The police and judiciary in Brandenburg are taking stricter action against unregistered demonstrations against the corona protection measures, which are largely controlled by lateral thinkers and right-wing extremists.
After numerous unannounced meetings declared as “walks”, such elevators in Cottbus are generally prohibited from Monday to February 13th, the southern police department announced on Saturday. A general decree has now been issued for this purpose. It was said that the recurring, unregistered meetings were associated with violations of public safety and order, in particular protection against infection to contain the corona pandemic.
On Saturday, the police in Brandenburg/Havel also broke up an unregistered demonstration. Before the meeting, it became known that a “walk” had been called again without registering it with the meeting authority, the West Police Department said. The elevator was then dissolved.
During the operation, the identities of participants were determined in order to create reports of administrative offenses, the police reported. These concerned participation in a prohibited assembly and violations of the corona restrictions, for example if the mask requirement was disregarded. A criminal complaint was also filed for violating the Assembly Act.
AfD district chief called for Cottbus Corona demos
In Cottbus, the walks were largely controlled by the AfD and the right-wing extremist association “Zukunft Heimat”. In the past few weeks, around 3,000 opponents of the Corona measures have regularly taken to the streets in unregistered demonstrations, rules such as the obligation to wear masks and distance have been ignored. Police officers were also attacked several times when they tried to take personal details from participants.
The police now said that the walks were being called “by a specific person” and a group via the Telegram messenger service. This includes the Cottbus AfD district chief Jean-Pascal Hohm.
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“I want to support people because they are not heard by official politicians,” he recently told the “Lausitzer Rundschau”. But Hohm, against whom several proceedings are pending, for example for violating the Assembly Act, claims to have been “vaccinated twice”, as the newspaper said.
He had experienced in his circle of friends and acquaintances that Covid-19 was not to be trifled with. Young people around him had also experienced serious illnesses and were struggling with the long-term consequences. He wants to protect himself from that. But he sees the demonstrations against compulsory vaccination as a fight for freedom and calls for “rebellion”.
According to the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the well-known “mixed scene” of neo-Nazis, hooligans, martial artists and others is active at the meetings in Cottbus. This “toxic entity” is trying to get the bourgeois milieu to gather together. Overall, extremists struggled to manage the momentum.
Public Prosecutor’s Office: Also consider applications for detention until the main hearing
According to the police, the prohibition order prohibits the organization of and participation in unregistered and unofficially confirmed open-air gatherings, in particular those associated with general calls for “walks” in Cottbus. The ban affects the districts of Altstadt, Brunschwig, Ströbitz, Schmellwitz, Sandow, Branitz, Spremberger Vorstadt, Sachsendorf, Saspow and Madlow in the city of Cottbus. The ban applies “regardless of the day of the week and regardless of whether it is one-time or recurring” and also includes substitute meetings.
Brandenburg’s Attorney General Andreas Behm has instructed the state’s public prosecutor’s office to vigorously prosecute crimes related to demonstrations against the Corona policy. It is about crimes such as attacks on police officers and journalists or rallies in front of hospitals.
The Attorney General also referred to the possibility of accelerated proceedings – “so that the penalty follows quickly,” explained Böhm. Applications for detention until the main hearing could also be considered here. (with dpa)
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