Before the traditional May Day demonstration in Berlin, tension is always high. This time everything is “surprisingly peaceful”. But a video about aggressive police officers is a topic of conversation.
After a non-violent May Day demonstration in Berlin, there are debates about the aggressive behavior of police officers towards people celebrating in Kreuzberg. A ten-second video sequence shows how police officers from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania want to drive people off Oranienstrasse late in the evening in order to clear the road for traffic again. Without any further reason, they spray pepper spray on people peacefully standing on the side of the road, brutally push a drunk man on the ground, push other people away.
On several occasions, the police unit aggressively walked up and down the street with batons and pepper spray bottles in their hands. Police sprayed people and pushed them off the street, the police chief kept shouting, “Get off the street, get off the street.” It was only through this appearance that the mood, which had previously been relaxed, was heated up again. There were chants against the police, and later people threw a bottle or two in the direction of the police.
The police will comment later
The police union (GdP) defended the mission: “But being able to get an idea of it now is presumptuous, because nobody sees what happened before and in which context the colleagues decided on the measures.” The Berlin police later wanted to comment.
Overall, the police on Tuesday stuck to their conclusion that the demonstration, which used to be often violent, was “surprisingly peaceful”. There were no outbreaks of violence at the demonstration with around 12,000 participants and afterwards.
During the night, the police had reported nine arrests. The GdP spoke of 70 arrests and 9 injured police officers. The new Governing Mayor Kai Wegner (CDU), Interior Senator Iris Spranger (SPD) and Police President Barbara Slowik wanted to present the final figures in a press conference after the Senate meeting.
The mission should also be a topic in the new Berlin Senate today. The new Governing Mayor Kai Wegner (CDU) and Interior Senator Iris Spranger (SPD) want to present an evaluation at the Senate press conference.
Source: Stern
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