meaning jail time for people who cannot pay a fine. The program calls them socially unjust and expensive. Offenses such as blasphemy are also to be removed from the criminal code.

Some people cannot pay a fine. Today they must go to jail instead. The Left wants to end that. Blasphemy should also no longer be a crime.

Until abolition at the federal level, the BSAG, Bremen's public transit operator, is to stop filing criminal complaints against passengers without a valid ticket. The criminal code and the code of criminal procedure are to be reviewed for further rules that hit poor people especially hard. Bremen is to push for such reforms in the Bundesrat.

The Left wants to pay inmates the minimum wage for their work and give them pension credits for it. Education, counseling, and therapy in prison are to be expanded to prevent reoffending.

Many prisoners work in prison. The Left wants to pay them the minimum wage. They should also earn pension rights. Young prisoners should find it easier to finish school.

For young inmates, youth services in criminal proceedings are to be strengthened and training and school qualifications in prison greatly expanded. Simple counseling is to prevent health insurance debts after release, because the program says debt raises the risk of reoffending. Inmates with mental illness or addiction are to get more substitution treatment and psychotherapy. For prison staff, the program calls for bonuses and career development that can compete with other states. The renovation of the Oslebshausen prison is to be finished quickly.