The situation in front of a Trier club gets completely out of control that night: drunken disco visitors attack and injure police officers. The horror the day after is great. The police union GDP describes that such excesses have unfortunately become part of everyday life for officers.
Federal and Rhineland-Palatinate state politicians reacted with dismay to the attacks by disco visitors on police officers in Trier. “Getting together and attacking emergency services with iron bars and bottles shows nothing but brute force, which must be pursued and punished with all severity,” said Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser. The SPD politician thanked the officials who stepped in to protect their colleagues.
The entire federal government condemns this outbreak of violence in the strongest possible terms, said deputy government spokesman Wolfgang Büchner in Berlin. The incident shows that it was good that criminal law relating to violence against emergency services was tightened, most recently in 2017. The law must now be enforced with all consistency.
Prime Minister Malu Dreyer condemned the “incomprehensible outbreak of violence”, which would have serious consequences for the perpetrators. “Whoever attacks the police attacks every one of us and they attack our state,” she said. The state government is on the side of the “police family” and will not rest until the crime has been cleared up, said Dreyer, who lives in Trier herself.
Interior Minister Michael Ebling, like Dreyer from the SPD, announced that the police in Trier had set up a so-called special organizational structure for the further investigation of the attack and are investigating with strong forces. “The perpetrators should feel the full force of the law,” he said.
The police union, GDP for short, in Rhineland-Palatinate expressed shock at the high level of violence. “Group-related violence is not an isolated phenomenon, we last experienced it on New Year’s Eve, we often see it at football games and we will have to experience it again at other celebrations,” said Deputy GDP Country Manager Stefanie Loth. The atmosphere in society is “getting worse and worse”. The police and judiciary need more staff to work quickly and consistently.
After a dispute in a disco in Trier, around 40 people attacked a group of police officers on Friday night. According to more recent reports from the police, a maximum of seven officers faced the attackers. “The colleagues there really feared for their lives,” said Trier police spokesman Uwe Konz.
After a routine operation in a Trier discotheque, the group banded together in front of the door and attacked the officers “very massively” with bottles, wooden sticks and a shopping trolley. “This escalation was new to us,” said Konz. Contrary to initial reports from the police, iron bars were not used.
The police were called to the club shortly after midnight because of an assault. The officials then brought the opponents to the door to investigate. Almost at the same time, guests from the disco and others from outside got together “and suddenly took an anti-position” against the police officers. When the officers arrested two people after an initial attack, this was the trigger for the group to attack the police officers.
Regarding possible reasons, Konz said: “Certainly the topic of alcohol is one. Then it may even be a fundamental distance to state institutions, to the police in concrete terms.” This form of attack was new to the officers: “Then we were not familiar with this kind of massive violence against police officers, throwing glass, hitting them with sticks and fists.”
Five colleagues were injured – three by the aggressors and two more when the police used pepper spray. They were discharged from the hospital after treatment. In addition to the police officers, two or three other people were injured by pepper spray, said Konz. There may be other injured people who should report.
The approximately 40 attackers still have to be determined. They fled after two warning shots fired in the air by an officer on site. Both arrested men, aged 42 and 21, were from Trier, said Konz. The police are now investigating on suspicion of physical harm, resistance to law enforcement officials, serious breaches of the peace and attempted freeing of prisoners.
