Most of the perpetrators of “violence in Berlin are young, male and have a non-German background. This also applies to knife violence,” says Barbara Slowik, the police commissioner of Berlin. In an interview with broadcaster n-tv, she talked about the recent spate of knife attacks in Germany, mostly committed by migrants—particularly young Afghan men.
“In recent years, we have definitely seen an increase [in knife attacks] in Berlin, especially among children, young people and adolescents. Knife perpetrators are getting younger,” she said, adding that there has been an increase in violent crime overall in the capital, and that non-Germans, i.e., foreigners, are overrepresented.
The recent murder of a police officer by an Afghan failed asylum seeker shocked Germany and fuelled the debate on illegal immigration, migrant crime and whether Afghan criminals should be deported. The killing led to some politicians calling for knives to be banned in public places. Barbara Slowik said no tangible steps to introduce such a ban are currently planned. “If you look at the locations where the police have had to deal with knife crimes in Berlin, they are spread over almost the entire urban area. There is no one hotspot,” she explained.
Germany has a serious knife crime problem: according to the publication Apollo News, almost 14,000 stabbings were committed last year, a rise of 1,500 incidents compared to the previous year—which, in effect, means 38 knife attacks per day.
“The established parties deny the link between immigration and everyday knife crime, although the facts refute these claims,” the anti-immigration party AfD tweeted, adding that the number of knife attacks committed last year may be almost twice as high—26,000—as the official police statistics claim.
Barbara Slowik also admitted that respect for the police is waning among “parts of the population.” She said: “The threshold of attacking a police officer, even if it is only pushing them, has also dropped significantly.” Her response was a reply to a question by n-tv, in which the broadcaster pointed to the fact that drugs are being openly traded in the capital, and that police are regularly attacked at New Year’s Eve celebrations.
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