Germany Banning Fun Because of Threat of Gang Violence

Berlin police expect that they won’t be able to cope with the level of disorder and violence likely to occur on New Year’s Eve, so they are resorting to bans on private fireworks and so-called ‘protection zones’ instead.

And Berlin citizens agree that the authorities won’t be able to protect them against thuggish gangs, so widely support these limitations.

Young men were allowed to wreak havoc during last year’s celebrations, setting buildings ablaze and attacking emergency services. As we reported at the time, the establishment failed to name the perpetrators, but the AfD stressed that the “civil war-like conditions” were a result of mainstream “migration policy.”

Officials continue to be unspecific this year, saying simply that—in the words of German Police Union boss Jochen Kopelke—“blank-firing weapons, gang violence [and] planned ambushes” are “what we can expect.”

Kopelke also told German daily Rheinische Post that police authorities “are desperate because there aren’t enough officers available.” He has demanded that “repeat offenders from recent years” should be banned from entering certain areas of the city, among other measures.

Officials also say that “kiosks and shisha bars” should be “consistently inspected” ahead of the celebrations to prevent the illegal sale of blank-firing weapons.

Many Christmas markets are likewise being cancelled across the country this year due to security concerns—specifically, the threat of terror.

A Saudi psychiatrist and refugee, Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, drove his car into crowds in Magdeburg during the city’s Christmas festivities last year, killing six people. As europeanconservative.com columnist Lauren Smith highlighted earlier this month, “there are fears that such an attack could be repeated and that the proper protections would not be in place.”