Firecrackers and missiles fly at police officers, fire extinguishers are thrown at ambulances. Violence escalated in Berlin on New Year’s Eve. Hundreds of perpetrators attack the police. At least 18 officers were injured, one of them seriously. According to the Berlin police, the attacks on the emergency services “are not comparable in intensity to previous years”.
In Berlin alone, more than 100 suspects were arrested in the violent outbursts. The situation also escalated in other German cities.
Who is behind these acts? The impression prevails at the German police union that “groups of young men with a migration background are strongly overrepresented in these riots”, chairman Rainer Wendt (66) told “Focus”. There is still no evaluation of the origin of the suspected perpetrators on New Year’s Eve. However, officials reported that the young perpetrators “apparently have a largely migrant background”.
Mostly young men
A short documentary by former Bild editor-in-chief Julian Reichelt (42) also shows the excesses of violence on New Year’s Eve. Those present, mostly young men with a migration background, do not seem to be bothered by it. “I’m from Syria. I’ve been through war – this is normal for me. Almost a bit of a feeling of home,” says a young man. His buddy in the background laughs out loud.
“I’m here! I’m fighting! I’ll do anything,” shouts a young man in Frankfurt into the microphone, the beer bottle always in his hand. When asked if he had no respect for the police, the man had a clear answer: ” The police can lick our balls.”
Police union representative Wendt also says that very often heavily intoxicated or drunk young men play a dominant role. “Part of the job is the honest answer to questions like: Where do the chaotic people come from? Where do you live? Where does this anger and contempt for emergency services and police come from?” Most of those arrested are men, only 5 of the 103 people are women.
Reichelt’s documentation also features almost exclusively men. “Women don’t belong here. We celebrate boys among boys, the women stay at home,” says a young man. When the journalist in Düsseldorf wants to interview a young woman, a man runs up to him from behind, grabs the woman and shouts “Hey baby!” Another man grabs the woman by the shoulder and says, “No one hits you, sweet girl.”
Young men set fire to a bus in Berlin’s problem district of Neukölln. When firefighters tried to extinguish it, fireworks were thrown. Police officers had to protect firefighters with protective shields. Dumpsters are on fire everywhere. The attacks take place on social media, the videos are viewed thousands of times.
Memories of horror night
The escalation on New Year’s Eve brings back bad memories. On the night of January 1, 2016, a night of horror broke out in Germany, with the city of Cologne at the center at the time. About 1,000 Arab and African men, many of them aggressive and drunk, gathered in the station forecourt. Smaller groups of women were then sexually assaulted, threatened and robbed.
More than 1,200 criminal charges were filed after the horror night and it took months to process the incidents. After the attacks on New Year’s Eve, the Cologne police chief Wolfgang Albers had to resign.
There were also attacks on New Year’s Eve in Switzerland. Several people robbed and touched women on New Year’s Eve in Zurich. However, the New Year’s Eve grabbers got off unscathed. (zis)