Another Police Crime in Brussels

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On Monday, June 2, a police car struck and killed Fabian, just days before his twelfth birthday. His crime : riding a scooter in Elisabeth Park in Ganshoren (a municipality in the western suburbs of Brussels), while the legal age for riding such vehicles is 16.

The first official reports spoke of a « delinquent » on the run who was accidentally run over after a car chase—but, according to witnesses, it was not really a chase that occured. Fabian, who was trying out his older brother's scooter, had tried to avoid a police check by riding onto the lawn ; he was then hit by a police car that had followed him at high speed. The cop accompanying the driver threatened witnesses who were taking photos ; in a video, a police officer is heard justifying the incident, saying, « When your kids drive on the sidewalks and kill little old ladies on the sidewalk, we don't say anything. »

In reality, this was not an unhappy accident. It was a crime, the latest in a host of others : without having to go back even further, it was less than a month ago that Christoph Amine died after being struck during a chase on the Rue Blaes in Brussels.

For more than eight years, neighborhood residents have been complaining about dangerous driving by police cars in the park. The situation has only deteriorated since the park was designated a « hotspot » in February 2025 by the Brussels Regional Security Council as part of its « war on drugs. » This translates into a heavy police presence and frequent intervention in areas reputed to be centers for dealing, posing a direct threat to residents who are more or less considered as suspects. Moreover, everyone knows that police violence against young people, especially those from immigrant backgrounds, is a constant occurrence. Residents of the municipality of Jette, where Fabian lived, recently protested (in April) against police harassment of young people.

The bourgeois order is characterized by the exploitation of a gargantuan section of the population, i.e. by a social violence expressed in growing inequality and multifarious oppression. Such a system can only be defended by « the forces of order », by a police force that maintains a climate of intimidation and fear among the population via the constant threat of violence. Police crimes are not accidents, « blunders » caused by « bad apples » : they are the inevitable, necessary consequence of the police’s role in the service of this system. This is why they can never be prevented by « good laws » advocated by do-gooders and bourgeois democrats, who seek above all to calm anger against these crimes. And every time regulations or laws are not respected, there are no sanctions against the police. As long as capitalism reigns, police violence and crimes will not disappear—no more than exploitation, oppression, racism, and wars will.

So there shall be no more families mourning their children tomorrow, capitalism must go under : upended by the revolution of the proletariat, the exploited and oppressed.

Il comunista - le prolétaire - el proletario - proletarian - programme communiste - el programa comunista - Communist Program