A video is circulating on social networks showing the alleged arrest of a child after a pro-Palestinian demonstration on Breitscheidplatz. According to police, at around 6 p.m., officers became aware of the eleven-year-old, who had apparently previously attended the gathering unaccompanied.
In the video, several police officers run after the boy and then shield him from other demonstrators. Due to the ongoing police measures towards the end of the gathering, the boy was taken into custody “for his own protection”. The boy’s father was notified. He then picked up the eleven-year-old about 90 minutes later. According to the police, the boy was not arrested. “There is no suspicion of a crime against the boy,” the police said.
Police union: “We know this from the Gaza Strip”
Children under the age of 14 cannot be prosecuted. “However,” says defense attorney Ehssan Khazaeli, “if children cause damage, the parents could be held directly liable for the damage caused.” In addition, family courts could impose parenting requirements on the parents, such as requiring them to attend certain courses, or in exceptional cases limit or completely withdraw custody, says the lawyer.
The spokesman for the Berlin Police Union (GdP), Benjamin Jendro, places importance on the question of the boy’s “radicalization.” So far, we know that the radicalization takes place via Koran schools and social media. “It all spills over, this phenomenon of sending children ahead did not originate in Berlin, we know it from the Gaza Strip.”
The GdP spokesman also points to the component of impunity. But there is also the “power of images”. For this, “children are used very deliberately. That is part of the strategy. That is brutal for our colleagues.”
Even during Corona, there were phases in which the police had to deal with new “phenomena”. For example, they had to deal with older demonstrators who could hardly walk anymore.
Or, according to another example from Jendro, people with physical disabilities were put in front of burning garbage cans in the left-wing extremist stronghold on Rigaer Strasse. Jendro points out the dangers that the police are exposed to: “Sometimes it’s just camouflage.”
