Around seven years ago, in Duisburg....the German city folks and a event-organization....tried to run the 'Love Parade'. What can be said on 24 July 2010....is that the planned event was 'vermasselt' (meaning screwed-up). By the end of the day, 21 Germans were dead, and 500 injured.
What they planned was a bit different from the previous episodes in Berlin (Berlin got sick and tired of the clean-up affair)....so this Duisburg episode was supposed to be a concert-like setting and people would pay for entry. Someone was supposed to make some money. So to get the crowd formed up like a herd of cattle....they had them walk down a path, and through a tunnel. Things went wrong....massive push occurred, and the crowd basically killed people (they suffocated in some cases).
Thousands of hours of investigation have occurred, and the families want someone punished. It could be the organizers.....it could be city officials.
This week, court opened in Dusseldorf. The case will be heard.
To make this clear....it won't be easy. There are 900 hours of video collected. Roughly 37,000 pages of statements and analysis that lay there. The indictment alone is a minimum of 500 pages. For judges involved, you are talking about a full-time job for a minimum of two years.....maybe on up to three years.
A long process? You could go and hear ten different lawyers or retired judges from Germany chat on this, and some think that it could take more than four years to reach some conclusion. The problem is....there is a statue of limits (10 years), and July of 2020 is a deadline. If they fail to end it by then....then the case dissolves, and no one goes to jail.
Yeah....a number of folks will be attempting to delay and force pauses in this court episode. The city itself? Duisburg might have a good reason to hope on a long delayed court episode.
As for page one news? It'll likely get a mention on national news once or twice a month but I doubt that it's something that many Germans care about. They know the history.....they know how the event was marginally planned....they know that 21 people deserve some justice. Beyond that, it's not exactly on the priority list of 99-percent of Germans.
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