Wednesday, December 15, 2021
“Not on the screen”
Reul: The police have been caught off guard by protests
Spontaneous meetings, unannounced events: According to NRW Interior Minister Reul, the protests against the corona measures are currently difficult for the police to grasp. He wants to counter the increasing radicalization with a “concept of zero tolerance”.
According to North Rhine-Westphalia’s Interior Minister Herbert Reul, it is becoming increasingly difficult to correctly assess the size of demonstrations against corona measures in advance. In the past few days, the police had been surprised several times by the high number of demonstrators. “We suddenly had 27 or 28 such registered and unannounced events on Monday evening that we didn’t even have on our screen. They got bigger and bigger,” said Reul on Deutschlandfunk.
In the past, the police could always say exactly the size of a rally. “It has become much more difficult in the last few weeks,” said Reul. “There used to be calls for demonstrations, then people registered, and you had a feeling for it, more than a feeling, how many people were coming. Today there are calls and nobody registers anymore, they just come. Or it happens spontaneously. ”
The radicalization of the corona protests is worrying. “These groups are increasingly being infiltrated and abused,” said the minister. You have to take that very seriously. If rules were violated, the security forces would have to intervene. Reul did not want to say anything about the question of whether the police in Thuringia, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt or Baden-Württemberg should not have taken more rigorous and consistent measures.
He does not know the local situation and does not want to interfere in the affairs of other federal states. “We have been opting for a zero tolerance concept for some time here in North Rhine-Westphalia and have said that we have to draw the line relatively early, just so that it doesn’t escalate any further.” The protests against the corona measures have been increasing for weeks. Right-wing groups and citizens of the Reich also participate.
“Scene shows an open willingness to use violence”
The federal chairman of the German police union, Rainer Wendt, warns of the increasing radicalization of the corona protests. “The scene is not only becoming politically radical, it is also showing an open willingness to use violence,” said Wendt of the “Passauer Neue Presse”. The development now extends “deep into society”. In general, the rejection of the state and its institutions has increased.
The protests of the so-called lateral thinkers, corona critics and vaccination skeptics were characterized by a new clientele. The demonstrations were also attended by people “who have not yet been significantly involved in the demonstration,” said Wendt. In the last “years and decades” the opposition to the state and its institutions has also increased overall.
On the part of the police, a differentiated demeanor is required in the corona protests. “There are people who you simply cannot reach, with whom you cannot discuss either – they are simply openly violent and do not adhere to police instructions,” said the head of the police union. Other demonstrators, however, behaved cooperatively.