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In some German cities, like here in Berlin, New Year’s Eve is escalating.
Firecrackers and rockets 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 are injured, one seriously. According to the Berlin police, the attacks on the emergency services “cannot be compared in intensity with previous years”.
More than 100 suspects were arrested in the violent excesses in Berlin alone. The situation also escalated in other German cities.
Who is behind these acts? The German police union has the impression that “groups of young men with a migration background are far overrepresented in these riots,” said President Rainer Wendt (66) to “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 come largely from migrant backgrounds”.
Mostly young men
A short documentary by Ex-Bild editor-in-chief Julian Reichelt (42) also shows the excesses of violence on New Year’s Eve. It doesn’t really seem to bother the people present, mostly young men with a migration background. “I am from Syria. I’ve experienced war – this is normal for me. Almost a bit of a sense of home,” says a young man. His buddy in the background laughs out loud.
“I’m here! I fight! I’ll do everything », a young man in Frankfurt shouts 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 work-up 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 the police come from?” Most of those arrested are men, only 5 of the 103 people are women.
“We are scared”: Men harass young women during interview(00:43)
Also in Reichelt’s documentation almost exclusively men can be seen. “Women have no place here. We celebrate boys among boys, the women stay at home,” says a young man. When the journalist wants to interview a young woman in Düsseldorf, a man runs up from behind, grabs the woman and calls out: “Hey baby!” Another man grabs the woman’s shoulder and says: “No one hits on you, dear girl.”
Young men set fire to a bus in Berlin’s problem district of Neukölln. When the fire brigade wanted to put it out, they were thrown with firecrackers. Police officers had to protect the fire brigade with protective shields. Garbage containers are burning everywhere. The attacks are staged on social media, the clips are viewed thousands of times.
Memories of horror night
The New Year’s Eve escalation brings back bad memories. A night of horrors broke out in Germany on the night of January 1, 2016, with the city of Cologne the main focus at the time. Around 1,000 Arab and African men, many of them aggressive and drunk, gathered on the station square. 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, Cologne police chief Wolfgang Albers had to resign.
In Switzerland, too, there were attacks on New Year’s Eve. Several people robbed and touched women on New Year’s Eve in Zurich. However, the New Year’s Eve grabbers got off scot-free. (zis)