Riots against refugees in Clausnitz

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There were riots against refugees in Clausnitz in Saxony on February 18, 2016, when a bus carrying refugees for the first occupancy of the local refugee accommodation was blocked by around a hundred demonstrators who chanted “ We are the people !” And xenophobic slogans. Videos of the loud protests, which were directed directly against the sometimes crying bus occupants, were distributed over the Internet and ensured international coverage. The actions of the police - who took individual refugees out of the bus with physical force, but could not effectively contain the cheering mob blocking the bus - received a critical media and political reception, but was received by employers such as the responsible Chemnitz police chief Uwe Reissmann designated as appropriate.

The role of the director of the home as a member of the right-wing populist AfD , who as such had repeatedly campaigned against refugee policy in Germany and whose brother said he had organized the protests, was the subject of extensive media coverage.

In the context of the refugee crisis, the events are the cause of a broad political and social discussion about violence against refugees in Germany and especially in Saxony . Together with arson attacks against refugee shelters in Saxony, which were also cheered by the mob, they led to a debate in the Bundestag.

course

In the run-up to the planned first occupancy, there had been "expressions of displeasure" in this regard at residents' assemblies. The responsible police department in Chemnitz was informed by the Central Saxony District Office the day before when the refugees moved in on February 18, 2016. The police later stated that they had no knowledge of planned protests to hinder the arrival of refugees. It was therefore assumed that the occupancy was “trouble-free”.

On the evening of February 18, 2016, a bus with 15 (according to police 20) Iranian, Syrian and Lebanese asylum seekers from Dresden and Chemnitz reached the refugee accommodation. At 7:20 p.m., a patrol car with two police officers arrived in front of the accommodation to secure the area. At this time, 30 to 40 people demonstrated in the entrance area of ​​the property. A tractor, a car and a truck blocked the entrance. From 7:54 p.m., support from the Zwickau police department and the federal police arrived, and the mayor and the Freiberg district office were informed. The police sent the demonstrators away, but they did not comply. When the police threatened to evacuate the demonstration and tow the blocking vehicles, protesters removed the cars and the bus was piloted by the police in front of the property's entrance area. At the same time, the demonstrators pushed towards the entrance area. The 23 police officers present at the time could not stop them. The now around one hundred demonstrators stood directly in front of and around the bus, where they chanted "We are the people" and xenophobic slogans to the occupants.

With the help of a translator present, attempts were made to get the refugees to leave the bus. When a boy showed the demonstrators his finger on the bus , he was forcibly removed from the bus by a police officer and brought to his accommodation, with the demonstrators applauding him. After consultation with the District Office, the other asylum seekers were forced to move to the accommodation at 9:20 p.m., whereby physical restraint was applied to another boy and a woman. The "simple direct coercion " against the three bus occupants was later justified by the fact that they had provoked the crowd and thus exacerbated the situation. In the course of the operations, up to 28 police officers, including six federal police officers, were on duty.

When more police officers from Zwickau, who had been requested to provide support, arrived at 10:00 p.m., all asylum seekers were already in the accommodation and several demonstrators had already left the scene. At 10:26 p.m. no more demonstrators were said to have been in front of the home, whereupon the police operation ended at 10:30 p.m. One asylum seeker received medical attention because of health problems.

In the social media is a cell phone video showing off the demonstration out the blocked bus spread, frightened in through the windshield, weeping women and children are seen. Above the front of the bus there is the bus company's slogan "Travel Pleasure" in large LED letters, which has been repeatedly commented on as cynical in the press and social networks. Another video shows how some of the refugees were brought from the bus to the accommodation under direct force after they did not want to leave the bus, presumably out of fear.

The director of the home in Clausnitz, who is a member of the AfD and had already campaigned for a more restrictive asylum policy, was transferred to his protection a few days after the incident.

The brother of the facility manager of the refugee accommodation said he was involved in organizing the protests. However, the mayor had released the information about the arrival of the refugees.

Reactions

The events were reported internationally. Some German media spoke of the "shame of Clausnitz". The approach seen on the video was publicly criticized by, among others, the Saxon Interior Minister Markus Ulbig (CDU), the moderator Jan Böhmermann , the musician Jan Delay and the FDP politician Christian Lindner .

On February 20, the Saxony police gave a press conference at which the responsible Chemnitz police chief Uwe Reissmann gave individual refugees complicity in the incidents. These provoked the demonstrators with insulting gestures. The police wanted to initiate investigative proceedings against these refugees. He also justified the forcible removal from the vehicle of a fourteen-year-old boy from Tripoli who refused to leave the bus surrounded by protesters. The chairman of the German police union, Rainer Wendt, also defended the action of the emergency services. The Bundestag faction of Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen announced that it would address the incident in the upcoming meeting of the Interior Committee, and invited representatives of the Federal Police to the meeting, which Wendt in turn called "parliamentary prudish shit". The leader of the Greens in the Bundestag, Katrin Göring-Eckardt , made the Bavarian Prime Minister Horst Seehofer jointly responsible for his statements in the context of the refugee crisis . On the evening of February 20, 2016, around a hundred demonstrators gathered in Clausnitz for a demonstration against the incidents and a show of solidarity with the refugees. The first parliamentary manager of Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen Britta Haßelmann later stated that her parliamentary group in the Bundestag would apply for a current hour on the events.

Among others, the Bundestag member of the Left Party parliamentary group, Niema Movassat , filed a criminal complaint against a police officer on February 20, who allegedly led the boy from the bus in a stranglehold.

The Saxon Prime Minister Stanislaw Tillich let the Tagesschau inform on Saturday that he would not be able to comment on the incidents due to scheduling reasons. However, after a planned asylum accommodation in Bautzen was damaged by fire on the following Sunday early in the night to the applause of onlookers, he commented on the two incidents and said, referring to the mob: "They are not people who do that" and " They are criminals. It is disgusting and hideous ".

The Pegida activist Tatjana Festerling, on the other hand, in a speech on February 22, 2016, “wholeheartedly behind the Clausnitzer”.

On February 24, 2016, a debate took place in the Bundestag on the events in Clausnitz and Bautzen. Angela Merkel and all the ministers were absent from the debate . Dietmar Bartsch , parliamentary group leader of the Left, described the absence of the most important government politicians as "scandalous". While the parliamentary state secretary in the Federal Ministry of the Interior, Günter Krings (CDU), defended the security forces’s actions, the Green parliamentary group leader Anton Hofreiter described the police’s actions and especially the attempt to blame the refugees for the escalation as “institutional racism”. In the debate, the CDU in Saxony was criticized for being unable to explain the xenophobia.

After the riots, other citizens of Clausnitz welcomed the refugees.

On February 27, 2016, a special meeting of the interior committee of the Saxon state parliament took place on the xenophobic riots in Clausnitz. The parliamentary group of the party Die Linke criticized the absence of Police President Uwe Reissmann at the meeting. Then Saxony's Interior Minister Markus Ulbig (CDU) announced that, contrary to Reissmann's declaration, there would be no investigations against refugees. On the other hand, investigations were started against "four alleged participants in the blockade" of the bus with the refugees, continued Ulbig; In addition, there were "two reports against police officers, including one against [...] Reissmann".

Legal evaluation

The blockade of the bus by some demonstrators with their vehicles was prosecuted as coercion . Large amounts of money were issued against three demonstrators. All those affected appealed to their penal orders. The main hearing was then scheduled for March 21, 2017. One accused accepted her sentence a week before the trial. At the main hearing on March 21, the two other defendants agreed to pay large sums of money to the non-profit Diakonie Freiberg as compensation for their crime. They had noticed that it looked bad for them in court. The district court had previously increased the amount imposed as a fine. The proceedings were then discontinued.

Artistic processing

  • The Syrian-born actor and comedian Firas Alshater shot a sketch about the incidents under the title “Clausnitz & Refugee kid” .
  • The German satirist Jan Böhmermann processed a re-enacted scene of the riots against the bus for the entrance scene in his music video “BE DEUTSCH! [Caution! Germans on the rise!] ”From March 2016

aftermath

In the weeks after the riots, a helper system for the refugees, supported by local volunteers and those who had traveled, was established in Clausnitz, organizing donations in kind and practical support. The amount of donations in kind exceeded the need, so they were made available for those in need in other places. Meanwhile, an eleven-member special police commission is investigating the events on February 18.

Movies

  • The bus, the mob and the village - last exit Clausnitz , NDR documentation

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cornelius Pollmer @cpollmer. (No longer available online.) In: Periscope. Formerly in the original ; accessed on February 21, 2016 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.periscope.tv  
  2. ↑ Bus attack in Clausnitz: A village wonders. In: Spiegel Online. Retrieved February 21, 2016 .
  3. ↑ Sven Eichstädt: "We thought they wanted to kill us or take us apart" . In: Welt Online . February 21, 2016 ( welt.de [accessed February 21, 2016]).
  4. ^ A b c Clausnitz: Police blame refugees for escalation . In: The time . ISSN  0044-2070 ( zeit.de [accessed on February 21, 2016]).
  5. ↑ This is how the network reacts to the shame of Clausnitz (Mopo)
  6. ^ Assaults in Saxony: Attacks against refugees . In: the daily newspaper . ( taz.de [accessed on February 21, 2016]).
  7. ↑ Police defend deployment in front of refugee accommodation , Berliner Zeitung
  8. ↑ Clausnitz home manager will be exchanged at rp-online.de, accessed on February 22, 2016
  9. ^ Antonie Rietzschel: Clausnitz: Home manager demonstrated against "asylum chaos" . In: sueddeutsche.de . ISSN  0174-4917 ( sueddeutsche.de [accessed February 20, 2016]).
  10. ↑ a b c Mr. Hetze and the people of Clausnitz , Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , February 21, 2016
  11. ↑ Clausnitz: AfD man Hetze deposed as head of refugee home at spiegel.de, accessed on February 27, 2016
  12. ↑ Head of the refugee home in Clausnitz deposed for his protection , FAZ, February 22, 2016
  13. ↑ Brother of the facility manager is said to have helped organize protests in Clausnitz , Süddeutsche Zeitung, February 21, 2016
  14. ↑ [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
  15. ^ The shame of Clausnitz , Tagesspiegel
  16. ^ The shame of Clausnitz , Focus
  17. ↑ "Frightening and unbearable" Saxony's Interior Minister Ulbig condemns attacks in Bautzen and Clausnitz sharply , focus.de, February 22, 2016
  18. ↑ Protests against asylum accommodation in Saxony: "Deeply shameful". In: Spiegel Online. Retrieved February 19, 2016 .
  19. ↑ Doreen Reinhard: Clausnitz: Greeting with a clamp grip . In: The time . ISSN  0044-2070 ( zeit.de [accessed February 20, 2016]).
  20. ↑ "Stinky fingers and head-off signs" - Refugees are said to have provoked massively in Clausnitz. In: The Huffington Post. Archived from the original on February 20, 2016 ; Retrieved February 20, 2016 .
  21. ↑ Tillich describes the Clausnitz mob as a "criminal". In: morgenpost.de. Retrieved February 21, 2016 .
  22. ↑ Xenophobes in Bautzen and Clausnitz: Tillich describes Pöbler as a criminal. In: Spiegel Online. Retrieved February 21, 2016 .
  23. ^ Demonstration in Dresden: Pegida speaker Festerling praises failures in Clausnitz. In: tagesspiegel.de. Retrieved February 23, 2016 .
  24. ↑ http://dipbt.bundestag.de/doc/btp/18/18157.pdf
  25. ↑ Bundestag: Pöblers are “not the people” , Frankfurter Rundschau on February 24, 2016, accessed on February 25, 2016
  26. ↑ a b c ( epd ): Incidents in Clausnitz: No investigations against refugees. In: FAZ.net . February 26, 2016, accessed March 1, 2016 .
  27. ↑ Investigations against four blockers from Clausnitz. In: mdr.de . February 26, 2016, archived from the original on February 27, 2016 ; accessed on February 28, 2016 .
  28. ↑ March 20, 2017 - Media information from the Freiberg District Court 3-2017
  29. ^ "Clausnitz & Refugee kid" , Zukar , 3rd episode. Query date: February 26, 2016.
  30. ↑ [6] .
  31. ^ Doreen Reinhard: Clausnitz, afterwards . In: Der Tagesspiegel . March 22, 2016, p. 3 .