The diversity of interviewees offered a wide range of different encounters with the police. Despite the fact that the crucial features of people affected are physical traits – in particular skin colour—that can be perceived as an indication of belonging to an ethnic, racial, and/or religious minority group living in Switzerland, there are also often further aspects involved in the concrete setting. According to the context more features are implicated in action, such as age, gender, religion, language skills, outfit style, hairstyle, assumed social-economic status, citizenship status, and where the interaction take place. In a general view there are some difference categories which lead to a specific vulnerability for being particularly often in the focus of police stop and search practices.
The most reported interdependencies that structured the experiences with the police are related to citizen status, gender and language. The interviewees in the study note that conversation with the police predominately takes place in standard German. People who told the police that they don’t speak German and prefer English were often ignored. Besides language, aspects such as presumed class and income were defined by the interviewees as elements that change the police’s treatment of people.
« I believe that the police thinks that if you are a sans-papier, you have limited rights, and that she can do anything with you. They do all with you what they want.» (Ahmed Abdu)
«Because it depends on the quality of your ID, if you have an N or F or B status, that even changes the reaction of the police towards you.» (Tahar Baznani)
«Le policier fait des chôses qu’il normalement n’a pas le droit de faire.» (Lucie Cluzet)
«[T]hey said, ja, all of you, the North African only come here to make problems.» (Tahar Baznani)
«I once traveled from Wetzikon to Zurich. (…) And there were three uniformed policemen on the train who came to me, they were two men and one woman. I sat in the compartment with a friend, there were many people around. She said, ‹Open your mouth.› And I said, ‹What are you looking for in my mouth› Then she immediately grabbed my neck, choked until I had to open my mouth. And she said, ‹Ok, all right.› The two other policemen watched the scene, but did not respond. And I: ‹Did you see what she did?› And the reaction: ‹Yeah yeah, all right.›» (Omar Zaman)
«For me it is often that—also in other situations—where I am treated weirdly or differently, as soon as I start to speak Berndeutsch [the local dialect] and they notice this, there’s like a click and then everything is different.» » (Ebony Amer)
«[W]hen I have an important meeting […], when I need to go to Hauptbahnhof […] for example, I wear a nice classic suit with the hat, just to not be recognized by the police and catch me before this important meeting for me.» (Tahar Baznani)
Despite the broad spectrum of differences, the reports also contain many overlaps and similarities. Racial profiling incidents are not single, unique, or universal experiences, but experiences that can occur for some parts of the population who are not assumed to be normal Swiss citizens at nearly any time and place. However, the different narratives indicate that police checks often proceed along similar lines. People are approached in their daily lives by two or more police officers requesting them to identify themselves and give reasons for their presence. People who are not native German speakers and people with a refugee or no residence status have reported that they are faced with various personal questions such as their address, their destination, and their living situation. Many people are also requested to show or empty their bags and pockets, or to undergo a public pat-down. Individuals with refugee status, people without residency, as well as people who refuse to identify themselves, experience handcuffing and arrests and even being detained for a certain amount of time. Many checked people reported that they were not given an explanation for the check procedure. If asked by the controlled person, police officers often say «routine control». Patterns identified in almost all the interviewees’ reports are described in the following:
«We move like ordinary people on the street and they just come to us and ask for our identity card. The reason is our skin color. There is no other reason.» (Cabaas Xasan)
«[T]hey control me specifically because of my color. Because he [the police officer] didn’t control the other people, so that is for me racial.» (Phil Steward)
«Ils [les policiers] nous traitent comme des animaux!» (Salah Chant)
«Police checked me, the other people looked at me. What happened to my dignity?» (Chandra Macasche)
«Like all other commuters, I went through the Zurich train station and two policemen and one policewoman come to me: ‹Zack! ID card!› And I said: ‹Why? Why me alone? And all the others?› And I said, ‹How would you feel so alone by all these commuters, at seven o’clock in the morning?›» (Mamadu Abdallah)
«I felt like a criminal. I’ve never been an offender to the police, but just because I exist. I cannot help it that I’m born like that.» (Wakur Bari)
«I’m coming out of Migros [supermarket] with all my shopping, so what do they think? Do think I’m selling drugs? What dangerous thing am I supposed to be doing? That’s what I told them. The policeman was harsh, a real SVP-policeman [SVP is a right-wing political party]. They wanted me to take off my jacket and then they left me.» (Mamadu Abdallah)
«Du fühlst dich so minderwertig, wenn die Polizei dich kontrolliert. Ich frage mich: Wieso immer ich? Steht etwas auf meiner Stirn?» (Ahmed Abdu)
«You feel so inferior when the police checks you. I ask myself: ‹Why always me? Is something on my forehead?›»(Ahmed Abdu)
Some people even question their own behaviour, as one illustrates:
«After being checked, I felt totally uncomfortable. … Because the people, society looks differently.» (Chandra Macasche)
«The check situation happened eight months ago, but the fear and the experience is still deep inside me … every time I see the police I’m afraid.» (Jamal Hussaini)
«So, I often experience situations in which I am due to my skin colour and actually always, whether it was with police checks or someone speaks to me in standard German or English, then I have on the one hand the feeling of defiance and anger. Then I often begin to tremble inwardly, too, because I want to defend myself.» (Zoe Hetti)
«I was asking myself, am I a trouble, I had to talk to myself, am I really a trouble maker? Am I making problems? Is it only me that this is happening to? I had to figure out, maybe change my way of life or how I dress or where I go? Then I started to meet people, then I realized each person that I met had a story to tell. That gave me the picture, ah, it’s not only me who had this.» (Jay Anderson)
«I am not trying to avoid but I always expect it.» (Chandra Macasche)
«No, if you are a person of colour, you better keep your mouth shut and live as discreetly as possible.» (Lucie Cluzet)
«I always ask ‹Why are you stopping me? What is your first instinct that makes you stop me?› Of course, they never say, ‹Because you are black.› Often I say, ‹Look me in the eyes and tell me the truth.› And they never look me in the eyes.» (Chisu Chilongo)
The interviewees formulate general hopes in relation to the police, as well as other authorities and society in general, that they will fight against racism in concrete interactions as well as in structural and institutional settings. Specific demands concern the improved implementation of human rights and anti-discrimination legislation, as well as the issuing of receipts during checks which indicate the reason and the result of the checks. Furthermore, more members of minority groups and officers with wider language skills should be represented in the police corps. In addition to discriminatory police checks, many of the interviewees also had other experiences of racism in their daily lives, in the search for accommodation, in dealing with authorities, at work, etc. and emphasized that racism is not only a phenomenon of the police but a social problem which must be tackled on many levels.
«Il faut qu’ils [les policiers] recevoir une meilleure éducation, une éducation morale. Il faut qu’ils savent qu’on est des humains, qu’on a des droits.» (Salah Chant)
«I would like that the police will have a clear approach to checks, which has to be respected by all policemen. For example bodycams. If someone complains, there is proof. Or also that the police as in London has to make a statement or receipt for the check.» (Omar Zaman)
«That people come who ask what is going on here, why is that person now controlled. Cop-Watch, I think this would be fair.» (Denis Kramer)
«Everything you hear abroad about Switzerland is: Heidi, mountains, human rights, etc. I would never have thought that Switzerland is so unfair before I came here.» (Ahmed Abdu)