The Schlossgarten in Stuttgart, the garden of the castle, is the embodiment of this German orderly, well-to-do and painless. It is on the manicured lawn of the Schlossgarten that young people have a habit of ending up the summer evenings. There was nothing to think that this peaceful place would serve as the backdrop to the violence that took place last weekend.
Following a police control routine on a young man of 17 years who is suspected of selling drugs, of the young people are taken to the police forces. Pushing, kicking..., the scuffle had very quickly turned to a riot. For several hours and until late into the night, some 500 people, young men mostly, have attacked the forces of law and order shots of empty bottles and cobblestones, destroyed the chance of the showcases of the pedestrian area of the city centre, looted shops, smashed the pavement, ripped out the bins and bins of flowers. That night riots has several more injured, including 19 police officers, and left the pedestrian area, usually so dapper, in a state of desolation.
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This unprecedented violence in Germany was immediately strongly condemned by the Interior minister Horst Seehofer. "The culprits will be severely punished, he promised. This is a signal of alarm for the rule of law. "A vast investigation was launched by the police. "I am able to rule out a political motivation for far-left and even a political motive, while the short ", says Franz Lutz, the head of the police of Stuttgart. Rather, it would be young people who came to the feast, and who, under the influence of alcohol and drugs, lost control of themselves and let explode their anger. The young people of Stuttgart would also be inspired by the images of riots in the United States. Anxious to prevent any amalgam with the situation across the Atlantic, Thomas the strobl, minister of the Interior in the coalition of Black (CDU)-Green, who heads the Baden-Württemberg, praised " the excellent training of the police in Baden-Württemberg, which resembles nothing to that of the USA." Mayor Green of Stuttgart, Fritz Kuhn, also believes that these fights street are not a reaction to alleged racism on the part of the German police. "The police of Stuttgart is liberal, open to the world and close to our fellow citizens ", he said. All units, we are reminded today that the German population in its great majority shows his solidarity to the police.
" Fuck the police ! Fuck the System ! "
On the 24 people who were arrested, 14 were under 21 years of age and 7 are not yet major. Half of those arrested have German nationality, three of them come from immigration, says the police. The other people arrested are not of German origin. Among them, according to the police, Croats, Iraqis, Portuguese and Afghans. A 16-year-old would have kicked on the head of a student who was already on the ground. The latter had criticized the rioters, who were then rushed on him to the beat. The police hoped to make further arrests. Forty police officers are currently trying to gather the evidence and assess the many videos that have been posted on the Net. On one of them, we hear the young people screaming " Allahu akbar ! "On a other, a young, in the process of kicking a police car, exclaims with a slight regional accent" Fuck the police ! " and " Fuck the System ! ". Some wear a balaclava, which suggests that they had planned their coup. The police will find it difficult to establish the identity of the people hidden.
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It's been a while already that the evenings on the Schlossgarten were in the crosshairs of the police. After the riots of the weekend, the police presence will be greatly expanded. "No matter," says Fritz Kuhn, where do these people come from, whether they are immigrant or not. We will not tolerate that in Stuttgart the forces of law and order are assaulted and the store robbed. "A situation even more worrying, said Horst Seehofer, minister of the Interior at the federal level, that the number of assaults against the police is a clear increase in Germany for some time.
