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CRIME

Shot rapper reproaches police

A rapper who was shot in the Berlin district of Neukölln in mid-January has accused the police of sloppy work. He said that the police arrived late and let two suspects get away.

Published: 6 February 2008 16:31 CET

The rapper ‘Massiv’ has also responded to accusations that he instigated the shootings as a marketing ploy. He made his comments on a five minute Youtube video.

“Miserable work” was how the rapper described the police response to the shootings. Haydar, another rapper who was with Massiv at the scene of the crime said that he had to call the police two or three times, “until they finally arrived at the crime scene after 15 minutes.”

“The first call was received by us at 22:13. Our colleagues were at the scene at exactly 22:17 and 43 seconds,” police spokesperson Bernhard Schodrowski told the Berliner Morgenpost.

Massiv also criticized the police for their handling of suspects after the arrest, by saying “Is it normal to let them go after one or two hours? I absolutely cannot explain that.”

“There was no immediate suspicion against those persons,” Schodrowski told Berliner Morgenpost in response to the rapper’s criticism of how police handled the suspects.

“It is absurd how people are reacting (to the shooting) by depicting me as an actor,” Massiv said in response to those who have claimed that the shootings were a PR gag.

Massiv’s new album is yet to enter the top 100.

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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