After the Berlin riots: The judiciary must show harshness
Created: 01/05/2023 05:52
By: Christian Deutschländer
After attacks on emergency services on New Year's Eve, the discussion about the consequences has begun.
© Julius-Christian Schreiner/TNN/dpa/ Author photo: Klaus Haag
Lessons must be learned from the Berlin New Year's Eve riots.
The problem is not the number of migrants, comments Christian Deutschländer.
Politicians, especially those on the left of the centre, are all too often reluctant to clearly identify problems with migrants.
Partly out of ideological blindness.
But often also out of genuine concern to promote stereotypes and give a boost to rabble-rousers.
It is often the other way around: in our time, hatred and conspiracy theories sprout and thrive exactly where truths are not spoken, where facts are mumbled away.
In the case of the Berlin New Year's Eve riots, this is - fortunately - no longer possible.
The dominance of suspects with a migration background is too obvious.
It is important to state this clearly, because only then can the right lessons for integration and social policy be drawn.
Berlin riots: The problem is not the number of migrants
The problem in Berlin is not the number of migrants - Munich has a higher proportion - but the development of parallel societies.
There, material poverty, drugs, isolation, lack of education and a lack of prospects intensify into brutalization, anger and hatred of the state.
Of course, social policy must find long-term answers to this, in the whole range from schools to prevention projects.
In the short term, however, something else is now also indispensable: toughness on the part of investigators and the judiciary.
As a signal to the victims, to the attacked helpers from the fire brigade, paramedics, police, who have to feel politically alone in Berlin.
And as a warning to the violent milieus that mock our rule of law as weak.
Fast and tough judgments are now needed from the otherwise often fickle Berlin judges.
With forbearance and pats of justice, the state cannot regain its dramatically lost authority.
