Mönchengladbach (dpa / lnw) – More than two and a half years after a scuffle with two police officers, a 33-year-old has won compensation for pain and suffering in court. The Mönchengladbach district court called the police operation disproportionate in its judgment on Tuesday and awarded the plaintiff a sum of 500 euros. The Mönchengladbacher had demanded at least 1,000 euros in compensation for what he considered to be an excessively tough effort.
The man had crossed a street in the center of Mönchengladbach with his girlfriend late in the evening in July 2021 when, according to the complaint, he was slightly touched by a police car coming from the right and was thus provoked without reason. In the argument that followed, the police officers, among other things, knocked him down, tied his hands and used pepper spray, he said.
The police officers, on the other hand, had testified that the slightly intoxicated plaintiff had blocked the road and put up considerable resistance. But the operation was recorded by a club’s surveillance camera – that was enough for the judge to give a clear verdict: “The pictures clearly show that the officials caused the situation to escalate through unnecessary harshness,” he said. The decision is not yet final.
