Status: 02/17/2023 2:42 p.m
In front of a discotheque in Trier, police officers were attacked by 40 people during the night – including with iron bars. The attack sparked outrage across the country. Prime Minister Dreyer spoke of an “incomprehensible outbreak of violence”.
The attack on police officers in Trier has been sharply condemned by politicians at federal and state level. “Getting together and attacking emergency services with iron bars and bottles shows nothing but brute force, which must be pursued and punished with all severity,” said Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser. The SPD politician thanked the officials who stepped in to protect their colleagues.
The entire federal government condemns this outbreak of violence in the strongest possible terms, said deputy government spokesman Wolfgang Büchner. The incident shows that it was good that criminal law relating to violence against emergency services was tightened, most recently in 2017. The law must now be enforced with all consistency.
The Prime Minister of Rhineland-Palatinate, Malu Dreyer, spoke of an “incomprehensible outbreak of violence” that would have serious consequences for the perpetrators. “Anyone who attacks the police attacks each of us and he attacks our state,” said the SPD politician. The state government is on the side of the “police family” and will not rest until the crime has been cleared up, said Dreyer, who lives in Trier herself.
“Life-threatening situation” for the emergency services
According to the police, officials were called to a nightclub in Trier-West on Friday night because of physical injury. The officials then brought the opponents to the door to investigate. Almost at the same time, guests from the discotheque and others from outside got together “and suddenly took an anti-position” against the police officers, said the spokesman for the Trier police, Uwe Konz. The group was “very massive” with bottles, wooden sticks and a shopping cart attacked the officers, according to Konz. Earlier statements by the police also mentioned iron bars.
“A life-threatening situation” had arisen for the numerically inferior forces, whereupon an officer fired two warning shots in the air. Only then did the situation calm down. One officer and four officers were injured and had to be treated in hospitals. Two suspects – a 42-year-old and a 21-year-old – were taken into custody. Other suspected attackers are at large.
Disco operator: “We do not tolerate violence in any form”
Trier police director Christian Hamm said: “A group of violent criminals has banded together to attack and injure the police simply because of their presence.” The chairman of the interior committee in the state parliament, the CDU politician Dirk Herber, spoke of an “inhuman brutalization and a decline in values that must have driven the attacking mob”.
The mayor of Trier, Elvira Garbes, says she is “really shocked and also angry” about the attack. Police officers work around the clock, including on weekends and public holidays, for everyone’s safety and would then be “attacked completely pointlessly with brute force,” said the Green politician.
The operators of the disco also showed up in a post on Instagram and at the request of the SWR shocked. It is an unacceptable act of violence against police officers who are on duty day and night for everyone: “We do not tolerate violence in any form and will do everything possible to help with the investigation.”
According to statistics, no significant increase
Police officers as well as emergency services from the fire brigade and rescue services have been complaining about an increase in violence for a long time. Recently, targeted attacks on the police and fire brigade on New Year’s Eve have made headlines – including in Berlin. “Group-related violence is not an isolated phenomenon,” said the deputy head of the police union (GdP) in Rhineland-Palatinate, Stefanie Loth. “We last experienced it on New Year’s Eve, we often see it at football games and we will have to experience it again at other celebrations.”
Loud Police crime statistics However, there has been no significant increase in attacks on police, fire brigade or rescue services in recent years. In Rhineland-Palatinate, for example, 1,553 violent crimes against police officers were recorded in the statistics in 2021 – slightly fewer than in 2020 and about the same as in 2017 or 2019. Official figures for 2022 are not yet available.