By Gunnar Schupelius
A man attacks two school children with a knife. It is certainly the worst crime imaginable. Nevertheless, public attention quickly waned and the reaction of the new Governing Mayor Wegner (CDU) was more than poor, says Gunnar Schupelius.
Last Wednesday, 38-year-old Berhan S. from Berlin went to the schoolyard of the Neukölln Evangelical School. With a kitchen knife, he stabbed a seven-year-old and an eight-year-old girl who were playing table tennis. He stabbed the eight-year-old in the neck and the seven-year-old in the chest. The older one narrowly escaped death, both were saved.
Berhan S. was committed to psychiatry. The prosecutor’s office had evidence of a mental disorder due to drug use, it said. The investigating judge followed the request. Reports are now being drawn up to clarify whether Berhan S. is actually mentally ill and therefore incapacitated, or whether he can still be convicted.
It was the worst crime imaginable: a man jumps on two little girls and wants to kill them. And that too in a protected area, in a schoolyard. They survived, but they will never recover.
And yet public attention waned surprisingly quickly. When it was said that Berhan S. would be admitted to the psychiatric ward, the case was over, curtain down, silence in the woods.
Before this silence set in, Berlin’s politicians had expressed themselves unconvincingly. The new school senator Katharina Günther-Wünsch (CDU) rejected increased security. Schools cannot be turned into a high-security wing.
By the way, that’s not true. Jewish schools, for example, are heavily secured. Mrs. Günther-Wünsch failed to say how she intends to protect schools, if not with security guards.
The new Governing Mayor Kai Wegner (CDU) wrote on Twitter that he was shocked “by this incredible act”. Why didn’t he issue a proper statement about it? Why didn’t he call a press conference? Why didn’t he rush to the scene. Isn’t that the job of the head of government?
And again and again it was “mentally ill” (police) and “unfortunate individual case” (Günther-Wünsch). may be anything. But this unfortunate isolated case is one of many unfortunate isolated cases.
He’s part of a rising knife violence the likes of which this city has never seen. Stings are being made here more and more often. The statistics are pointing upwards: in 2022, 3,317 violent crimes were committed with knives in Berlin, in 2021 there were 2,777 (2020: 2,600).
The attack on the girls traumatizes an entire school and unsettles us all. Psychiatry is not the answer.
We have a violence problem that needs to be solved. This is a case for the politicians. Otherwise you know exactly how we should live, what means of transport is the right one and what kind of heating. Maybe they’ll have an idea how we can live in peace again, without knives.
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