Police at the Hauptbahnhof - ID checks

Good GRIEF.

If you think its right that i get stopped every time i go in the Hauptbahnhof then you're very wrong. You have a very blinkered view of the world.

Ugh.

I am not a supporter of Bush (rather the opposite) yet I think the whole ID card thing is not such a bad idea.
I've been stopped once or twice (in 13 years so not so bad) and think as I've nothing to hide am not arsed about showing my ID.
I guess I'd feel different though if I was an illegal immigrant and/or drug pusher or wotever.

For those of you who object to being searched at the Hauptbahnhof, Stop loitering around there and score your drugs else where.

I have been stopped myself and was happy to show my Id. Got nothing to hide so I don't care. and if it helps control the criminal elements on the street then excellent. When a friend of mine is able go to the Hauptbahnhauf
with her baby daughter and feel completly safe, then I'm all for the ID checks.


Fantastic.. ID cards in the UK can't come quick enough. Only those who have done something wrong or who should not be there need be afraid. As for the infringements on your personal rights. Well, sadly we lost that when our Gov supported Bush in attacking Afganistan and Iraq. The world is changing and my belief is that ID cards will become a major part of our lives. As may random ID checks

Oh but I am an EU citizen - British - so deportation is off the cards.

If I was issued with an ID card that I could carry in my wallet I wouldn't make a fuss, but carrying my passport with me everywhere I go? Bog off!!!

I have been issued with a Sonderausweis but was wondering if the driving license suffices as ID.
Does anyone know?
It has a photo on it so logically I'd think so. ( if logic even comes into it )
I've been stopoed by the cops for traffic offences and then they've asked for the license of course.
Think I've been able to pick up parcels at the PO with my license and I joined a video store last week with it too.

Lemmers,
you are incorrect.

If your presence in a EU state is not wanted, then a reason for deportation can be found regardless of your nationality.
Otherwise people such as those convicted of hooliganism could not have their travel restricted for example.
Things could be, however, worse.
Have a look at France's use of these regulations.
Katrina

Really?! So tell me how you can deport me from the EU then? To where exactly?
I thought Britain was part of the EU?

Anyway on a serious note I doubt whether I would be deportedfor not carrying my Passport, especially my wife being German and my son a German Citizen born here... I think you go to far.

The personal right of an individual to travel (including for EU citizens within the EU) is a lesser right than that of a member state to public order, public security or public health.
You wouldn't be deported for not carrying ID, but if a state wants to deport you for one of the reasons given (risk to public order, public security or public health), they can and will.
Katrina

Related thread: Are foreigners obliged to carry ID at all times?

@Katrina - Well stated, in total agreement.

@Moonboot

Offically, Drivers licenses (Including the German one) ar not considered
valid ID. Sure, sometime the Cops/Post guy will accept it, but then there's
that off chance that one day you will get stopped by the "Extreme Asshole"
of a cop who will not execpt it.

I'm with BadDoggie, if they won't accept my Drivers License (Including the german one THAT THEY ISSUED)
as valid ID, then get the KVR to issue me a German ID Card...

ta Darkknight...good to know.

at least I'm lucky then cuz have a red Sonderausweis thing.

German citizens do not have to carry their ID card around with them. They only have to own one. If they decide to leave it at home they have to expect to be detained until their identity can be established (in the worst case, rarely happens).
I know some German person whose ID was expired for about 7 years. He continued to use it to travel all across Europe, and when the cops eventually detained him (for completely unrelated reasons) they didn't even care although they could have fined him big time.

As a foreigner you indeed have to carry ID at all times. Show me a country where that is not the case.
And no, US DLs which can be made at home with an inkjet printer do not count.

Personally the only time I have ever been asked to provide ID was during traffic stops. If you don't like it, move out of the big city, or better yet out of Bavaria (and Hessen, they are just as Nazi in that regard).

For those of you that don't like the racial profiling, it's a fact that certain drugs are commonly sold by certain nationals, so the cops have a point (in their twisted logic). I'm all for privacy and drug decriminalization and I probably hate the fucking cops more like anyone else here, but if you don't like it, move. Your bitching won't change anything.

Besides, you cannot really blame the Hermans for your home country not issuing proper ID even though they demand such from everyone else on the planet who wants to come for a visit.

If someone is a citizen of a European Union country should they be classed a foreigner? Regardless of whether they are...

I am not sure, but was not aware that a German visiting the UK had to carry their ID at all times... but stand to be corrected.

united kingdom = section 60

Yes. The EU is not a country. A foreigner is a person who comes from another country.

@keydeck - yes quite, I think we were all aware of that!

What I was alluding to is that being a 'foreigner' from another EU member state is not the same as being a 'foreigner' from a non-member state; and added to that the way things seem to be going there is less and less to distinguish different EU member countries - politically and economically

whats the worry so you get stopped on'sus' happened to me a few tmes in london, and nothing because i wasn't doing anything wrong. you break the law get stopped on sus then your knicked fair and square.

Fair enough. And I am saying that they should be classed as a foreigner since simply put, that is what they are. Not from the country = foreigner. Whether some foreigners are more equal than others is a different matter. Perhaps in the heat of the moment your allusion passed me by.

Fair cop guv' and all that. Way it should be. Get pinched, do your time, hope you don't get buggered,even learn a few new tricks to refine your criminal skills, but nicked is nicked, however it happened.

ALL:

Please my post in the ID thread.

YOU ARE REQUIRED TO CARRY "VALID" ID AT ALL TIMES IN GERMANY.

You can usually get away with a gov't-issued non-passport ID, but the law states explicitly that only a Passport or European Ausweis is considered to be "valid ID".

woof.

i've been stopped 25 times and counting, getting a lil pissed off now

Last night around 6ish there were loads of police stopping people all over HBF. Granted most of them were what I have called Neds so I don't have any sympathy, but it's seemed like many more than usual (police that it not neds )

what's a ned?

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=ned

Non-educated delinquent.

Slang Dictionary entires for the letter N

so that's what a Ned is...

Vomama,

That is all well and good. I have no issues with being stopped and 'controlled' as they like to call it here. As a black man living in this country, I guess you will never experience what we experience.

Have you ever seen a police car and start asking yourself if you'll be stopped and 'controlled' and you have not done anything wrong?

Yes, I drive a very expensive car all day every day. I can afford to pay for it, my goodness I worked hard for it but being stopped 4 times a month for driving a car on the road and I have not committed any offence. On one occasion, they literally did a u-turn in the middle of the road like they got a distress call when they were driving past me and forced me to stop by pushing me into a car park. What was the reason for that because I had a Munich registered car in Ingolstadt on a Saturday afternoon. I'm sure you'll say that is a bit excessive. All asking the same stupid questions after seeing the fahrzeugschein and my aufenthalterlaubnis.

I will dearly like to meet a German Guy who has gone through the same treatment all because the police are supposedly doing their jobs.

Naturally I make a scene of it and tell them off. I'm sure the police know who I am by now.

I know this is not a related topic but I still choose to stay here (4 years)

the police in bavaria are a continuation of the SS. fact.

Yeah, and the Süddeutsche Zeitung is a sequel to Mein Kampf. Crap.

UK?

Why is it when modern Germans do something that offends (wrong or not) , the first name that comes out is the Nazis? That's such garbage. The S.S. were monsters. Bavarian Cops are just cops. It sucks to do get caught doing something wrong, or hassled when they make sure you aren't doing something wrong. It would be far worse to not have police at all. A lawless state of nature would be far less politically correct.

I think it gets some when people think that somehow this behavior makes anything "safer"... IT DOES NOT! And yet this is the same argument that George Bush uses to pull his stunts and then suddenly the tune changes. It gives the appearance of safety, but in some instances you're actually "less" safe. If you think they get many of the busts this way, nope.

Kinda like airport security in the US... if I wanted to get a bomb onto a plane I still know several ways to do it... but it makes grandma and those scared white folks in the middle of the country feel good.

No, it allows them to be racist, hopefully drive away some of those "different" people and every blue moon make a bust so they can claim "we need to do this".

yeh same thimg happened to me in my first couple of weeks here, walking through Münchner Freiheit amd a couple of police called me to one side. they asked for ID i showed them, and then the female officer procided to look through my bag, whilst the male officer searched me and even my SHOES, i mean wtf?! whilst asking me about my drug habbits do i take drugs? have i got any drugs on me? have i ever taken drugs...bla bla o yeh and then he started talking about how everyone in england is starting to go to the pubs...random, and i wasnt exactly in the mood to have a chat with him about british pubs!!! i think its a good idea in that it will cut drug circulation but its not nice to be searched with all the u-bahn passengers walking by staring!!!

they pick on the weak and easy targets.
they might find the odd spliff at the bahnhof and while they're doing this i wonder how much herion and the like has just come over the border via the balkan routes?

as for the ealier comparisons: same wolf different time, different clothing.

@Kenboy, see my earlier post on this topic. They are not entitled to do a pocket and bag search without "reasonable suspicion". You should make it clear that you do not give permission for them to search you. If they absolutely insist then there is little point resisting.

Remember that they *will* bluff. They won't tell you the truth about what they are entitled to do and what not.

They are entitled to take your name and address and nothing more.

If they engage you in "friendly chat" it is not because they are being friendly. It is because they are trying to assess who you are and what you are up to. I always either ignore such questioning or tell them, "I am not obliged to answer that question".

Top tip: if you decide to play the "sorry, I don't speak German" card when questioned, make sure you don't blow it by walking away when Mr. Plod says "OK, ist schon gut".

wicked, like the great escape all over again!

So what do the british amongst us actually carry as ID?
I carry my drivers license and a copy of my passport, but have never been stopped.

Crosslink by admin: Must one carry ID at all times when in Germany? No.

ask flogger

showed the police a 2nd class stamp with the queen's head on and his british video club membership card and the bode him guten abend.
class.

Hmmmm... how well would a membership card for the American Nazi Party work?

what's that american express slogan 'that'll do nicely'

as ID earlier i used to carry an expired NUS card. now i have a fancy sonderausweis issued from an office in berlin which is handy. never been checked tho.

I know most Brits frequently use "mini hitler" and "bloody nazi" when talking about a particularily strict person (invariably their boss). While this may sit uncomfortable with many germans it is not intended as being anti-german. The only argument that could be used would be that they impinge on the memory of those that suffered at the hands of the original "terms".

While the use of "gestapo", "S.S." and "nazis" for the polizei is closer to being anti-german in sentiment, it is from the same adaptation of language since the war. I myself have been known to use "feckin gestapo" but by no know stretch of the imagination do I see this as anti-german. I see it purely as a reference to the war and that I think they were being heavy-handed or totally in the wrong. I also use the phrase "dads' army" when describing any fuck up by british forces where it has a more tenuous connection. (ie - they are not old but they may have been stupid)

Gestapo = Geheime Staatspolizei

Perhaps in a way the city cops are/were related

No...
"stAAt" = nation
"stADt" = city

The Gestapo were the National Secret Police and had nothing to do with the city cops, who they looked down upon much like the FBI looks down on the local yokel sherriffs in the South.

woof.

They were busy at Stachus station this afternoon, from what I could see they'd pulled over 2 Romanian lads, probably on suspiscion of working as rent there. The same cops were there back scanning the crowd for targets 10 minutes later so I guess they had nothing on the 2 guys.

I got a nice Cunter Fuckstein glow as I went shopping feeling so SAFE under the watchful eye of the Polizei.

(Rarely use the C word, but it seemed to fit in nicely there)

Old topic closed by admin.