Thomas Behling

"ZERO TOLERANCE"

"ZERO TOLERANCE" stands as a term for many dubious strategies. Especially as a strategy of crime fighting and crime prevention. This allows the police - preventively, so to speak - to intervene or crack down hard on regulatory violations below the crime threshold, so-called petty offenses. It became known in the 1990s with the "New York Model", championed by Republican Mayor Rudy Giuliani and his police chief Bill Bratton, who based it on the "Broken Windows Theory" that had already emerged in the 1980s.

As a result, the zero-tolerance strategy became a worldwide export hit and also partly ended up in German criminology and politics. The success and efficiency of the strategy remained doubtful and were apparently never clearly proven. The negative sides, however, were obvious: exaggerated restrictions on freedom, the emergence of excessive police arbitrariness and violence, the establishment of a control and police state, and so on. In the 1990s, running a red light on a bicycle in Manhattan or openly consuming alcohol on the street meant fearing that one could end up in jail.

Another zero-tolerance strategy was pursued by the U.S. government under President Trump many years later with regard to immigration to the United States. If legal or illegal immigrants as well as asylum seekers had, among other things, an entry in their national or foreign criminal records, they were immediately detained and deported or turned away. Families, e.g. children from their parents, were also separated from each other without consideration.

What if you turn zero tolerance around and look at it from a different angle? For example, precisely against these political intentions and actors and in the political demarcation against the right. It cannot be that, for example, a party like the AfD in Germany is given tolerance just because it reaches people and wins votes, but builds on an extreme right-wing, national socialist, racist and anti-Semitic mindset. Anyone who abandons his zero tolerance limit at this point, who enters his firewall, succumbs to complicity and makes right-wing extremism more acceptable.

artists:
Boris Abel, Michelle Alperin, Franck-Lee Alli-Tis aka V Stylianidou, Volker Andresen, claudia balster & hannah goldstein, Robert Barta, Norbert Bauer, Matthias Beckmann, Thomas Behling, Antje Blumenstein, Sascha Boldt, Gunnar Borbe, Ulrike Buck, Johannes Bünemann, Kai Bornhöft, Astrid Busch, Ulu Braun, Daniela Lehmann Carrasco, COUNCIL OF MANY (Alexine Chanel + Mickaël Faure), Rolf Czulius, Lea D'Albronn Allexandre, Henrike Daum, Annedore Dietze, Mirjam Dorsch, Stefan Draschan, Stefan Ebner, Tatiana Echeverri Fernandez, Knut Eckstein, Irena Eden & Stijn Lernout, Tania Elstermeyer, Roland Fuhrmann, Roman Frechen, Anne Gathmann, Ingo Gerken, Robert Gfader, Monika Goetz, Karø Goldt, Massoud Graf-Hachempour, Harriet Groß, Berenice Güttler, Stephanie Hanna, Theemetra Harizani aka Dimitra Charizan, Andrea Hartinger, Michael Hauffen, Andreas Helfer, Christian Hellmich, Thomas Henriksson, Birgit Hölmer, Stephan Homann, Esther Horn, Fabian Hub, Henrik Jacob, Hubi W. Jäger, Thomas Jocher, Uwe Jonas, Silke Koch, Sebastian Körbs, Karen Koltermann, Erika Krause, Käthe Kruse, Philipp Lachenmann, Simone Lanzenstiel, Anett Lau, Niina Lehtonen Braun, Sabine Linse, Catherine Lorent, Antonia Low, Mahony, Nadja Verena Marcin, Matthias Mayer, Ulrike Mohr, Thomas Monses, Matthias Moravek, Peter Müller, Paula Muhr, Leo de Munk, Berit Myrebøe, Joe Neave, Rainer Neumeier, Lorcan O'Byrne, Jennifer Oellerich, Jürgen Olbrich, Lydia Paasche, Manfred Peckl, Wolfgang Plöger, Luisa Puschendorf, Kathrin Rabenort, Nika Radic, Benjamin Renter, Regine Rode, Römer + Römer, Maja Rohwetter, Julia Rüther, Özlem Sarıyıldız, Michel Santos, Sabrina Schieke, Adrian Schiesser, Marco Schmitt, Iris Schomaker, Richard Schütz, Michael Schultze, Veronika Schumacher, Olivia W. Seiling, Heiko Sievers, Heidi Sill, Johanna Smiatek, Erik Smith, Elisabeth Sonneck, Petra Spielhagen, Hans-Peter Stark, Gabriele Stellbaum, Ralf Tekaat, Anja Teske, Thea Timm, Miriam Tölke, Kata Unger, Sencer Vardarman, Gabriela Volanti, Yvonne Wahl, Klaus Walter, Line Wasner, Anja Weber, Marcel Friedrich Weber, Linda Weiss, Bettina Weiß, Julia Werhahn, Anke Westermann, Markus Willeke, Ila Wingen, Markus Wirthmann, Norbert Witzgall, Ina Wudtke, Sibylle Zeh, Rosa Zettl, Ella Ziegler, Michaela Zimmer

One Night Group Show
Spor Klübü, 24.11., 7 p.m.


Freienwalder Str. 31
13359 Berlin