Normally, I kinda skip the public TV forum on ZDF on Wednesday nights because it's so late and it's mostly non-political. The show would be the Markus Lanz 'forum' on Channel Two (ZDF).
But I watched it, and Lanz had brought on the chief prosecutor of the city of Berlin....Ralph Knispel. So for about twenty-odd minutes, the guy throw out five or six bombshell comments that would anger most Germans.
Right now on the books of Berlin....he's got around 8,500 arrest warrants sitting there. In simple terms....he lacks the ability to go forward. The manpower simply isn't there.
Part of this involves pre-trial detention, which would situate some guy considered dangerous or likely to repeat the act again....in jail and waiting for the case to quickly come up. Well....they can't bring in the staff or judges to ensure a speedy trial so he gets released.
Then DNA got brought up. The city prosecutor has access to all the tools, but there simply isn't the manpower to accomplish the work.....so some cases are taking up to two years to fully develop.
The big quote of the interview? "They laugh at us."
What happened over the years? I would suggest three central factors:
1. Crime exploded, at least from the old West Germany/East Germany days, while the manpower never inched up.
2. When the government got worried over public perception....they hired lots of cops (10,000 new slots exist), but they never really wanted to go after the tail end.....the prosecutor staff and judges, and increase them.
3. Lack of fear over consequences now exists. As a career criminal, the odds simply are in your favor that you will never do serious jail time or worry much about convictions. A good lawyer, and the amount of crime....will protect you.
Germans seeing this interview and getting peeved? This is something that has been in the public view for the past five years, and the politicians really don't know how to handle this.
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