BKA autumn conference
BKA: More politically motivated crime
Participated in the event in Wiesbaden by video for infection protection reasons: Horst Seehofer. Photo: Arne Dedert / dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
The police must become more networked, digital and faster, says BKA boss Münch. There are worrying developments in child pornography and politically motivated crime.
The number of politically motivated crimes continues to rise. This also, but not only, has to do with the heated social atmosphere in the corona pandemic.
If the trend of the past few months continues, the number of registered cases this year should be above the level of the previous year, says the President of the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), Holger Münch, on Wednesday at the beginning of the BKA autumn conference in Wiesbaden. The corona pandemic obviously offers extremist ideologies “further breeding ground”.
The number of politically motivated crimes rose by 8.5 percent to 44,692 offenses in 2020. This means that politically motivated crime has reached its highest level since the statistics were introduced in 2001. More than half of the offenses recorded were right-wing motivated. The motto of the BKA autumn conference this time is “Stability instead of division: What supports and endures internal security”.
Terrorist acts hit “right in the heart”
Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said the murder of Kassel’s regional president Walter Lübcke, the attack on the synagogue in Halle and the attack in Hanau were right-wing extremist acts of terror that hit Germany “right in the heart”. He is also concerned about the increasing radicalization among lateral thinkers and corona deniers. Steinmeier warns: “Belief in conspiracies, often paired with sheer anti-Semitism, prepares the ground for attacks on the media, vaccinators and scientists, for a climate of division and agitation”.
Daniel Dettling, the founder of the Berlin Institute for Future Policy, who was invited by the BKA as a speaker on the “Future of Social Cohesion”, identified two problem groups: There are the “Frusties”, men between the ages of 35 and 50 who “made the transition to Unable to cope successfully with adult life ». And the “Silver Zombies”, a subgroup of people over 70 who cannot cope with their role in old age, they watch “disapprovingly their own and social decline”.
Seehofer’s last appearance
For Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU), who is connected to the video from Berlin because of the corona pandemic, his speech at the conference is the last planned public appearance in Germany. He gives his successor at the head of the ministry two tasks: The new federal government must deal intensively with the phenomenon of the politically motivated assassin with psychological stress, which has recently been observed several times. Much still needs to be done in combating the production and dissemination of depictions of sexual acts on children.
Especially in the case of knife attacks in recent years, it has been observed several times “that the perpetrators are individual and that they are people who are mentally ill and who have been declared incapable of guilt,” says Seehofer. This phenomenon of individual perpetrator radicalization and the moments of mental illness must be devoted more intensively – also with a view to a better exchange between security and health authorities.
Is an Islamist motive possible?
On November 6, a refugee from Syria suddenly attacked fellow passengers with a knife on a train and injured four men, some seriously. The attacker, who was attested to have delusional ideas in an initial report, is housed in a psychiatric clinic. After evaluating the man’s data carriers, however, the investigators also consider an Islamist motive to be possible.
On June 25, a man killed three people with a knife in Würzburg. Experts consider the Somali to be incompetent. The investigators have so far not found any evidence of an Islamist motive. In the 2020 report on the protection of the constitution, two acts of terrorism were mentioned in which an Islamist attitude is suspected as the motive for the crime and psychological abnormalities were found.
The police must become more networked, willing to change, more digital and faster, says BKA boss Münch. His authority wants to prevent duplication of work and “blind spots” in future in cooperation with the federal states. In order for this to work, different software solutions have to be put to an end. The old motto “everyone does his own thing” has had its day.