A child! Injured by the police! With pepper spray! The parents just wanted to defend their basic rights! Here everything comes together that appeals to the most varied of reflexes. Pure outrage against the state. Those people who stir up the mood against corona measures on relevant social platforms couldn’t imagine it more beautifully.
What happened? A demonstration in Schweinfurt, Bavaria, got out of hand. Hundreds of demonstrators first gathered peacefully on Sunday, then came what has often happened nationwide in recent months: so-called walks become violent marching columns. People who previously agreed on their strategy via Telegram break police chains and injure officials with fists and kicks. They don’t care at all if children have to watch these scenes. On the contrary, they use them perfidiously as protective shields. In Schweinfurt, a mother wanted to break through a barrier on her hand: a four-year-old child who got caught in a cloud of pepper spray. Police rinsed his eyes out, thank God everything went well.
So there are no medical consequences, but what about the hearts and minds of children who are dragged along by their legal guardians on lateral thinker demos? What image of the police, of the state is conveyed there? Word has got around that protests against corona measures are being used in a targeted manner. That parents in turn instrumentalize their children is extremely irresponsible. It is part of the calculation of many organizers of registered demos to call on families with as many children as possible. For the police this is a difficult task. How are they supposed to defend themselves when they are spat at and attacked? If the aggressors have children by the hand, the baton is more likely to stay in the belt.
These parents violate the basic right to protection from violence
Parents who take their children with them to protests, in which neither minimum distances are observed nor masks are worn, deliberately expose them to contagion. You risk that the children will be injured in scuffles and that they will be harmed not only psychologically but also physically. This violates the basic right to protection from violence. And there are adult protesters seriously grumbling that their basic rights are being taken away from them personally?
Parents have a protective function towards their children. You must not misuse them for political purposes. Of course, the youngest members of society should learn and see how democracy works on the street too. But it is different whether as a family you ride in a bicycle parade during the protests against the International Motor Show in Munich, or whether you deliberately attack police officers.
At a demo in Cuxhaven, the child protection association observed how a toddler was dragged by a man into a scuffle between the participants and the police. This is a consciously entered child welfare risk. Parents should realize that they face criminal proceedings, at least for negligent bodily harm, should something happen to their children.
In the Schweinfurt case, a complaint was filed against the mother and the youth welfare office was informed by the police. Judgments should be passed against other arrested participants on Monday, one day after the demonstration. The so-called accelerated procedures at the district court are to be welcomed. Because danger is imminent – especially for the defenseless children of demonstrators who have lost all yardstick.