Exhibition “They Walk like the State” Police harassment on the streets of Vienna

 Here is the pdf of the exhibiton:  They_Walk_like_the_State

In June 2017 the initiative ‘Kieberei, was geht!?’ (Cops, What’s Up!?) started a small research project with the intention to make the impacts of ‘stop and search’ practices of the police visible. The focus lies on the effects police harassment and ‘stop and search’ have on the everyday lives of those ‘affected’. As ‘affected’ we understand people who are repeatedly subject to police harassment, but also those who are bothered by the massive police presence. In this exhibition we bring together the experiences of our interview partners with the topics we have been engaging with for some time: racial profiling, violence within the police and the justice apparatus, possibilities to show solidarity and to resist, as well as approaches to a city without police.

What is the exhibition about? We collected experiences of people affected by police harassment on the basis of a questionnaire: How often and where are people being stopped and searched? How do they experience police harassment and what effects do these have on their everyday lives? The aim is to give space to strategies, opinions and viewpoints of people affected. What is their opinion on the police and police presence on Vienna’s streets? What alternatives to police and control can they imagine? How would they imagine a city without police?