Germany Vows Crackdown After Brutal New Year’s ViolenceBloomberg (archive.ph)
By Iain Rogers and Michael Nienaber
2023-01-02 11:33:20GMT
Firefighters extinguish a fire on a coach in Berlin on Jan. 1. Photographer: Paul Zinken/picture alliance/Getty Images
Germany vowed to crack down on people responsible for violence around the weekend’s New Year celebrations, in which police, paramedics and firefighters were targeted with fireworks and dozens were injured.
“The government, and of course the chancellor as well, condemns these at times massive attacks in the strongest possible terms,” Christiane Hoffmann, a spokeswoman for Chancellor Olaf Scholz, said Monday at the regular government news conference in Berlin.
“The state will not tolerate that people who are celebrating peacefully and personnel who are doing their duty are attacked in this way,” she added.
In Berlin alone, around 1,300 extra police were deployed and more than 100 people were detained for arson offenses, violations of explosives regulations, breach of the peace and assault of law-enforcement officers. Eighteen policemen were injured in the capital, one seriously, and 15 firefighters and paramedics required treatment.
“Attacking police officers, paramedics and firefighters must be punished to the full extent of the law,” Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said in a tweet. “The people who protect us all must be able to fully trust that the rule of law will also protect them,” she said, adding that she was left “stunned and angry” by the attacks.
Our emergency services report pyrotechnic fire from several scenes of operation.
A fire engine from the Urban fire station was so badly damaged at a scene in Hermannstraße in Kreuzberg that it has to be taken out of service.
https://twitter.com/Berliner_Fw/status/1609335544064151553 (archive.ph)
While there was no evidence that the incidents on Saturday night were politically motivated, German authorities have repeatedly highlighted the growing menace of violent extremism at both ends of the political spectrum, warning of a threat to the nation’s democratic order.
Last month, police carried out the biggest-ever raid targeting right-wing extremists, saying the nationwide operation thwarted a domestic terrorist group’s plans to violently overthrow the government.
In one incident in Berlin in the early hours of Sunday morning, about 200 masked assailants attacked firefighters attempting to extinguish burning garbage cans blocking the road, according to a statement from the city fire brigade.
Laws to protect police and rescue services have been tightened in recent years and the New Year’s incidents show “how necessary that was,” Faeser said. “Now this legislation must be applied and enforced as thoroughly as possible against extremists and violent criminals.”
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deepl translation of Interior Minister Nancy Faeser's tweets mentioned in the article:
https://twitter.com/NancyFaeser/status/1609850798640439297 (archive.ph)
Attacking police officers, paramedics and firefighters must be punished with the full force of the law. Because the people who protect us all must be able to fully trust that the rule of law will also protect them. #NewYear's Eve
Millions of people in Germany celebrated peacefully on New Year's Eve. But unfortunately, we also have to draw a bitter balance: Chaotic and violent criminals attacked police and rescue workers with massive brutality.
This is a level of violence that leaves me stunned and angry. And it shows a brutalization that requires consistent action. The penal provisions for the protection of police and rescue workers have been tightened considerably in recent years - and rightly so.
We can see how necessary this was. Now these penal provisions against chaotic and violent criminals must be applied and enforced with all consistency. Sensitive prison sentences can be imposed with them.
I would like to express my sincere thanks to all the police, fire and rescue service personnel who were on difficult and tough missions on New Year's Eve. And I thank the police for their consistent crackdown in many places.
