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CRIME

Police raid German rappers with fake guns and drugs

Scared residents in Dortmund spurred a police raid when they mistook a group of men filming a hip hop video for dangerous criminals on Tuesday evening.

Published: 4 June 2008 17:35 CEST
Police raid German rappers with fake guns and drugs
Deutschland. Really not that funky. Photo: DPA

The group of young men, between the ages of 22 and 36-years-old were wearing masks and carrying weapons. They were dancing to loud rap music, and told police they were busy shooting a music video.

Dortmund police said Wednesday that the weapons were fake.

Police seized two bags of white powder that appeared to be narcotics, but later announced they were just props for the video.

The German rappers were allowed to keep their cameras and film when police found no evidence of illegal activity.

Police said, however, that charges may be filed for violation of German weapons law.

CRIME

Teenager turns self in after attack on German politician

A 17-year-old has turned himself in to police in Germany after an attack on a lawmaker that the country's leaders decried as a threat to democracy.

Published: 5 May 2024 12:52 CEST
Teenager turns self in after attack on German politician

The teenager reported to police in the eastern city of Dresden early Sunday morning and said he was “the perpetrator who had knocked down the SPD politician”, police said in a statement.

Matthias Ecke, 41, European parliament lawmaker for Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD), was set upon by four attackers as he put up EU election posters in Dresden on Friday night, according to police.

Ecke was “seriously injured” and required an operation after the attack, his party said.

Scholz on Saturday condemned the attack as a threat to democracy.

“We must never accept such acts of violence,” he said.

Ecke, who is head of the SPD’s European election list in the Saxony region, was just the latest political target to be attacked in Germany.

Police said a 28-year-old man putting up posters for the Greens had been “punched” and “kicked” earlier in the evening on the same Dresden street.

Last week two Greens deputies were abused while campaigning in Essen in western Germany and another was surrounded by dozens of demonstrators in her car in the east of the country.

According to provisional police figures, 2,790 crimes were committed against politicians in Germany in 2023, up from 1,806 the previous year, but less than the 2,840 recorded in 2021, when legislative elections took place.

A group of activists against the far right has called for demonstrations against the attack on Ecke in Dresden and Berlin on Sunday, Der Spiegel magazine said.

According to the Tagesspiegel newspaper, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser is planning to call a special conference with Germany’s regional interior ministers next week to address violence against politicians.

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