More hardness for outdoor pool offenders?
Linnemann: “Make us ridiculous if we let these people go”
07/17/2023 11:07 p.m
After frequent reports of violent incidents in outdoor swimming pools, the designated CDU general secretary Linnemann sets a first scent mark: According to his idea, the rule of law must react quickly and harshly. The traffic light accuses him of populism. But the CDU politician holds against “RTL Direct”.
The designated CDU general secretary, Carsten Linnemann, has defended his call for violent criminals in open-air pools to be sentenced quickly against criticism. In the “RTL Direkt” program, Linnemann said: “If the state doesn’t take action, people have the feeling that yes, everyone can do what they want. And that has to end.” According to Linnemann, the perpetrators should know that they will be “judged” after 24 hours. “We make ourselves look ridiculous if we let these people go.”
When asked whether such fast-track procedures worked at all in practice, the CDU politician said: “There is a code of criminal procedure in Germany that provides for it. It just has to be used.” Although there is a lack of judges and public prosecutors in many places, Linnemann admitted. But anyone who misbehaves must know “that the rule of law is taking action”.
In confusing situations in swimming pools, the question of guilt cannot always be clarified quickly, says Linnemann. “But there are enough perpetrators who are being watched by cameras, for example. And when the evidence is clear, action must be taken. And that’s crucial.” When asked about the allegation that his initiative was playing into the hands of the AfD, Linnemann said: “I don’t want a shift to the right at all. I want the rule of law. The law that exists in Germany must be enforced.”
The demand for more speed and severity in violent incidents in outdoor pools, originally formulated by Linnemann in the “Bild am Sonntag”, had brought the CDU politician a lot of criticism. Politicians in the traffic light government accused him of populism. Whether accelerated procedures are applicable cannot be judged according to the political will of a CDU general secretary, but must be decided by a court in individual cases, said the legal policy spokeswoman for the SPD parliamentary group, Sonja Eichwede. “It is not clear why acts of violence in the outdoor pool should be sanctioned differently than domestic violence,” said Helge Limburg, legal policy spokesman for the Greens parliamentary group, the “Tagesspiegel”. The German Association of Judges referred to the lack of staff in the judiciary and described Linnemann’s idea as unworkable.