The chairman of the German police union (GdP), Jochen Kopelke, has announced that due to the inaction of politicians, violent disturbances are expected again on New Year’s Eve.
“Since last year’s violence in Berlin (…) everyone knows that something is wrong in our society. We just have to react to it,” Kopelke says in an article published in the Rheinische Post newspaper on Thursday. “We finally have to do something about this.”
“Politicians have betrayed us,” added the head of the police union. “Why haven’t they finally given us the legal means to consistently crack down on those involved in violence? And why haven’t we banned the sale of pyrotechnics on New Year’s Eve, as we do the rest of the year?”
Pyrotechnic means in Germany are allowed to be sold in retail trade only on the last three days of the year and only in limited quantities.
All year long, only magic candles are allowed to be purchased, which are classified as “indoor pyrotechnics” in Germany.
Last year, along with the traditional fireworks in the city streets, pyrotechnic means were directed at policemen and other public security services, including firefighters and ambulance medics, in certain districts of Berlin and other large cities. Police reported that in some cases firefighters and ambulance crews were deliberately lured into ambushes where they were deliberately attacked.
These incidents caused nationwide outrage.
Kopelke has warned that these attacks may be repeated this year.
Karl Heinz Banze, head of the German Fire Brigade Association (DFV), also voted for him.
“The state has an obligation to ensure that those who attack [valsts dienestu darbiniekiem]are punished with all the severity of the law,” Banze emphasized in a conversation with the DPA agency.
Jürgen Resch, head of the non-governmental organization “German Environmental Action” (DUH), has also called for a ban on the sale of pyrotechnics, noting the negative impact of fireworks on domestic animals and wild birds.
Jürgen pointed out that the authorities have so far refused to talk to DUH about the fireworks ban, even though it is supported by the majority of citizens.
He added that Interior Secretary Nancy Fesser has only a few days left to act, or she will be responsible for “violence, house and apartment fires, air pollution and thousands of people injured.”
On the other hand, the head of the German Medical Association, Klaus Reinhardt, in a conversation with “Rheinischen Post” pointed out not only the additional victims who will end up in the already overcrowded hospital wards as a result of fireworks, but also the traumatic experience that pyrotechnic explosions create for those who fled the war.
No one wants to give up New Year’s celebrations, but “uncontrolled explosions” are not an obligatory part of them, Reinhardt emphasized.
This year, the largest police operation in recent decades is planned in Berlin on New Year’s Eve, the capital’s police commissioner Barbara Slovik informed the DPA agency. A large number of police officers have also been assigned to maintain order in other German cities.
2023-12-28 21:52:39
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