Police report a silent New Year’s Eve in Berlin
Firecrackers bans, unannounced demonstrations
–
Police report a silent New Year’s Eve in Berlin
Enforce the firecracker ban, observe unannounced gatherings: The Berlin police are also expecting a lot of operations on the second New Year’s Eve pandemic, but initially spoke of a quiet night.
Berlin is celebrating the new year for the second time under pandemic conditions. According to a police spokesman, New Year’s Eve began “largely calmly” at first. Police spokesman Thilo Cablitz told the rbb on Friday evening.
But there are occasional missions. For example, the police had to disperse around 500 people near the Brandenburg Gate who apparently wanted to meet to celebrate. The Brandenburger Tor S-Bahn and U-Bahn station was temporarily closed. In addition, there were some restrictions on freedom, for example because people carried alarm weapons with them.
Parties in clubs or pubs are not permitted this year; Europe’s traditional New Year’s Eve party in front of the Brandenburg Gate will take place without an audience this year, but will be broadcast on ZDF. On Twitter, the police urged people not to go to the Brandenburg Gate. Since there is no fire station this year, it is not worth it.
Around 2,500 police officers are on duty
As in, no fireworks were allowed to be sold nationwide. The aim is to relieve emergency services and hospitals that are already working at their limit in the Corona crisis. “So far it has been a completely” normal “evening in the #Rettungsstelle des #ukbberlin,” tweeted the spokeswoman for the Berlin Accident Hospital. “A patient came with burns from a sparkler. People with real # gun pain have stayed away so far. Lucky!”
From the point of view of Berlin’s governing mayor Franziska Giffey (SPD), firecracking zones contribute to the protection of emergency services. “We also have to talk about pacifying certain areas of the city beyond the corona pandemic by not allowing birth there,” said the politician on Friday. Together with the new Interior Senator Iris Spranger (SPD), Giffey visited firefighters and police officers on New Year’s Eve before their deployment.
The ban on the sale of fireworks and firework ban zones could have had an effect last year, said the Berlin head of government. Compared to New Year’s Eve, when there were “war-like conditions” in some places, a third fewer operations were experienced. According to Giffey, he expected it to remain quieter in 2021/22. According to Interior Senator Spranger, in addition to around 900 patrol officers, 1,600 additional officers are on duty in Berlin.
Slowik: “Presence and a very consistent approach”
Regardless of the pandemic-related restrictions, there is a police and fire department in Berlin. Police President Barbara Slowik emphasized on the rbb-Inforadio that fireworks bans in 56 zones and corona-related collection bans should be enforced.
Another focus is on unannounced demonstrations against corona measures. In the past few weeks, the police chief had been able to gain experience with so-called “walks”. “Through constant presence and a very consistent approach, we were able to keep the absolute in the frame and have not seen any serious violent riots so far. I’m not afraid of that tonight either,” said Slowik.
Broadcast: evening show, December 31, 2021, 7:30 p.m.