German police union calls for action after new year’s celebration

• The attacks have also reignited a debate in Germany regarding fireworks.
• Police in the capital recorded dozens of attacks.
• Out of 103 suspects released from detention, 98 were male.

The largest police union in Germany called for coordinated action on Tuesday to stop a repeat of the violent excesses that occurred during the New Year’s celebrations in Berlin and other cities, during which police officers, firefighters, and medical professionals were attacked with pyrotechnics.

Numerous attacks were reported by police in the capital, and they estimated that 41 officers were hurt. German authorities strongly condemned online videos showing people hurling firecrackers and rockets at police cars and emergency vehicles.

Jochen Kopelke, the chairman of the GdP union, stated that there has to be a “urgent discourse” on the reasons behind and effects of these assaults, emphasising that they “must not be repeated at the next turn of the year.”

According to Kopelke, it’s critical to talk about the specifics of what happened rather than making generalisations about specific societal groupings.

Some attacks occurred in parts of Berlin with sizable immigrant populations, according to some conservative and far-right lawmakers.

To address the issue of violence against police officers and firefighters, a lawmaker from the center-right Christian Democrats named Christoph de Vries remarked on Twitter that it was important to “discuss about the role of persons (with the) phenotype: West Asiatic, darker skin type.”

Racist claims were made in response to his remarks, but De Vries claimed he was merely “ironically” alluding to Berlin police’s recent instructions on how to describe suspects’ ethnicities, and that this should not detract from “the necessary discussion about migration policy and glaring integration deficits.”

The only information provided by Berlin police thus far is that 98 of the 103 suspects who were let go were men.

Reem Alabali-Radovan, the senior integration officer for the German government, denounced the attacks on New Year’s and demanded that those involved be immediately punished “with the full power of our laws.”

She also demanded that the perpetrators be judged “according to their conduct, not according to their imagined origins, as some are doing now,” noting that doing so could exacerbate social divisions rather than address the underlying social roots of the issue.

The usage of pyrotechnics around New Year’s has also sparked a controversy in Germany once more in the wake of the assaults. During the pandemic, the government outlawed their sale in an effort to relieve the strain on hospitals and reduce the number of huge public gatherings, which put an end to the custom.

According to experts, the lack of such a prohibition may have contributed to this year’s high levels of violence and numerous fireworks-related injuries, including at least one fatality.

Stephan Weh, regional president of the GdP union in Berlin, said the attacks in the city had demonstrated how pyrotechnics can be used “as weapons against people” and that it may be time to seek a national ban.

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