Commemoration in Mannheim after knife attack

A minute’s silence is being observed today to commemorate the police officer killed in Mannheim. The knife attack is also a topic of discussion politically: Will harsher punishments be imposed? Will deportations to Afghanistan be possible? There are still question marks.

In Mannheim, the victims of last Friday’s knife attack are being remembered today. Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier will also be there when a minute’s silence is held at 11:34 a.m. on Mannheim’s market square to mark the death of police officer Rouven Laur. He will lay a bouquet of flowers at the crime scene.

In the evening, the AfD wants to protest in Mannheim – against Islamism, among other things. It is not yet clear whether the rally can take place on the market square, as the AfD wants. The city has declared it a memorial site and wants the protest to take place on the nearby Paradeplatz. There will be counter-demonstrations at the same time.

Tougher penalties for attacks on police officers

Since the attack by a 25-year-old Afghan on members of the anti-Islam movement Pax Europa, in which police officer Laur died, the consequences have been discussed. Federal Justice Minister Marco Buschmann has now announced that he wants to tighten criminal law, particularly in the case of attacks on police officers and volunteers. He did not specify how exactly. “We want to improve the protection of those who are particularly committed to our society and other people,” the FDP politician told the Rheinische Post.

It was discussed with Chancellor Olaf Scholz that “we will initiate a corresponding adjustment.” It would be conceivable to increase the maximum applicable prison sentence in individual paragraphs – for example, when it comes to resistance against prison officers.

criticism of Deportation plans to Afghanistan

In addition to harsher punishments, deportations to Afghanistan will also be possible. This was announced by Scholz. “Such criminals should be deported – even if they come from Syria and Afghanistan,” said the SPD politician in the Bundestag. “Serious criminals and terrorist threats have no place here.”

The Greens, among others, are critical of the deportations to Afghanistan: “The Taliban have established an inhumane regime in Afghanistan since 2021, under which women and children in particular suffer,” said the Federal Government’s Human Rights Commissioner, Luise Amtsberg (Greens), to the taz. “Every expulsion and every deportation to Afghanistan requires cooperation with this Islamist terror regime and thus, in a sense, recognition of the Taliban. In my view, that would be a big mistake.”

The Green Party’s parliamentary group leader, Britta Haßelmann, also expressed skepticism in the Bundestag. She asked herself which third country would be attractive to take in terrorists and serious criminals. Instead of waiting for the deportations to be examined, action must be taken now. Haßelmann called, among other things, for the security authorities to be strengthened and for gun laws to be tightened.

The migrant aid organization Pro Asyl also rejects the move. “International law clearly prohibits any deportations to Afghanistan and Syria,” said Pro Asyl managing director Karl Kopp. “The incident in Mannheim shocked us all, but the federal government must not undermine international law, but must rely on the means of the German constitutional state,” he said in the Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper.

Police officers increasingly angry

Since the death of police officer Laur in Mannheim, there has been a great deal of sympathy. This is what the regional chairman of the German Police Union, Ralf Kusterer, reports. However, around a week after the attack, the grief is mixed with anger. “People are of course disappointed,” he said of the mood among police officers. “The frustration with politicians is huge.”

After acts like these, there are extensive political discussions and demands, but ultimately nothing changes. For example, there needs to be concrete discussions about further training for police officers, equipment for protection and for treating wounds after attacks.