German "Democracy" in 2022

The first debate in parliament regarding vaccine mandates was this week... so I decided to go down town and check out the officially registered demo that was supposed to take place around the Brandenburger Tor.  I figured it would be interesting and wanted to see things with my own eyes... plus I couldn't really concentrate in my "mobile office" (aka kitchen).

Upon exiting the Friedrichstrasse train station (one of the main stations downtown), there was a long row of police vans/ cars... and there were even more police than when Obama was in Berlin?!?

From Friedrichstrasse, I walked towards "Unter den Linden", the street leading towards the Brandenburger Tor.  The entire street was blocked off and there were hundreds of police everywhere... even the adjacent streets leading towards the Brandenburger Tor were blocked, and only people from the Press or with work badges were allowed to enter the area.  

In this next pictures you can see that the police were blocking the road leading to the Brandenburger Tor, but some civilians were there anyway...

So I spoke with several police... and tried to be a respectful, friendly, and masky as possible.

Me: "Do you know what's going on here?"

Police: "Some people are trying to start a demo because of the vaccine debates in parliament today."

Me: "But isn't the demo officially registered? May I ask why people can't participate in the demo?"
Police: "These are police procedures."

Aha... so they were conducting "police procedures" (polizeiliche Maßnahmen), which I assume is Newspeak for preventing unpersons from comitting doubleplusungood activities resulting from thoughtcrimes.

Me: "Ok, but it looks like some civilians are behind you, closer to the Brandenburger Tor.  Are only the press and politicans allowed?"

Police: "No, those are demonstrators; they're currently barricaded."

Me: "So I can't go join them?"

Police: "No, as I said... we're conducting police procedures and no one can go in our out of this area."

It was insane; there were even police from out of state who were in Berlin to make sure that no one could protest the vaccine debates.  The police managed to divide the people into smaller groups and barricade several groups so that there was no large single gathering/ demo.

Me: "Were there problems with the protestors or with the demo?"

Police: "Yes, the people aren't following the Covid measures."

Me: "Oh, ok... such as...?"

Police: "They're not wearing masks or social distancing."

Our neighbor's mother was there with several other people, and was reporting live from within the barricade... she said that the police kept surrounding and closing in on people so that they were unable to social distance at all.  And then the police would take down their data because they weren't social distancing.  

Is this how a democracy works in Germany in 2022?  How did we even get to this point?

#PoliceSelfie #ThoughtPolice #Berlin #Covid