They erupted in the night from Saturday to Sunday after a police control against a 17-year-old for a bargain amazing. It then degenerated.
These are acts of vandalism that have been in turmoil over the in Germany. Their magnitude is considered “unprecedented” by the authorities. The political class has condemned the violence and assault of police officers committed this weekend by gangs of young people in Stuttgart.
the violence broke out in the night from Saturday to Sunday after a police control around midnight against a 17-year-old for a bargain amazing. It then degenerated. Up to 500 young people, mostly men, some high on alcohol content, according to the police, then led in small groups to the center of the city to cause chaos for several hours.
often Carrying hoods to avoid being identified, they were then “heavily damaged police cars parked in the street by smashing their windows with blows of iron bars, poles,” said police in a press release. They have “thrown stones and cobbles removed from the highway or construction sites to other vehicles of the forces of order that were circulating”, and attacked members of the security forces.
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twenty police officers slightly injured
On their way, the rioters also broke several shop windows shops, while the shop fronts of stores were looted, including one of the great shopping streets of the city, as shown by a variety of amateur videos circulating on social networks. The public tv channel local SWR has, in particular, spoke of a jewelry store, a fast-food establishment or a shop of mobile phones. In total, nine stores were looted, and 14 damaged.
The calm is not income to 3 hours in the morning, after the arrival of police reinforcements. Up to 280 members of the security forces have been mobilized. The police reported 19 mild injuries in its ranks. “These scenes are incredible, have left me speechless,” said the head of the city police, Frank Thomas Berger. “I had never seen anything like it, in 46 years of career in the police.” In all, 24 people were arrested. The half is of German nationality, the other of foreign origin, including Croatian, Portuguese, afghan, and somali, according to police.
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According to the authorities, the youth wanted to showcase on the social networks and chanted slogans such as “It happens finally something to Stuttgart !” “We have no elements that suggest that the acts were motivated by political or religious reasons”, stressed the head of the regional police, Stefanie Hinz. It contradicted the allegations of the extreme right-wing party Alternative for Germany (AfD), that has quickly put the facts on the account of “migrants and antifa” far-left, according to a tweet from one of its leaders, Alice Weidel.
acts “shameful” for Angela Merkel
Unlike other countries in Europe, or the United States, this type of urban violence is rare in Germany. The shock among the political leaders was all the greater. Angela Merkel has denounced this Monday the acts “despicable” which “must be firmly condemned”, according to the spokesperson of the German chancellor, Steffen Seibert. “Those who participated in such acts of violence, brutally attacked police, destroyed and looted shops, have no valid reason to argue” to justify them, he hammered. They “are risen up against their city, from the citizens with whom they live and against the laws that protect us all,” continued the spokesperson.
The head of State, Frank-Walter Steinmeier has also been expressed, stating that the perpetrators of the violence needed to be ‘prosecuted and punished with all the severity prescribed by law”. “There goes the credibility of our rule of law”, added the Interior minister Horst Seehofer, who visited the site this Monday. “The violence we have known in the night in Stuttgart are on a scale without precedent” in the region, he told the daily Die Welt, promising heavy sanctions.
the president of the Stuttgart region, Winfried Kretschmann, has spoken of “orgies of violence” against the forces of the order. The head of government of the region, Baden-Württemberg, in the South-West of the country, Winfried Kretschmann, has denounced “the eruption of brutal violence” and “criminal acts”.
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These events come at a time when the German police has been strongly criticized recently, in particular within the social democratic party SPD, which is an ally of Angela Merkel to the government. His co-chair Saskia Esken has referred to a “latent racism” in its ranks, in the wake of the debate following the death of the afro-american George Floyd, who was killed by a police officer at the end of may in the United States.
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