Still a lot of simmering feelings from the Saturday evening riot in Stuttgart.
The Baden-Württemberg's Interior Minister (Thomas Strobl) came out yesterday and said that they will use every possible angle to identify those who participated, and bring them to justice. In his statement, he put a fair amount of blame on drugs and alcohol.
How the riot started? Police basically cornered some drug-dealer (young guy, age 17), and were attempting an arrest. His 'buddies' reacted. Whatever number of police were onhand for the drug arrest....were no match for the 200-odd friends.
The potential that some in the crowd were 'riot-tourists'? This got brought up via N-TV this morning. It's been discussed by the police but they admit there's just not a lot of facts to support that.
As for the non-German part of the riot-group? Bosnia, Afghanistan and Somalia get mentioned. These were the folks among the twenty-four arrested/detained.
My interpretation? I think among the party-goers for the evening....a small number of non-Stuttgart folks were in the mix and probably looking for trouble, and the arrest of the one dealer was enough to set off the riot. I'd also suggest that various dealers were in the crowd....probably knowing the one guy that the cops were messing with, and felt determined to help their friend.
Once the cops began to arrive in force (getting up to almost 300 of them at 4 AM)....the situation changed, and the 'kids' left the center of town. Getting 300 at 4 AM? They basically had to put the call out to every single station within decent driving distance of Stuttgart. I would also add this unusual factor about German public transportation. In most German metropolitan cities....the mass transit (subway system) shuts down between 12:30 and 1 AM, and usually reopens around 4:30 AM.
As for the response? There will be a lot of public forum chatter this week about teen thugs, violence, police and drugs. I expect a hefty show of police in Stuttgart over the upcoming weekend, and a fair showing of riot-prone young men. The use of social media to advertise 'riots'? Someone is going to bring up social media and suggest more rules.
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