Berlin: New Year's Eve riots - more than a hundred arrested again at large

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New Year's Eve in Berlin-Neukölln: fire brigade and police on duty

Photo: IMAGO/Marius Schwarz

The suspects arrested after the New Year's Eve riots in Berlin are free again.

All 103 people arrested on New Year's Eve are free again because there are no grounds for detention, a spokesman for the Berlin police said on Tuesday.

The people were released after their identity was established.

The suspects are mainly being investigated for arson offenses, violations of the Explosives Act, breach of the peace and assault on law enforcement officials.

On New Year's Eve, emergency and rescue services in Berlin and other cities were massively attacked.

In some cases, the police had to be deployed to protect firefighters from attacks while they were putting out fires.

In the capital alone, there were more than 40 injured emergency services.

The violent attacks on emergency services triggered a debate about consequences such as a ban on firecrackers.

Lower Saxony's Interior Minister Boris Pistorius called for quick convictions.

The problem is that "people even think of attacking rescue workers, paramedics, the fire brigade or the police for no reason," the SPD politician told radio station NDR Info.

Increase in "Intensity and Severity"

"Unfortunately, this is a development that we've been observing for years, and unfortunately a development that doesn't just take place on New Year's Eve," says Pistorius.

He explained that the number of attacks at the turn of the year in Lower Saxony this time was not significantly higher than in the years before the corona pandemic.

However, "the intensity and the violence" had increased.

A debate is therefore needed about the declining respect for the fire brigade and the police.

According to the minister, the attackers are "almost exclusively young men" who "some came from right-wing extremist backgrounds, but also from migrant backgrounds".

That's why there is a need for penalties that young men in particular are faced with - such as the withdrawal of their driver's license.

This could have a different effect than a fine or a suspended sentence.

He described the penalty for attacks on emergency services, which was only increased a few years ago, as sufficient.

Up to five years in prison can be imposed for such attacks since 2017.

It involves attacks on police officers, firefighters, civil protection and rescue services, public prosecutors and military police.

Before the law was passed, a specific penalty only applied to assaults during enforcement actions, such as arrests.

Since 2017, the threat of punishment has applied during any official act.

Pistorius, however, rejected a firecracker ban.

Only a small proportion of the population use the fireworks to attack emergency services, so a general ban doesn't solve the problem, he said.

The Minister of the Interior also announced that concrete consequences would soon be initiated with the trade unions and representatives of the emergency and rescue services.

"In addition, I will put the topic on the agenda at the next conference of interior ministers in Berlin," Pistorius told the "Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung".

“We need this debate immediately”

In the opinion of the police union (GdP), a round table with politicians and practitioners as well as new approaches in integration policy are needed quickly in order to prevent attacks on emergency services such as on New Year's Eve in the future.

"We need this debate immediately, and we need results, clear concepts and a plan of who has to implement what," said GdP federal chairman Jochen Kopelke.

In many cases, "group dynamic processes, alcohol abuse, socialization deficits and the availability of pyrotechnic objects led to this startling escalation," said Kopelke.

At the same time, he warned against »generally labeling people and declaring them lost«.

The people in the affected parts of the city must condemn the attacks and find ways to prevent such acts in the future.

The police can advise, but they cannot solve the problems alone.

The head of the GdP demanded: “The federal government must live up to its coalition agreement and take a new approach to integration policy at federal level.” In addition to politicians and the police, rescue workers, scientists, social workers and integration officers should also take part in the round table he proposed.

wit/dpa/AFP