A Syrian migrant was stabbed to death in northern Germany by another Syrian because he was eating ice cream during Ramadan. The murder — which occurred in broad daylight in a busy pedestrian shopping area in Oldenburg and caused great consternation among local citizens — is not just the latest example of Sharia law being enforced on German streets. The crime also highlighted the growing epidemic of knife violence in Germany.

Knives, axes and machetes have become weapons of choice for criminals in Germany, which has some of the strictest gun laws in Europe. Knives are not only being used to carry out jihadist attacks, but increasingly to commit homicides, robberies, home invasions, sexual assaults, honor killings and many other kinds of violent crime.

(Images source: Pixabay)

Reliable statistics on knife violence in Germany do not exist. A search of German police blotters, however, shows that during the past ten years the number of knife-related crimes in Germany has increased by more than 1,200%. Around 4,000 such crimes were reported to police in 2016, up from just 300 in 2007.

It is also impossible to determine how many of these knife crimes involved migrants. Increased censorship by the police and the media, aimed at stemming anti-immigration sentiments, makes the public incapable of knowing the names and national origins of many perpetrators or victims.

The surge in knife-related violence in Germany does, however, coincide with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to allow in some two million migrants from Africa, Asia and the Middle East. The number of reported knife crimes in Germany jumped by 600% during the past four years — from about 550 in 2013 to nearly 4,000 in 2016.

Police reports show that both migrants and non-migrants are responsible for the increase in knife crimes in Germany. Merkel’s open-door migration policies appear to have set in motion a self-reinforcing cycle of violence in which more and more people are carrying knives in public — including for self-defense. Her policies appear to be leading to more and more stabbings, especially when alcohol is involved.

Not only are knife-related crimes surging, but the perpetrators and victims of such crimes are increasingly younger and increasingly female:

• In Bochum, a 19-year-old woman stabbed two boys, aged 12 and 13 years. Police said the three had been arguing when the woman pulled out a knife. The boys ran away and tried to hide in a parking garage, but the woman pursued and attacked them.
• In Soest, a 16-year-old boy stabbed a 17-year-old classmate seven times in the chest in a dispute over a girl. The victim was hospitalized with life-threatening injuries to his heart. The assailant was released after a psychiatrist persuaded prosecutors that he could not be held responsible for his actions because he acted in the “heat of passion” (im Affekt).
• In Essen, two boys, aged 11 and 13, pulled a knife on a 20-year-old woman in an effort to rob her of her cellphone. She resisted and called police, who detained the attackers.
• In Wuppertal, a “southern looking man” (südländisches Erscheinungsbild) stabbed a 13-year-old boy after he looked at his attacker supposedly “the wrong way.”
• In Kirchdorf, a “southerner” (südländische Erscheinung) pulled a knife on a 12-year-old girl.
• In Nachrodt-Wiblingwerde, a group of teenagers drew a knife on a 17-year-old girl after she “provoked” them.
• In Berlin-Neukölln, a 16-year-old boy was stabbed during an altercation with a 32-year-old man.
• In Neumünster, a 15-year-old stabbed a 19-year-old after two groups of teenagers got into an altercation.
• In Gevelsberg, a “dark-skinned” man (dunkelhäutig) stabbed a 14-year-old girl near the central train station as she was walking home.

Some knife attacks appear to have political or religious motives:

• In Hanover, a 16-year-old German-Moroccan girl stabbed a police officer in the neck with a kitchen knife. Police said the incident, which occurred at the central train station, was the first jihadist attack in Germany inspired by the Islamic State. “The perpetrator did not display any emotion,” a police spokesperson said. “Her only concern was for her headscarf. She was concerned that her headscarf be put back on properly after she was arrested. Whether the police officer survived, she did not care.”
• In Prien am Chiemsee, an Afghan man stabbed to death an Afghan woman who had converted to Christianity. The attacker ambushed the woman as she was exiting a grocery store with her two children.
• In Munich, a man shouting “Allahu Akbar” and “infidels must die” stabbed one person to death and slashed three others in an attack at a train station.
• In Würzburg, on a train, an Afghan asylum seeker shouting “Allahu Akbar” attacked five people with an axe.
• In Oberhausen, a man shouting “Allahu Akhbar” stabbed a 66-year-old woman and a 57-year-old man who were picnicking.

Knife attacks are also common during brawls involving feuding ethnic groups:

• In Gelsenkirchen, gangs of Syrian and Lebanese youths got into a mass knife fight in the city center. Police said that the level of violence was “brutal.”
• In Mülheim, around 80 members of two rival Lebanese clans got into a knife fight in the center of the city. It took hundreds of police, armed with machine guns, dogs and helicopters, more than three hours to restore order.
• In Hanover, members of two rival Kurdish clans got into a knife fight in front of the central train station.
• In Mainz-Gonsenheim, several people were stabbed during a mass brawl between Syrians and Iranians.
• In Dortmund, an immense brawl ensued after a member of one ethnic group pulled a knife on someone from another ethnic group.
• In Neumünster, a 15-year-old stabbed a 19-year-old after two groups of teenagers from feuding ethnic groups got into an altercation.
• In Gütersloh, two men were stabbed and seriously wounded during a fight between two feuding ethnic groups.
• In Leipzig, an Iraqi man was stabbed and seriously injured during a massive brawl in front of a Kebab restaurant. When police tried to intervene, the mob attacked them with bottles and stones
• In Hamm-Herringen, two men were stabbed and seriously wounded during a fight between two feuding ethnic groups.

Other knife attacks are seemingly random:

• In Hamburg, a 16-year-old boy and his 15-year-old girlfriend were walking along the banks of the Alster, a lake in the heart of the city, when a stranger ambushed them from behind and plunged a knife into his back. The attacker then pushed the girl into the water and walked away. The girl survived but the boy died. The suspect, a “southern-looking” (südländischer Erscheinung) man in his early twenties, remains at large. Police say the victims were not robbed and there is no evident motive for the crime: they said that the suspect appears to have randomly stabbed the boy just because he felt like it.
• In Bremen, a 29-year-old man was randomly stabbed and seriously wounded at the Waterfront shopping center. The entire facility was closed after the attack.
• In Dessau-Roßlau, two Syrian asylum seekers randomly stabbed two German female passersby in a pedestrian zone in broad daylight.
• In Düsseldorf, a man brandishing a machete randomly stabbed an 80-year-old man in the Kalkum district. He remains at large.
• In Wrohm, an Eritrean migrant randomly stabbed a 51-year-old woman.

Knife-related incidents are also becoming increasingly common on public transport hubs:

• In Hamburg-Billstedt, two brothers were stabbed during a robbery at the Legienstraße subway station.
• In Frankfurt, two “presumably East Europeans” (mutmaßlich Osteuropäer) wielding knives attacked commuters at the “Bonames Mitte” subway station.
• In Dortmund-Bochum, two feuding ethnic groups got into a knife fight on the S-1 line.
• In Dresden, a man carrying a 20-centimer (8-inch) knife was arrested at the central train station.
• In Schönefeld, a man randomly pulled a knife on a traveler at the airport. It remains unclear how the perpetrator passed the knife through airport security.
• In Baden-Baden, a man wielding a knife threatened passengers on a train.

Knives appear to be the weapon of choice in so-called honor killings:

• In Kiel, a German-Turkish man stabbed to death his estranged Turkish wife in front of a daycare center.
• In Bocholt, a Lebanese man stabbed to death his Moroccan wife, the mother of his three children, because he thought she wanted to divorce him.
• In Scheeßel, an Iraqi man stabbed to death his wife. Police described the murder as an honor killing.
• In Ahaus, a Nigerian asylum seeker stabbed to death a Hindu woman after she seemingly offended his honor by rejecting his romantic advances. The woman was employed at the asylum shelter where her attacker lived.
• In Hanover-Mühlenberg, a Serbian man stabbed his ex-girlfriend after she ended their relationship and had begun seeing someone else.
• In Berlin, a 32-year-old Bosnian man stabbed to death his former girlfriend after she ended their abusive relationship.
• In Hanau, a Syrian refugee stabbed to death his 30-year-old sister, who was 23 weeks pregnant and was accused of having brought shame to her family. Her unborn child also died in the attack.
• In Freiburg, a Syrian asylum seeker stabbed his wife, a Kurdish Christian who had moved out of the couple’s apartment, but had returned to collect some personal belongings.
• In Köln-Buchheim, an Iraqi man stabbed to death his 19-year-old daughter because he did not approve of her boyfriend. The man may never face justice; he is believed to have fled to Iraq.
• In Bonn, a Palestinian brandishing a “Rambo knife” and shouting “Allahu Akbar” tried to behead a doctor. The attacker’s 19-year-old son had complained about the doctor’s treatment for a fractured leg. The man, holding the doctor down on the floor, said: “Apologize to my son. Go down on your knees and kiss his hand.”

Germany’s knife-crime problem is being exacerbated by its lenient judicial system, in which offenders receive relatively light sentences, even for serious crimes. In many instances, individuals who are arrested for knife-related crimes are released after questioning from police. This practice allows criminal suspects to continue committing crimes with virtual impunity.

In Berlin, for example, a migrant who stabbed and seriously injured another migrant after he refused to give him alcohol and drugs was released and financially compensated because no witnesses to the crime could be found.

Also in the German capital, investigators discovered that Anis Amri, the 24-year-old suspect in the December 2016 Berlin terrorist attack in which 12 people died, had been involved in a knife-fight in the city’s Neukölln district in July 2016, but police failed to arrest him. Had Amri been deported, as he should have been, the Berlin attack possibly could have been prevented.

According to Arnold Plickert, the deputy national chairman of the GdP police union, much of the knife-violence in Germany can be attributed to certain segments of society that live according to their own rules, not those of the German state. In an interview with knife-blog.com, a German forum for knife enthusiasts, he said:

“We are monitoring a specific target group, which mainly consists of young males who are armed in everyday life and basically are dedicated to armed confrontation. We see this particularly in large Arab families, Lebanese clans, for whom knives are standard gear. Knives are also basic equipment for career criminals and members of youth gangs.”

Plickert also noted changes in German society, including a growing disrespect for police and rescue workers: “From my point of view, I can say that the inhibition threshold to the use of violence has significantly decreased.”

Meanwhile, more than 1,600 knife-related crimes were reported in Germany during just the first five months of 2017 — an average of 300 such crimes each month, or ten a day. Notable knife-related incidents during the month of May include:

In Freiburg, a Turkish man stabbed another Turk sitting in the passenger seat of a car stopped at a traffic light. In Karlsruhe, a Somali asylum seeker stabbed another Somali asylum seeker. Police said the attack was an act of revenge: the stabbing victim had recently stabbed the stabber. In Aachen, a North African man pulled a knife on a security guard at a grocery store after he was caught shoplifting.

In Schwerin, a Syrian man pulled a knife on another Syrian man in a dispute over a 15-year-old girl who is not Syrian. In Gelsenkirchen, a 20-year-old pulled a knife on a 46-year-old man during a traffic incident. In Bad Oldesloe, four teenagers pulled a knife and robbed a 61-year-old man. In Wiesbaden, a “southern-looking” man pulled a knife and tried to rob a man at a sports complex. In Hofheim, a man with an “Eastern European accent” pulled a knife and tried to rob a store.

In Peine, an asylum seeker from Sudan stabbed and seriously wounded an asylum seeker from the Ivory Coast. In Kassel, a Syrian migrant stabbed a Turkish man during a dispute over money. In Bad Reichenhall, a man stabbed another man in the neck during an altercation at a bar. In Bühl, a man stabbed several people at a public swimming pool. In Wiesbaden, a man was stabbed and seriously wounded during an altercation at a city park.

In Augsburg, two men were stabbed by a random attacker at a grill fest. In Hamburg, an unknown assailant stabbed a migrant from Guinea-Bissau. In Rheine, two men speaking German with a French accent pulled a knife on a woman and robbed her.

In Berlin, a man stabbed and seriously wounded his former girlfriend and her new partner during an altercation at a restaurant in Waidmannslust. In Duisburg, a man pulled a knife on a cashier at a supermarket. In Salzgitter, a man stabbed another man in a restaurant. In Freiburg, an Eastern European-looking man (osteuropäisch) stabbed a 15-year-old boy during an altercation at a restaurant. In Danndorf, three men were stabbed during an altercation over drugs.

In Mölln, a man stabbed a co-worker in the back. In Michelstadt, a man stabbed another man during an altercation. In Essen, a man pulled a knife on his wife at the central train station. In Karlsruhe, a man was stabbed by his girlfriend’s former boyfriend. In Cologne-Ostheim, a 16-year-old student pulled a knife on his classmates and teacher.

In Neuenburg, two men were stabbed during an altercation at a restaurant. In Kassel, a man was stabbed in the neck during an altercation at a café. In Dortmund, a man was robbed at knifepoint at the central bus station.

In Cottbus, members of Syrian gang stabbed five Germans. In Lich, a man was stabbed during an altercation. In Kassel, a man was randomly stabbed by a man with a “southern appearance” (südländisches Äußeres). In Preetz, a man pulled a knife on shoppers at a supermarket. In Dortmund, two men were stabbed during an altercation in the city center. In Frankfurt-Schwanheim, a man wielding a knife robbed a local post office.

In Pforzheim, a 53-year-old Tajik man stabbed to death his 50-year-old wife at her place of employment, a Christian daycare center. It remains unclear if the woman was a convert to Christianity. In Wardenburg, an Iraqi man stabbed to death his wife, the mother of his five children, while she was asleep in her bed.

In Tübingen, a man was stabbed and seriously injured at the central train station during an altercation. In Hamburg-St. Georg, two men were stabbed and seriously injured near the train station. In Berlin-Wedding, two brothers were stabbed during an altercation with another man at a Kebab restaurant. In Kreuztal, a 53-year-old man was stabbed and seriously wounded during an altercation at his home.

In Lübeck, a 21-year-old man was stabbed and seriously injured during an altercation between two groups near the central bus station. In Diez, a woman stabbed a man in the back. In Ründeroth, a 17-year-old was stabbed and seriously wounded at a local festival. In Neuendettelsau, an Ethiopian asylum seeker stabbed his girlfriend in the stomach at a restaurant after she allegedly “provoked” him. The woman, five months pregnant, survived but the unborn baby died.

“The clans simply have no respect for the authorities.”Observers have surmised that the real reason for the judge’s leniency was that he feared his family might besubjected to retribution from the clan.

A court in Hanover has handed suspended sentences to six members of a Kurdish clan who seriously wounded two dozen police officers during a violent rampage in Hameln. The court’s ruling was greeted with anger and derision by police who said it is yet another example of the laxity of Germany’s politically correct judicial system.

The case goes back to January 2014, when a 26-year-old clan member, arrested for robbery, tried to escape from the magistrate’s office by jumping out of a seventh-floor courtroom window. The suspect was taken to the hospital, where he died. Members of his clan subsequently ransacked the hospital, as well as the court, and attacked police with rocks and other projectiles; 24 police officers and six paramedics were injured.

The judge said he was lenient because the defendants witnessed the death of the 26-year-old and were traumatized. The judge also revealed that he had reached a deal with the clan, which among other effects prevented police from testifying in court.

Dietmar Schilff, chairman of the GdP police union in Lower Saxony, said that the ruling had left many police officers shaking their heads in disbelief: “All police forces expect protection and support from the state.” He added:

“If we want to protect those who ensure public security, it must be clear that anyone who attacks police officers attacks the state — and has to fear appropriate consequences. It does not matter from which milieu the perpetrators come.”

Observers have surmised that the real reason for the judge’s leniency was that he feared his family might be subjected to retribution from the clan.

Middle Eastern crime syndicates have established themselves across Germany, where they engage in racketeering, extortion, money laundering, pimping and trafficking in humans, weapons and drugs.

The syndicates, which are run by large clans with origins in Lebanon, Turkey, Syria, among other places, operate with virtual impunity because German judges and prosecutors are unable or unwilling to stop them.

The clans — some of which migrated to Germany during Lebanon’s 1975-1990 civil war and have grown to thousands of members — now control large swathes of German cities and towns — areas that are effectively lawless and which German police increasingly fear to approach.

Ralph Ghadban, a Lebanese-German political scientist and a leading expert on Middle Eastern clans in Germany, said that the Hanover ruling was a massive failure of the German judicial system. He added that the only way for Germany to achieve control over the clans is to destroy them:

“In their concept of masculinity, only power and force matter; if someone is humane and civil, this is considered a weakness. In clan structures, in tribal culture everywhere in the world, ethics are confined to the clan itself. Everything outside the clan is enemy territory.”

In an interview with Focus, Ghadban elaborated:

“I have been following this trend for years. The clans now feel so strong that they are attacking the authority of the state and the police. They have nothing but contempt for the judiciary…. The main problem in dealing with clans: state institutions give no resistance. This makes the families more and more aggressive — they simply have no respect for the authorities….

“The state must destroy the clan structures. Strong and well-trained police officers must be respected on the street. It is a poor example if clan members are allowed seriously to injure 24 policemen and six others without having to fear real consequences. In addition, lawyers and judges must be trained. The courts are issuing feeble judgments based on a false understanding of multiculturalism and the fear of the stigma of being branded as racist….

“The clans adhere to a religious group, a kind of sect with an Islamic orientation. The Islamic understanding of their spiritual leader, Sheikh al-Habashi, who died a few years ago, justifies violence against unbelievers. He taught that there is only the house of ​​war [Dar al-Harb], which justifies plundering unbelievers and possessing their wives….”

In Berlin, a dozen or more Lebanese clans dominate organized crime in the German capital, according to Die Welt. They effectively control the districts of Charlottenburg, Kreuzberg, Moabit, Neukölln and Wedding. The clans are committed to counterfeiting, dealing in drugs, robbing banks and burglarizing department stores. Experts estimate that around 9,000 people in Berlin are members of clans.

The clans reject the authority of the German state. Instead, they run a “parallel justice system” in which disputes are resolved among themselves with mediators from other crime families. A classified police report leaked to Bild described how the clans use cash payments and threats of violence to influence witnesses whenever German police or prosecutors get involved.

(Photo by Carsten Koall/Getty Images)

The clans are now canvassing refugee shelters in search of young and physically strong men to join their ranks. State Prosecutor Sjors Kamstra explained:

“The refugees come here with no money. They are shown how inexpensive money can be obtained very quickly. Poverty makes this seductive. Many of them cannot speak German and are naturally vulnerable when they are addressed by someone in their native language. For the clans, the refugees are welcome newcomers, because they are new here and are not known to the police.”

The clans have also entered the refugee business by buying real estate and renting those properties to asylum seekers at exorbitant prices. Focus magazine reported that they are laundering dirty money while at the same time getting paid by the German state to house migrants.

Focus reporters visited a dilapidated apartment in Berlin in which five Syrian refugees were accommodated in 20 square meters (215 square feet). On the regular rental market the apartment would barely have yielded €300 ($335) a month in rent, but the clan collects around €3,700 ($4,125) per month from the German state, which pays landlords to house migrants. “Business with the refugees is now more profitable than drug trafficking,” said Heinz Buschkowsky, a former mayor of Neukölln.

The Berlin Criminal Police Office (Landeskriminalamt) confirmed that “proceeds from criminal offenses, including organized crime, were invested in real estate by the persons concerned or by third parties.” Tom Schreiber, a member of the Berlin House of Deputies, said the clans have exposed the moral bankruptcy of the German government: “The state promotes organized crime with taxpayer money.”

“Berlin is lost,” said Michael Kuhr, a well-known Berlin-based security consultant. “These clan structures have established themselves in all areas of organized crime. We will never go back to how things were 20 years ago. In addition, these people are highly dangerous and have lost all respect for the power of the state.”

In Duisburg, a leaked police report revealed that in the Marxloh district, the streets are effectively controlled by Lebanese clans that reject the authority of German police. They have taken over entire streets to carry out illegal business activity. New migrants from Bulgaria and Romania are contributing to the problems. Marxloh’s streets serve as invisible boundaries between ethnic groups, according to Die Welt. Residents speak of “the Kurdish road” or “the Romanian road.”

Police say they are alarmed by the aggressiveness and brutality of the clans, which are said to view crime as leisure activity. If police dare to intervene, hundreds of clan members are mobilized to confront the police. A local woman interviewed by Deutschlandfunk radio said she was afraid for her safety: “After dark I would not stand here because there are a lot of conflicts between foreigners, especially between Lebanese and Turks.”

A 17-page report prepared for the state parliament in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) revealed that Lebanese clans in Duisburg divide up neighborhoods in order to pursue criminal activities. These clans do not recognize the authority of the police. Their members are males between the ages of 15 and 25 and “nearly 100%” of them are known to police.

The report also described the situation in Duisburg’s Laar district, where two large Lebanese families call the shots: “The streets are actually regarded as a separate territory. Outsiders are physically assaulted, robbed and harassed. Experience shows that the Lebanese clans can mobilize several hundred people in a very short period of time by means of a telephone call.”

Peter Biesenbach of the Christian Democrats (CDU) said: “If this is not a no-go area, then I do not know what is.” He has called for an official inquiry to determine the true scope of the criminal clans in NRW.

NRW Interior Minister Ralf Jäger rejected that request because such a study would be politically incorrect:

“Further data collection is not legally permissible. Both internally and externally, any classification that could be used to depreciate human beings must be avoided. In this respect, the use of the term ‘family clan’ (Familienclan) is forbidden from the police point of view.”

In nearby Gelsenkirchen, Kurdish and Lebanese clans are vying for control of city streets, some of which have become zones that are off-limits to German authorities. In one incident, police were patrolling an area in the southern part of the city when they were suddenly surrounded and physically assaulted by more than 60 members of a clan.

In another incident, two police officers stopped a driver after he ran a red light. The driver stepped out of the car and ran away. When police caught up with him, they were confronted by more than 50 clan members. A 15-year-old attacked a policeman from behind and strangled him to the point of unconsciousness.

Senior members of the Gelsenkirchen police department subsequently held a secret meeting with representatives of three Arab clans in order to “cultivate social peace between Germans and Lebanese.” A leaked police report revealed that the clans told Police Chief Ralf Feldmann that “the police cannot win a war with the Lebanese because we outnumber them.” The clan members added: “This applies to all of Gelsenkirchen, if we so choose.”

When Feldman countered that he would dispatch police reinforcements to disrupt their activities, the clan members laughed in his face and said: “The government does not have enough money to deploy the numbers of police necessary to confront the Lebanese.” The police report concluded that German authorities should not harbor any illusions about the actual balance of power: “The police would be defeated.”

Another leaked police report revealed that the clans are the “executive body of an existing parallel legal system to self-adjudicate matters between large Kurdish and Lebanese families in the western Ruhr area.” These clans “despise the police and German courts” and “settle their matters on their own terms.”

The Frankfurter Neue Presse reported that Kurdish, Lebanese and Romanian clans have divided up the Gelsenkirchen districts of Bismarck, Rotthausen and Ückendorf, including around the central station, and have “claimed individual streets for themselves.”

Arnold Plickert, the head of the police union in North Rhine-Westphalia, warned: “Several rival rocker groups, as well as Lebanese, Turkish, Romanian and Bulgarian clans, are fighting for supremacy of the streets. They make their own rules; the police have nothing more to say.”

In Düsseldorf, two members of a clan brutally assaulted a 49-year-old woman who witnessed a car accident in the Flingern district. Her mistake, apparently, was to corroborate the “wrong” version of what she saw. The Rheinische Post called on the German government to fight the clans:

“The threat remains, in particular wherever large families, mostly immigrants, place the supposed need for the protection of their loved ones above all else. The readiness for violence is great, the inhibition threshold is low. The punishment of existing laws hardly deters anyone.”

In Naumburg, police confiscated the driver’s license of Ahmed A., a 21-year-old member of a Syrian clan, during a traffic stop. Almost immediately, police were surrounded by a mob of other clan members. The police retreated. The mob then marched to the police station, which they proceeded to ransack.

Ahmed A., a serial offender whose asylum application was rejected but who remains in Germany, said: “Lock me up. I have nothing to lose. I am going to put a bullet in the head of every single police officer. I will make your life feel like hell. Then I’ll just be a cop killer.” He also warned the police officer who seized his license: “I will destroy his life. I know exactly where he lives.” He then explained what he would do to the officer’s wife and daughter. Ahmed A. was allowed to walk free; police said there were insufficient grounds for his arrest.

Naumburg police have defended their weak response as being due to a lack of personnel, but regional parliamentarian Daniel Sturm pointed to the big picture: “We are talking about resistance to the power of the state.” The Interior Minister of Saxony-Anhalt, Holger Stahlknecht, said that it appeared as though the Syrian clan had established a “parallel society” in Naumburg. A local newspaper noted that the police’s failure to act “sounds like the capitulation of the state of law (Rechtsstaat).”

In Mülheim, around 80 members of two rival clans got into a mass brawl following a dispute between two teenagers. When police arrived, they were attacked with bottles and stones. More than 100 police backed up by helicopters were deployed to restore order. Five people were taken into custody but then released.

In Munich, police arrested 20 female members of a Croatian clan believed to be responsible for up to 20% of all the burglaries committed in Germany. Investigators believe that the clan has at least 500 members throughout Germany.

In Bremen, police effectively surrendered to clans from Kurdistan and the Balkans because of the need to conserve limited personnel resources for the fight against spiraling street crime by migrant youths.

Rainer Wendt, head of the German Police Union (DPolG), criticized city officials for their lack of resolve. “Bremen has capitulated to extremely dangerous clans. The state’s monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force [Gewaltmonopol des Staates] is now becoming the law of the jungle. Security continues to go down the drain.”