NRW interior minister on protests: According to Reul, almost 500 crimes in Lützerath

Before and during the evacuation of the town of Lützerath, the police registered almost 500 criminal offenses. Interior Minister Herbert Reul said this today in the Interior Committee of the state parliament.

The offenses range from damage to property and coercion to bodily harm: In the run-up to the eviction of the Lützerath settlement, the police recorded a total of 30 criminal offences, then 400 during the three-day eviction and another 50 during the subsequent demonstration on Saturday. This was stated by Interior Minister Herbert Reul ( CDU) on Thursday in the interior committee of the state parliament.

In five cases, the police forces deployed are also being investigated, according to Reul. This is about physical harm in office or sexual harassment. “If officials have made mistakes, they will be held accountable,” emphasized Reul. Overall, however, the mission “went well and professionally”.

No critically injured persons

According to the provisional balance sheet of the Ministry of the Interior, more than 100 police officers were injured during the evacuation of the town of Lützerath. Most of the emergency services could have continued to work. According to Reul, the most serious injury to the injured from the group of climate activists was a concussion.

There were a total of 14 transports to hospitals, five of which affected police officers. It was mainly foot, leg, arm and hand injuries as well as lacerations.

According to Reul, 372 people had left the village voluntarily before the eviction “without identifying themselves”. “They weren’t the ones that worried us,” stressed the interior minister. 159 people had to be taken away by the police. Especially at the beginning of the evacuation, the activists threw stones, pyrotechnics, bottles and Molotov cocktails at the emergency services, according to Reul.

Up to 3,700 police officers on duty

According to a report by the Ministry of the Interior, up to 3,700 emergency services were deployed in and around Lützerath at the peak. On Saturday, when, according to the report, “several thousand” demonstrators moved towards Lützerath, 3,300 forces were deployed. Because “partly violence was used against the police forces”, according to the report, there was an “offensive use of the multi-purpose baton”. Water cannons were also used, but only with the “water rain” function. There should not have been any targeted water blasts.

Interior Minister Reul emphasized in the Interior Committee that some of the activists had apparently planned violence from the start. Appropriate requests had already been made in advance, for example with slogans and graffiti such as “kill cops” or “a cobblestone still fits between the cop’s helmet and the bridge of his nose”. During the demo, a police horse was deliberately made shy with blankets until it bolted with the rider and galloped towards the edge of the opencast mine.

Source: wdr.de