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Another chat group appeared in the Berlin police, in which “inhuman messages” were exchanged. Police announced Wednesday. 26 new students must belong to the group. Some of them are said to have shared memes with appropriate content after the group originally only served for “general information exchange.”
According to the report, a police officer reported the events. Therefore, searches were conducted on Wednesday and evidence was confiscated, which must now be evaluated. Police state security is investigating the matter.
According to the Police, disciplinary proceedings have also been initiated, which must be suspended for the time being due to the priority criminal investigation. However, other legal measures are already being examined, according to the communication.
“At the moment we cannot give any details about the content,” a police spokesman said on request. According to information from Tagesspiegel, it is, among other things, hate speech. However, the group should not be the chat group with far-right content that had been made public through a police notice to ARD “Monitor” magazine.
A far-right chat group recently made itself known
Two weeks ago, an investigation by ARD magazine published a first group chat of 25 Berlin police officers in which officers regularly made racist comments. Often in the form of alleged jokes, the report says. Colleagues often commented on the statements approvingly. Finally, two officials addressed the ARD.
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The Berlin police then contacted the editorial team of “Monitor” to clarify the matter. However, editor-in-chief Georg Restle refused to pass on information or provide information about the magazine’s sources. Whistleblower protection is a valuable asset in journalism.
Last Friday, the state security responsible for politically motivated crimes at the State Criminal Police Office (LKA) asked all employees for internal support in an email. The topic was: “Chat group with racist and homophobic content in the Berlin police”. This is a “multi-person chat group of Berlin policemen”.
The LKA officer asks all Berlin police employees to help with the investigation. No one has to incriminate themselves, but there is an obligation to provide witness information.
Police President Slowik: “Notes of great importance”
Police Chief Barbara Slowik gratefully accepted that a colleague had pointed out the new chat group. “That information from my colleagues is of great importance to me,” the police statement was quoted as saying. “They show that the oath we take is not just lip service, but that almost all of us take it with a lot of heart, great commitment and responsibility towards the general public.”
Just pointing out that it is now possible to “specifically find those whose attitudes are incompatible with the role and self-image of the Berlin police,” Slowik said. In addition to the criminal process, other measures would be taken, but not specified, “immediately and systematically.”
Interior Senator Geisel: Police Defense Forces “Increased Significantly”
Only earlier in the week, the Senate Interior Administration announced that Berlin would participate in a cross-border study on the issue of extremism among the police. Therefore, the schedule should be discussed on October 26 at the meeting of the SPD interior ministers. “We believe that the idea of a study makes sense and therefore we participated in it together with Lower Saxony and other federal states led by the SPD,” said a spokesman for the interior administration.
Interior Senator Andreas Geisel praised the handling of the new case within the police on Wednesday. “It is good that the police deal with such incidents with transparency in their own ranks,” said the SPD politician. “The fact that both the discovery and the ensuing thorough investigations by the police took place immediately shows the clearly heightened defenses of the Berlin police on this issue.” Anyone who, as a police officer, has taken an oath on the Basic Law must also adhere to and defend its values. “If you don’t, you will have to face professional and criminal consequences.”
