Interior Minister Faeser advocates no-gun zones on buses and trains.
"If you're traveling by plane, you're not allowed to take a knife with you."
Berlin – Police crime statistics have been occupying politicians and the media for days.
Core of the debate: knife attacks.
Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) is even considering a knife ban on buses and trains.
On the other hand, Faeser does not want to change anything when it comes to the subject of children's criminal responsibility.
Faeser on knife ban in public transport: "We should think about it"
Resolute action against knife violence is needed, Faeser told the newspapers of the Funke media group.
"We should (...) think about banning knives on public transport - on buses and trains," said the minister.
Some of these areas already exist, for example in Berlin.
"If you're traveling by plane, you can't take a knife with you," she added.
"Violent criminals can do terrible things with knives," said Faeser, pointing out that knives are available almost everywhere in everyday life.
"Even with a kitchen knife you can hurt people very badly."
According to Faeser, an effective means could also be "gun ban zones in certain places", then much stricter controls would be possible.
"More security forces are important, especially in local transport, and more police in certain places." Bavaria's Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann (CSU) recently announced more
security personnel on trains in the
Munich newspaper Merkur .
BKA approval for Faeser
The Federal Criminal Police Office welcomes the initiative.
BKA President Holger Münch recently also spoke out in favor of gun ban zones at train stations or in inner cities.
"This approach of prohibition zones in inner cities or at train stations makes perfect sense," Münch told Die
Welt
.
According to police crime statistics (PKS), so-called knife attacks rose from 7,071 to 8,160.
The numbers have only been recorded since 2020, and: "Due to the lack of valid data in the first year of recording, a PKS evaluation of the phenomenon of 'knife attacks' at federal level was only possible for the 2021 reporting year," as the PKS states.
The comparative figures relate to the Corona period, when public life was less present.
The result: low levels in terms of crime.
The fact that there is now an increase, also for knives, does not seem surprising.
Significantly more crimes by children and young people: Faeser against rule change
Meanwhile, violence at a young age has also increased.
According to the PKS, the number of children and young people up to the age of 14 who are suspected of having committed crimes has risen by 35.5 percent in the past year, and by 48 percent among non-Germans.
The number of young people between the ages of 14 and 17 who are suspected of having committed a crime is currently at a high of 189,149 cases.
(German youth: 136,090, +13.8%; non-German: 53,059, +50.2%).
Here, too, the increase is partly due to the pandemic, but “with the renewed increase in the current reporting year to 93,095 suspected children (+35.5 percent), the level of 2019 is significantly exceeded (2019: 72,890 suspected children; +16.3 percent). ).
It was only in March that a case in Freudenberg, North Rhine-Westphalia, in which a twelve-year-old girl was stabbed to death by two girls of almost the same age, caused bewilderment.
In Germany, a debate about lowering the age of criminal responsibility sparked off.
Under-14s cannot be prosecuted in Germany.
Faeser wants to keep it that way: criminologists and psychologists (...) have recommended leaving the age of criminal responsibility at 14 for good reason," she said.
"For younger people, the youth welfare law applies, which allows measures up to closed accommodation."
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