By Gunnar Schupelius
The number of knife attacks is increasing alarmingly. Berlin’s police officers are not adequately equipped to fight this violence, says Gunnar Schupelius.
It’s every cop’s nightmare: you’re called to stop a knife attack. You must apprehend the attacker without injuring him seriously or even fatally. This can become a game with your own life.
Such was the situation for the 26-year-old officer who shot and killed Mohammed D., a 16-year-old unaccompanied asylum seeker from Senegal, in Dortmund last Monday.
Mohammed D. lived in a youth welfare facility. Employees called the police because he pulled a knife with aggressive intent. The officers persuaded him, but he approached them with the knife. The taser missed its target.
Now all resources were exhausted. Because the Senegalese couldn’t be stopped, a colleague used his firearm, in this case a submachine gun. Mohammed D. was hit and died.
The police have been heavily criticized for this operation, especially by the Greens, SPD and Left. The policeman who shot Mohammed D. is sentenced in advance without knowing exactly how it happened.
In training, police officers are trained to stop a violent criminal who is pulling a knife. The firearm is considered an appropriate means of self-defense when all other means have failed. Or as the state chairman of the German Police Union (DPolG) of North Rhine-Westphalia, Erich Rettinghaus, puts it: “An attacker with a knife moving forward can usually only be stopped with a firearm – at least as long as the attacked person is to survive.”
The “attacked” is the policeman. It’s his duty to catch the knifeman. He’s not allowed to leave the crime scene. This possibility of bringing oneself to safety is eliminated. So what is left for him when all means fail? This question should be answered by those who pounce on the officials with their allegations.
The situation as a whole is deteriorating. In Berlin, the number of knife attacks in 2021 increased by 7.1 percent compared to the previous year. A total of 2777 times, almost eight times a day, people were attacked with a knife. Police officers had to intervene or were attacked themselves.
Because of the constantly increasing aggression, almost all colleagues wear a protective vest. The vest protects the chest, stomach and back, the rest of the body remains unprotected. It stops the lethal effects of a pistol bullet, but not a thrusting weapon.
On the other hand, police officers need protection much more often than against firearms. The knife has become the number one weapon in Germany since 2015. Police equipment has not kept up with the times.
If the interior ministers and interior senators are really serious about the safety of their colleagues, then they equip all police officers on duty with a stab-proof vest.
Is Gunnar Schupelius right? Call: 030/2591 73153 or email: [email protected]