Karviná, Czech Republic: Outrage after police brag about house searches, critics call it systemic racism, local authority and the NGO involved defend it

“We are adding a couple of photos from today’s inspection of Tatranská Street in Karviná 6. The mayor of our town participated in the action along with representatives of the Municipal Police, social workers from the local authority and Portavita’s social workers. Because we are registering a complaint about this locale, we decided to undertake an across-the-board action so we could get up-to-date information as quickly as possible. We woke some people up between 9 and 10 AM, there were a couple of kids whose parents forgot to send them to school, but we also saw positive things, such as apartments that were very nicely cleaned. Overall it wasn’t anything great, but if we hadn’t checked up and pressured people, then the image of Karviná 6 would be much worse. Anybody who has visited some towns in the Ústecký Region knows what we mean. We will continue these across-the-board checks. We wish you all a beautiful, sunny Tuesday!” the police posted to their official profile.

Beneath this post, some social media users began to contribute their own racist remarks targeting Romani people, while others posted sharp criticism of the approach taken by the police, Portavita and the local authority. “When I saw that post from the Karviná Municipal Police, I didn’t doubt for one minute that something is wrong there. It is neither necessary nor rational to undertake any justified inspection or investigation in either the social or the residential field in the presence of political representatives and photographers and then to post the results, or in this case the lack of results, on the local police social media profile, which is publicly available to everybody,” said the sociologist Linda Sokačová, who drew attention to the social media post.

Cyril Koky, the Central Bohemian Regional Authority’s Coordinator for Romani Affairs and Foreign National Integration, called the behavior in Karviná absurd. “The Karviná Municipal Police are boasting about their successful intervention, one that in my opinion is unacceptable. What is sad is that the mayor personally lent his presence to this action. If there is a complaint in the locality, everything has to be addressed consistently in accordance with the law on misdemeanors. It’s not possible for the local police to record and photograph their entire action just for the sake of it. On the basis of what law is the local police entering into the tenants’ private dwellings and apartment units? What kind of a practice is this?” Koky asked.

The head of the Czech Government’s Hate Free Culture campaign, Lukáš Houdek, has also sharply objected to the “control action”. “This was done during the previous regime, Romani people had to demonstrate to social workers that their cupboards were tidy under the threat of having their children taken away otherwise,” he posted, adding that he believes this is systemic racism.

Who asked who for collaboration?

According to information obtained by news server Romea.cz, the inspection was of apartment units leased from their owner, the Heimstaden firm, by the Portavita nonprofit organization. The NGO then rents the units to its clients and undertakes regular controls on an ongoing basis.

“Entering the clients’ apartment is part of their housing with an accompaniment and social work program because the clients are given the units so they will take proper care of them. We have an accompanying social service that can aid the clients, this has been done this way for a long time,” the Executive Director of Portavita, David Starzyczný, explained to news server Romea.cz.

Starzyczný also said the local police had requested their collaboration during a previous joint meeting and that it was done on the basis of a joint agreement. “We were called upon by the police to collaborate with them. It was the first such action and it likely had a positive effect on coordinating security in the locality. There will be a proposal for this to continue,” he said.

The City of Karviná, however, has a different story. According to its press spokesperson, Lukáš Hudeček, it was the Portavita organization that requested the collaboration with the local police.

Hudeček also said the social media post by the police includes errors of fact. “It’s badly written by the Municipal Police, I’m already addressing it with them, the director made a mistake. The local police were invited to collaborate with the nonprofit organization Portavita, which owns [sic] the apartments and rents them to citizens, and their contracts stipulate that they can monitor the units at any time,” he told news server Romea.cz.

“They suspected that the Portavita staffers could be assaulted if they enter the apartments, they have such an opportunity stipulated in the contract, those who rented the apartments agreed to that. There was the suspicion that some could be under the influence of drugs, so they asked the local police to collaborate with them, the police accompanied them, but didn’t enter the units. Just the Portavita staffers entered the units, and once, at their request, our staffer from the municipal social welfare department also entered a unit to check whether the children there should have been at school,” the city spokesperson described the operation on Tuesday.

“Our patrols did not enter the apartments. Unfortunately, the director of the Municipal Police, who wrote the Facebook post, wrote it quite badly, because it sounds like it was a raid. It wasn’t a raid, it was just a collaboration with Portavita as the owner [sic] of the units, at their request,” Hudeček said.

Lucie Fuková: I am against across-the-board inspections of rental housing

Czech Government Commissioner for Roma Minority Affairs Lucie Fuková has begun investigating the police inspection in Karviná. “I do not consider the Facebook post by the Karviná Municipal Police about inspecting apartments to have been completely fortunate. I have decided to verify all the information directly with the leadership of the City of Karviná and with the director of the Portavita organization, which leases the apartments concerned,” she told news server Romea.cz.

“The leadership of the municipality has refuted the information that was published and promised to negotiate with the Karviná Police about adjusting their social media post,” the city’s press spokesperson has confirmed. Commissioner Fuková explained what she has learned as follows: “According to the director of the Portavita organization, there are regular monthly spot checks as part of the rental contracts, but the Karviná Municipal Police and the mayor have never joined them before. This most recent action was the result of a multidisciplinary roundtable in Karviná. On that occasion they agreed that the next such visit, on the basis of complaints about two cases in the locality, would be undertaken by the various agencies together.”

“I comprehend the concerns with regard to checking on the apartment units at issue in the presence of representatives of the local authority and the Karviná Municipal Police. I am decidedly against across-the-board inspections of apartment units in the presence of local police and against interfering with people’s privacy anywhere. That especially is the case when there were just two specific apartments alleged to be causing problems, not the entire locality,” Fuková criticized the approach.

Lawyer: Freedom in one’s home is guaranteed by the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms

According to the director of the In IUSTITIA organization, the attorney Klára Kalibová, a landlord may enter an apartment that has been rented only in exceptional cases. “Freedom in one’s home is a right protected by the Czech Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms. It basically applies to everybody, irrespective of what kind of housing one resides in (rented or privately owned),” she told Romea.cz.

“It is possible to enter a dwelling without the agreement of its occupants only within the framework of authorizations derived from the Penal Code. Tenants are under no obligation to ever allow anybody into their home. If such entry is forced, for example, by threatening the tenants that they will lose their rented housing otherwise, then the person forcing the entry may be committing a felony. The tenants can call the police under such circumstances. They can also file a motion with the Public Defender of Rights,” Kalibová said.

The presence of a cameraman at the scene of the intervention also sparked criticism of the Karviná police patrol. One photograph shows him filming the interior of one of the tenants’ apartments.

“From the photos it is apparent that there was also a video camera there that got into the apartments. Shame on you!” Houdek of the Hate Free Culture campaign emotionally commented on the behavior of the local police.

Starzyczný, the director of Portavita, said he did not know who was filming at the scene. According to the city’s press spokesperson, the Polar television station was on the scene.

“Apparently the Municipal Police arranged that with them. It’s a local television station that films reportages for us,” the city press spokesperson literally said.

According to the sociologist Sokačová, the commentaries posted beneath the local police’s Facebook post by members of the public prove that an anti-Romani subtext is implicitly present both in the local police post and throughout their entire inspection “action” and that the text of the post amplifies and incites racist sentiment. “Moreover, this action has even inspired Tomáš Vandas, the former leader of the ‘Workers’ Justice’ party, which was racist and inspired by neo-Nazism and was dissolved in 2010 by the Supreme Administrative Court,” she adds in a commentary for Romea.cz.