A Hamburg story

In every city we visited so far we noticed two European features that
make these places very different from New
York. Firstly, it's the exceptional quality of dairy products (or
smoked fish if talking about Norway). Secondly, it's the apparent
absence of police on the streets.

Without a cop posted at every corner Europeans engage in all kinds of
outrageous behavior: they drink beer on the streets, smoke in the bars,
rollerblade inside railway stations, bike on sidewalks, sitting on milk
crates, etc... Well, I am not even talking about what they do Amsterdam!
All this behavior is of course illegal in New York, but here the
society shows a much greater degree of tolerance. Like it or not, but
apparently the majority here doesn't think that for these offenses
people should be taken to court.
And with a much smaller number of crimes subject to prosecution,
Europeans probably do not need so much police, and those few officers
they have are probably running after thiefs and murderers. That's why
here you don't see them idling in every donut shop.

We didn't see law enforcement in action until we reached the 'free and
hanseatic city of Hamburg'. This is how the tourbook calls this place.
Hamburg is a separate state in Germany, and being 'free and hanseatic'
it's entitled to making up its own laws one, of which instantly reminded
me of New York.

Right in the beginning of our city walk we came across a street musician
who assembled his sound making machine out of impossible number of
stuffed animals, broken hangers, pieces of furniture and every other
imaginable type of garbage. All together it was making quite a pleasant
sound that people, adults and children alike, seemed to like. We
stopped to listen as well. But then two cops walked by... To give them
a credit, they discretely waited until the song is over, but then the
walked to the musician, said something, checked his papers, wrote
something in their book...while the crowd was still waiting for the
continuation of the show. But afterwards there was no more fun - man
packed his machine and left, much to everybody's disappointment.
Everything happened very calmly without any excesses, I don't even think
that the performer was fined, yet the scene had a very ugly feeling
about it. Two big guys with guns are harassing one harmless little guy
with
bells around his ankles - and nobody calls police to stop it, because
these armed guys are police and the Law stands behind them. It
felt like if I got into the inverted, 'behind the looking glass' world,
where the notions of good and bad are completely messed up. Well, I
often feel that way back at home.
And as for the Hamburg, it is certainly a fine interesting city, but
this incident cast a long shadow over my
perception of the city. It took me a while before I shook it off of my
mind.
And Zara was also disappointed: 'And nobody defended him! In Dushanbe
people always protest when police chases somebody unjustly... And
police usually leaves..'
Well, how can she prefer the instinctive reflexes of wild tajiks over
the obedience of the civilized Germans. These are brought up to respect
the Law and Order above anything else, just the same way they were
during the Third Reich.