Young men throwing bottles at police officers, you get applause from the spectators, while others scream and trash cans to occur: the mere sight of a video from the Frankfurt riot night disturbed. In the case of the rampage at least five officers were injured, nearly 40 people were arrested.

Since the Corona-crisis, the Clubs are closed. Now, the Frankfurt Opera house as the main meeting point for young people. Up to 3,000 people gather there in the evening on the week. The more beautiful the weather is, the more people sit around the Lucae fountain.

"people behaved in the antisocial"

the 23-year-old IT expert Ashraf Soulé held on the last Saturday there, as the two weekends before. "Since it was for Frankfurt conditions, extremely peaceful," he says. Together with four friends you listen to there music and dancing: “Otherwise we would be in the Clubs and had a lot of fun,” he told FOCUS Online.

that night, Soulé and his companion noticed then at 0 o'clock, however, that a large crowd from the Opera supply of space coming to you in the past. Soulé and his friends were curious and went in the direction of the crowd: "There were some really aggressive, threw garbage cans. Others pelted the police with bottles,” recalls the IT technician. "We have put ourselves to the side and observed”. At this time, approximately 800 people, according to the police, yet on and on the Opera course.

production team, saw the police officers formed side by side, and the rioters wanted to push. But the young people had pelted the officers with bottles. And not only that, Soulé describes the senseless destruction of the quantity. Some would have thrown chairs and tables from nearby Restaurants around, others would have destroyed washers and garbage cans overturned. "It was a unique, negative experience. I was outraged that the Situation is so degenerate. It was blatant that the police with shields have to come here and that people pelt them with bottles. The people were really anti-social.“ He almost had a bottle hit. He suspects that uninvolved people were injured by the rioters.

• read all the other findings on the rampage in Frankfurt in the News-Ticker at FOCUS Online

people

egged On by the Videos of the incidents, hundreds of people are seen. However, Soulé estimates that only a small part of it was really aggressive. The other would have felt more threatened by the police and ran away. "It's not for a while then went back and forth. To me it was too much and I am then driven home," says Soulé, who lives in the 80 kilometres away in Limburg.

with a few days distance, the native of Limburg, whose parents are from the Congo, still shocked by the escalation of violence. That people police officers throwing bottles, he has not seen in Germany yet. "It was pretty bad. I was very surprised at the aggressiveness,“ says Soulé. He himself don't know any of the perpetrators. "I had the impression that many people were simply out of this mood follow suit and slogans against the police shouted. They were young, Mediterranean-looking men among them, but also many light-skinned."

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Lockdown isolated, people want to? back

But why are some of these young people suddenly become violent criminals meet Soulé was also place before the Corona-crisis, often to the Opera, knows him as a peaceful place. Earlier would have been taken according to Soulé, there are only a Few, in order to draw later, and then in the Clubs.

"Now want to meet people after a long time and celebrate," says the 23-Year-old. Some of his friends had become during the lock downs at home almost depressed. Soulé, himself received as a self-employed IT expert any more orders and is now an employee at a IT company.

He did not understand the aggression at all. But: "the people discharged on Saturday frustration, because they thought the police takes you to your last place to celebrate, too."

from the newspaper, he has to know that it was before the rampage in a fight, the cops called. Soulé believes that the police had planned the eviction of the square, and with a pretext've been looking for. Because already two hours before the rampage, more and more police officers with protective equipment cropped up, said the 23-Year-old. This approach would have heated up the mood only the face.

it is clear: The officials were rushed according to the police, first of all, a victim of the brawl, and were then attacked. The police officers were Victims themselves of helpers.

frustration, alcohol, protests, and rap songs

in addition to the fear that the police might lock the Opera square as a meeting place, see Soulé also the images of the "Black Lives Matter"demonstrations in the United States as the cause. This could have promoted the aggression against the officials. "On Social Media, one is bombarded almost with such images. You might already have some of the people affected." But also the lyrics of rappers such as arrest warrant, the rush against the police, he sees it as a bad template for the aggressiveness towards the officers.

In Frankfurt, is now the first weekend after the riots. With more police presence at the Opera square, but also in other places, wants to prevent the city's more going on the rampage. As of midnight, the square around the Opera house to be illuminated from this point, light can no longer be entered. Lord mayor Peter Feldmann wants to make it on Friday evening, a picture of the situation.

Ashraf Soulé sees it, this is critical. "If there is to be a curfew on the Opera course, then people will move to other places in Frankfurt." But one thing is clear: The situation in Frankfurt could be tense at the weekend, quite again. Ashraf Soulé: "I think some go out of the way place on the weekend for the Opera, because they know that there is the police. The want to do things that are illegal, such as damage to property, or against the police action."

It remains to be seen whether the measures taken in the city show the effect and it remains peaceful.

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Date Of Update: 24 July 2020, 13:27