Thomas Hampel had just been six months in the office of Munich police chief when he experienced the first major crisis: 19 police officers were injured in one fell swoop. An operation in the English Garden escalated when officials came to a fight that had developed as a result of sexual harassment. Apparently believing that young people were protesting against corona measures, several dozen young people staying nearby mobilized.
They verbally abused the officers and threw bottles at them; Bruises and cuts were the result. The horror of politicians and the police was great. Bavaria’s Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann (CSU) promised: “The violent criminals will have to face the consequences.” Hampel also found it important at the time “that these events end with criminal consequences. That’s a signal that the perpetrators understand. And it helps the officials to process what they’ve experienced.”
May 8th, that is Sunday, marks the anniversary of the high-profile attack on the police officers in the English Garden, but so far no one has had to bear the consequences. No perpetrator has yet been convicted, no proceedings have been initiated, and not even a file number has been created. What if the police have not yet forwarded any files to the public prosecutor’s office, as their spokeswoman Anne Leiding confirmed on request?
Of course, that doesn’t mean that the public prosecutor’s office isn’t informed about the current state of affairs, Leiding added immediately. The department head responsible agreed early on with Commissariat 23, which is responsible for violent crimes typical of young people, not to hand over the investigation results individually, but rather in bundles as an overall complex. This is quite common if there are no grounds for detention that require an interim report. Which means that a process then officially ends up with the public prosecutor’s office.
In the matter of the English Garden, the investigation is nearing completion, assures Andreas Franken, spokesman for the Munich police headquarters. The duration of the investigation always depends on how complex a case is, he explains, “and this one is clearly very complex”.
There are 48 suspects, but only 13 have already been identified
In the course of their work, the detectives watched a total of 52 videos with a total running time of around ten hours. More than 100 people could be identified on it, says Franken: 48 are now accused of involvement in the crime, but only 13 have already been identified. Also with the help of super-recognizers – officers with the ability to remember faces particularly well. Commissariat 23 currently believes that it can prove at least 31 cases of dangerous bodily harm with physical attacks on law enforcement officers, as well as 13 insults.
In addition, there are eight allegations of minor and 20 allegations of serious breaches of the peace. This is the case with acts of violence committed in a crowd; serious cases are when a perpetrator also “carries a weapon or other dangerous tool” and puts other people “in danger of death or serious damage to health”, as stated in Section 125a of the Criminal Code.
External criticism that the investigations by the Munich police are taking too long is not known. Chief Prosecutor Leiding points out that despite large crowds, it is often difficult to find witnesses who testified that a fellow man or woman had thrown something. It’s similar at the Oktoberfest, when beer mugs fly under the protection of the crowd.
Peter Pytlik, the Bavarian state chairman of the police union (GdP), is similarly cautious. From the point of view of police officers, it is understandable “that as a victim of a crime, you expect a quick clarification of the crime and also want a timely criminal prosecution”. On the other hand, the investigations would “of course have to be conducted carefully, which can take time, especially in the case of complex events.” In any case, the top priority is “to clarify every act conclusively”.
Incidentally, the investigations so far have not been so fruitless, says police spokesman Franken: Because the officers of Commissariat 23 are not just busy with one case, they came across a few acquaintances from the English Garden in another. They had also stirred up a party in Pullach in July; The investigators recognized her on the videos that had been seized. The investigators have already combined the findings from both cases and sent them to the public prosecutor. In this case, proceedings for dangerous bodily harm, damage to property and robbery are already underway. After all.