After the violent New Year's Eve attacks, the leadership of the police and fire department expects effective help from politics, such as video documentation of the deployments and a ban on firecrackers. An unprecedented wave of violence was directed at the police and emergency responders. Firefighters and ambulances had to respond to 1,700 cases in Berlin alone.

The New Year's Eve attacks, the victims of which were firefighters and police officers, must have consequences, the German Firefighters' Union . The vehicles must be equipped with an on-board camera, a so-called "dashcam", which would be located behind the windshield. The Berlin-Brandenburg regional group of the trade union believes that the crimes committed against emergency workers could be better documented with their help. The union also mentioned the importance of body cameras, which are currently being tested. According to an earlier promise by Berlin's Interior Senate, Berlin's police and firefighters will receive 300 body cameras. They can be used to document attacks and other cases. "It's amazing what our colleagues went through this New Year's Eve." - said Lars Wieg .

After two New Year's Eves without firecrackers due to the coronavirus closures, there have been many serious accidents and crimes across Germany, including firecracker attacks against firefighters and police officers. A pyrotechnic device exploded in the hands of a 17-year-old from Leipzig and suffered such serious injuries that he died in the hospital. A man's hand was severed and he was blinded in one eye when a device exploded in his hand. The biggest incidents were typically in districts inhabited by migrants, but the German press only writes about young people partying, or at best, rowdy people. On the other hand, the footage of the news stations clearly shows which group the perpetrators belonged to. While extinguishing the basement of a seven-story house, the fire truck almost caught fire from the firecrackers and rockets were fired at the 20 firefighters working on the extinguishing.

The Berlin police reported the worst attacks against patrol officers and emergency responders. There were a total of 33 injured in the ranks of the fire department and the police. Firefighters were shocked by the level of violence and the number of attacks. They threw beer crates and fire extinguishers at the police and firemen, fired rockets and firecrackers at the employees and looted ambulances. Several people were seriously injured by pyrotechnic devices. Someone smashed a powder fire extinguisher into the windshield of one of the night bus services with full force. Fortunately, no one was injured here, only the material damage is significant.

In response to the attacks, the Berlin police union is demanding a ban on firecrackers. "These people must be prevented from committing such acts again." The firefighter's union has a similar opinion: "This problem must be solved by next New Year's Eve." The president of the German Firefighters Association, Karl-Heinz Banse, told dpa

"We don't need tougher laws, we just want these laws to be applied. It is not acceptable that my colleagues are nearly trampled to death, assaulted and the court downplays these crimes."

The conservative Christian Social and Christian Democratic Union and the Liberals do not agree with a complete ban on pyrotechnic devices. "The behavior of criminals cannot lead to the fact that our peaceful citizens cannot use such devices either."  CDU politician Thorsten Frei told Rheinischen Post . "Municipalities can already designate firecracker-free zones and impose curfews, and that's fine." Christine Aschenberg-Dugnus , the leader of the parliamentary faction FDP expressed a similar opinion to the reporter of the daily newspaper. the Social Democratic Party's (SPD) internal affairs committee, Lars Castellucci the Bild-Zeitung that his party condemns all forms of violence and that the rule of law must act harshly. his party colleague Dirk Wiese, firecrackers should only be banned in certain districts.

Source: 888.hu

Author: Georg Spöttle

Image: Origo/DPA