Emmanuel Thomas, DPA, Saturday, May 27, 2023
DUSSELDORF – Bahar Aslan, a lecturer at a German police academy who was fired after making public comments about her fears of far-right attitudes among police officers has filed a lawsuit seeking to regain her position.
Bahar Aslan had tweeted that she and her friends worry about interactions with police due to some far-right extremists among the ranks. She was then dismissed from her position before the coming semester.
According to Aslan’s lawyer, Patrick Heinemann, German labour law required the police academy in Gelsenkirchen, western Germany, to give her the opportunity to make a formal statement before dismissing her.
“That didn’t happen,” Heinemann told dpa on Saturday. Aslan’s lawsuit, filed with the administrative court in Dusseldorf, is challenging her dismissal. Heinemann said Aslan is open to discussions with the police academy, at which she had taught intercultural skills.
She had tweeted, “My heart starts racing when I or my friends get caught in a police check because all the brown filth inside the security agencies scares us. This is not just my reality, but that of many people in this country.”
The phrase “brown filth” refers to far-right extremists and neo-Nazis. There have been repeated scandals in recent years in Germany following revelations of far-right racist views among some members of the police and security services.
Aslan later acknowledged that it may have been an “unfortunate choice of words” and apologized if upstanding officers felt smeared by her tweet.
Several politicians and police union leaders sharply criticized Aslan for her comments.
