Status: 10.01.2024, 16:00 PM
By: Peter Sieben
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The security authorities see themselves as hardly equipped to deal with organized crime. One phenomenon in particular is causing problems for the police, says BDK regional head Oliver Huth.
Berlin/Düsseldorf – Rocker gangs, clan structures and the mafia: Organized crime endangers democracy, that was the tenor of a recent expert hearing in the NRW state parliament. The police are confronted with completely new phenomena – and feel abandoned by politicians. Above all, an initiative by Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann makes the investigative work more difficult, says Oliver Huth, NRW head of the criminal police union BDK, in an interview with IPPEN. MEDIA.
How have you experienced the last year from a security policy point of view?
The security situation is more tense than usual. One notices that the foreign policy situation plays into the security situation in Germany and North Rhine-Westphalia. In the course of the Middle East conflict, there were Islamist demonstrations. And most recently, a terrorist situation in Cologne. And what still concerns us is, of course, the issue of clan crime.
Oliver Huth, head of the North Rhine-Westphalia Association of German Criminal Investigators. © Peter Sieben
How?
The worst thing for me is that there were no arrests after the mass brawls between extended families in Castrop-Rauxel and Essen. We are talking about attempted homicides that have been committed there. But neither the perpetrator nor the victim spoke to us. We seem to have the law of omertà, or the law of silence, on our streets. We would have to take Italy as a model, where the omertà of the mafia is clearly punishable.
In other words, you would compare the extended families to mafia structures?
This is all wood from the same trunk. The point is that in both cases, the family does not contribute to putting individual offenders on the right path, but consciously demands and supports crimes committed by the members. This is controlled by the Italian mafia as well as by criminal clans of Arab origin by family patriarchs. In Italy, membership in the mafia is punishable by law. We would need similar measures and you can't help but look at family trees.
Name-based research on the topic of clan crime: "The criticism is not entirely wrong"
The name-based research on the subject of clan crime has also met with criticism. Those affected say: Entire families are placed under general suspicion because of crimes committed by individuals.
The criticism is not entirely wrong in principle. Of course, no one should be under suspicion because of their ancestry. But of course, we may also look at surnames. Using the example of the mafia: If a criminal comes from a family from which many have already been convicted of crimes in the field of organized crime, then this allows criminological conclusions to be drawn for further investigations. In the case of family-based crime, a surname can at least be an indication.
Doesn't that promote a certain stigmatization?
Anyone who only sees the issue of stigmatization has not understood what it is all about. It's about the father telling the son: You are committing a crime and defending the family's honor. He only says this to his son, and not to the neighbor or anyone outside the family. So I need to know who the Son is and who the Father is. This is only possible with a pedigree analysis. Of course, you have to be extremely sensitive, of course not everyone who bears this or that surname is a criminal.
Mass brawls: "The occasions can obviously be null and void"
Do you think that such mass brawls are becoming even more common?
Yes, sure. Apparently, the occasions can also be null and void, in Castrop-Rauxel it is said to have been only a quarrel between children at the beginning. It then goes viral on social media and suddenly 200 people rush into a restaurant and get into a fight. The 'Ndrangheta wars or the Duisburg mafia murders also arose because young children threw eggs at a car decades earlier. This is typical of these patriarchal structures, where everything revolves around family honor. Something like this can escalate again the day after tomorrow if one person looks askance at the other.
The police actually seemed to have been surprised by the riots in Essen and Castrop-Rauxel. How can this be explained?
The affected families are enormously isolated. No one talks to us. The trigger was not a crime that we had noticed, but a family dispute. If a child gets away with a shovel in the sandbox, then the police are not there and cannot gauge that it will now become a mass gathering. Now we have learned, we have to take a closer look at the groups and such conflicts. But this is not made easy for us.
What does that mean?
Last but not least, the Federal Ministry of Justice is constantly laying the axe to the powers of law enforcement. It is absurd that Minister Marco Buschmann is now putting a law on the streets and wants to dictate to us exactly what an informant should look like, what he can afford and how long he can work for us.
Marco Buschmann's initiative with informants: "I'm really falling away from the faith"
Are you referring to Marco Buschmann's proposal to regulate the activities of informants by law in the future?
Yes. I would like to see the Minister when there is a bang somewhere and he tells the population that the law enforcement authorities have done everything they can to bring the perpetrators to justice. The truth is that we simply do not have the means to do everything we can to prevent action. For example, home surveillance. The Italians are far ahead, the authorities are installing microphones in the homes of suspects. Because that's the only place where people really talk. We can't do that legally. On the contrary, instead the Federal Minister of Justice wants to make it even more difficult to monitor chats. So that's where I really fall away from the faith. In addition, there is a massive shortage of staff. In North Rhine-Westphalia, for example, the Minister of the Interior is hiring 3000,<> junior police officers, which is also commendable, but the Criminal Investigation Department has nothing to gain from this.
How?
One point is that you have to train your colleagues in such a way that they can start working for the police immediately. We are a long way from that, there is still a one-size-fits-all training. It takes years before they can support us. And we desperately need the support. We have a lot of procedures in which, for example, data from Encrochat cases have to be evaluated. They pile up, nothing happens.
Another thing that happened in 2023: In North Rhine-Westphalia, but also in Frankfurt, there were investigations against police officers for allegedly sharing Nazi symbols in chat groups and making right-wing extremist statements. How do you explain that?
I don't think people go to the police and are right-wing extremists. I believe, however, that the framework conditions that my colleagues are in place mean that their resilience is reduced. There is more and more segregation in society and of course the civil servant feels this too. There is a higher degree of frustration. That's why as a police officer you have to keep reminding yourself that if you are attacked or spat on, then this is the misconduct of individuals and not the behavior of a certain group. Citizens have a right to expect us to have this resilience and to be able to deal with it. But unfortunately, some people seem to develop a wrong set of ideas to the point of criminal liability. These people no longer have any place with us, and we must take consistent action against them. But I can't promise that one or the other won't get the hang of it.
Policeman on farmers' protests: "The pictures cause me great concern"
Most recently, farmers caused a stir and outrage with a protest action against Economics Minister Robert Habeck. Do you have the feeling that the mood is particularly heated right now?
I am very concerned about the images of the farmers' protests. This is an expression of a general phenomenon: we are dealing more and more with segregation in society. There is a tendency for groups to unite and develop their own system of values and norms, and at some point apparently lose respect for the state. This can start rather small, for example with escalating forms of protest. We saw it similarly with the protests of the "Last Generation". The impetus was actually to save the climate. In the meantime, parts of the group have been defined as a criminal organization. I'm seeing more and more dissent. Subordinating one's own desires to the common good is not on the agenda, but some people only focus on their problems. From a criminological point of view, it can be said that higher dissent and segregation lead to more crime and, for some, to rejection of the state and extremism from the centre of society. At this point, however, I must also make it clear that forms of protest that comply with the law are protected by fundamental rights and will not be criticized by me in any way. A social discourse in public is an expression of democracy in action.