Comedian Böhmermann and his team report hate messages to police stations in all federal states for the “ZDF Magazin Royale”. The result is sobering: the ad is often not recorded or only hesitantly processed. This could have consequences for the police officers involved.
A Böhmermann experiment with the police forces of 16 countries has consequences for officials in some authorities. In Bremen, the public prosecutor’s office is investigating a police officer on suspicion of frustration. The background is an action of the program “ZDF Magazin Royale” by the satirist Jan Böhmermann, as a spokesman for the public prosecutor said. Internal investigations were also launched in Saxony-Anhalt. Since “the concrete allegations became known in the last week”, investigations have been carried out against an officer at the police station on suspicion of thwarting criminal prosecution, the Magdeburg Police Inspectorate announced.
On Friday evening, the episode of “ZDF Magazin Royale” with the campaign was put online and also broadcast on TV. Last summer, the editors behind moderator Böhmermann reported seven obviously criminally relevant hate messages to police departments in all 16 federal states and later described the mostly sluggish course of the investigation. Death threats were displayed, as were anti-Semitic content and anti-constitutional, right-wing extremist symbols.
In some federal states, the ads were not even accepted. In Bremen, the police officer is said to have recorded the complaint, but only recorded it in the system two months later when the complainants asked. Now it must be checked why the matter was processed late, said the spokesman for the public prosecutor in Bremen. The police officer concerned was transferred to the office, as the Bremen police had already announced on Tuesday. At this time, the Böhmermann research was not yet public knowledge.
In Saxony-Anhalt, a statement from the Magdeburg police said: “According to current knowledge, no criminal complaint was received here at the time.” The matter is being investigated thoroughly and comprehensively. The investigation into the specific case continued, it said.
There were also reactions to the research from other countries – for example, there was praise for the police in Hesse on the show. “Everything was done in eleven minutes. (…) It can be that easy,” summed up the police testers from “ZDF Magazin Royale”. At least one suspect has been charged there. The Hessian police saw themselves confirmed. “Ever since the murder of District President Walter Lübcke, we have been taking the fight against hate and hate speech very seriously, including on the Internet,” said a spokesman for the Hessian Ministry of the Interior.
