This is obviously how the leftist party Die Linke views crime hotspots in this problematic district of the capital. The party will be taking over the regulatory office in the district.
German daily Die Welt quoted the prospective new head of the authority, Sarah Nagel (36): “We were surprised: The public order office is not so obvious at first. But we’ll get to the tasks now. We have long called for an end to the stigmatizing raids on shisha bars and night bars. A reassessment is called for here.”
That criminals are somehow “stigmatized” by joint raids by the police, customs and the public order office may well be true, because Nagel’s protégés would no longer be able to continue to calmly plan the next gold coin heist, or prepare to clear a museum vault or a robbery of a cash transit when the security forces monitor their shisha bars. Police behavior appears to be too culturally insensitive as far as the left is concerned.
On the other hand, this particular group is opposed to good citizens who prefer not to be threatened, beaten, robbed or mugged. For better or worse, ordinary German victims now have to live with the fact that criminals in Germany also have a political interest group.
The Berlin police however do not seem to be ready to avoid shisha bars in the future. Die Welt quoted a spokeswoman for the authority: “Police measures are generally directed against individual criminals or groups regardless of ethnic, cultural or family affiliation.”
Die Linke is a political party born from the merger on June 16, 2007 of the Party of Democratic Socialism (former United Socialist Party of Germany), which was the official party of the German Democratic Republic, and the Electoral Alternative Work and Social Justice party.
This party has become a refuge for various Berlin-Neukölln criminal clans since the party no longer wants the police to carry out searches in establishments suspected of being run by these clans.
Berlin’s Neukölln district has long been considered a problem area characterized by organized crime. Members of criminal clans known all over Germany, are the Abou Chaka family and the Remmo clan, and are rooted there.
Their business include drug running, theft, money laundering, prostitution and smuggling illegal weapons. The police, customs, tax investigators and the public order office must therefore carry out regular searches.
But that may well come to an end, as the leftist party will in future be responsible for the public order office in Neukölln. Other departments, such as health or social affairs, will be headed by the SPD or CDU.
Falko Liecke, CDU district chief in Neukölln, was appalled by Nagel’s statement. He said: “We now have leadership characterized by ideology. This is exactly the wrong signal sent to the people. It is a step backwards in the fight against criminal structures.”
The high number of violations of the law observed showed that organized crime could only be combated effectively by maintaining the pressure of control and by systematically punishing violations, even minor ones, German daily Bild reported.