Monday, October 18, 2021
Outrage over the Rostock appendix
Fans show “inhuman” poster
Hansa Rostock distances itself from the banner that its fans showed last match day – but that is not enough for the police and politicians. They call on the second division soccer team to take rigorous action against their own followers. Even an advertisement is being discussed.
With the raising of a banner in the Ostseestadion, fans of the second division soccer club FC Hansa Rostock caused outrage on Sunday. “What was shown there is simply incomprehensible, disrespectful and inhumane,” said Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania’s Interior Minister Torsten Renz. The banner read “One Less, ACAB!” (All cops are bastards) and, according to CDU politician Renz, referred “disrespectful and derogatory” to the death of a police officer from Hamburg. According to the police union (DPolG) Hamburg, he died during a course in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania after a nightly stress exercise at the age of 24.
“The fact that the death of a young police officer is openly greeted with sneering satisfaction is a level of human contempt that we have never seen in German stadiums,” said Hamburg Interior and Sports Senator Andy Grote. Regardless of the work of the law enforcement authorities, the club’s management is required to take quick and clear measures against those responsible. “Anyone who tramples on all the values of sport and humanity has no place in football stadiums,” said the SPD politician.
Renz also emphasized that distancing and apologizing by the club was no longer enough. “I expect those responsible to take full action to ensure that such degrading banners cannot get into the stadium in the first place.”
The state chairman of the DPolG Hamburg, Thomas Jungfer, condemned “with all severity the disgusting and inhuman hate messages of so-called football fans”. Anyone who uses the tragic death of a young person to act out his hatred of police officers is very violent of decency, respectful coexistence and the understanding of values in society. “We will not allow the memory of a colleague to be dehumanized and dragged into the mud.”
Jungfer called on Hamburg’s interior and sports senator Andy Grote to file a criminal complaint. Hansa Rostock should apologize to the dead policeman’s parents. The union also expects FC St. Pauli, where Hansa Rostock is visiting on Sunday, to send a positive signal to the police. “You could publicly distance yourself from the Rostock campaign by pointing out that something like this will not be tolerated in your stadium,” said Jungfer.