judgment for defamation - Judgment: Police are not a 'Racist Club'
Anyone calling police officers baselessly "Racist Association" is committing defamation. The Stuttgart District Court and the appellate court, the Landgericht, have made this decision and dismissed the objections of a young defendant against his conviction. The District Court had sentenced the then 25-year-old man to a fine of 40 days' wages in mid-January for defamation. According to the court spokesperson, the judgment is now legally binding.
According to court records, the man made the statement "There's the Racist Association again!" to a policewoman and a police officer at a Stuttgart underground station in October of the previous year. The officers then detained the man.
The court held that there is no longer protection for the right to free expression when uniformed public officials are personally defamed with such a statement without it occurring within the context of a debate, the spokesperson said. The accusation of being a racist is a serious insult to the honor of the affected police officers. This can shake the trust of the citizens in the integrity of the officers involved.
The incident that led to the defamation charge occurred at a Stuttgart underground station in October, where the man insulted the police officers by calling them the "Racist Association." After the District Court in Baden-Württemberg found him guilty of defamation, the Stuttgart District Court and the appellate court upheld the judgment, emphasizing that insulting uniformed public officials in such a manner, especially without justification, is not protected under the right to free expression.
