Reports out of Munich from early Thursday morning....indicate that the cops got called to an American at a local hospital (Grosshadern). The American was acting "nuts". He had been picked up for some reason....probably related to alcohol/drugs and dumped at the hospital for treatment.
At some point, he'd pulled down a fire extinguisher and just started 'firing' it at folks in the emergency room area.
At that point, after giving the guy ample warning....the German cops pull out a pistol, and shot the guy in the leg.
Now, some Americans might get touchy about such reactions, and think it's overuse of a gun, and just plain wrong, but this is Germany. One of the little things that you learn after a while....is that when a German cop asks you to cooperate, answer questions, and be rational.....you do it, period. No games, or nutty behavior. They have full authority to pull out the club and knock you in the head.....or pull the pistol and disable you.....as they did in shooting this guy in the leg.
I should also note.....German cops get ample practice with pistols, and if they aim for the leg....they tend to hit it.
The American? Stable, and resting. There's no comment yet over if he's an American G.I stationed in Germany, or just an American tourist in the middle of Oktoberfest.
Yeah, we are in the middle of Oktoberfest, and Munich tends to be a rough place for cops during this period. Lots of drunks, doped-up folks, and just bad behavior. I doubt if any cop in the Munich area is allowed leave during this period, and they probably beef up the force as necessary.
Drugs involved with this guy? I'm pretty sure they are testing him and seeing if he was using some strong stuff.
Charges? Well....yeah, I would imagine that he'll get a charge or two. If he's US Army....his unit will be pleased to charge him and the Germans will let them do their own punishment. Tourist? I suspect they'd want him to leave the country, after he's paid some fine and at least appeared in court.
UPDATE: Well....yeah, he was a US Army soldier, and the US military is investigating the episode. And it took two shots (not one) to force him on the ground. Drug-testing? I'd be taking a pretty strong guess here that they have asked him to provide a sample and he might have been drunk and high as he did his stuff. And, within the actions at the emergency room.....he accidentally assaulted an old guy who was apparently there, so you'd expect some interesting charges on the Army's side when they bring this guy into court.
2 comments:
Ummm... your commentary sounds quite odd to me in the aftermath of Ferguson, Marlene Pinnock, John Crawford. Dude's hella lucky he went messed up in Germany.
Generally...if you go back over two decades in Germany....it's hard to find any Ferguson-like episode in Germany. This goes to what I perceive as three key features of German law enforcement. First, cops work in pairs...so it's not like one cop coming onto a scene and wondering if something bad might occur (his associate is protecting his back). Second, while Turks are a minority-group society in Germany....they tend to be just as careful about obeying the law as Germans....so you don't have one segment of society pushing against enforcement of laws. Third, it's just so far that you can be doped up in Germany and threatening people....then the cops arrest you...the court puts you into a jail or rehab center....and you quietly learn that society only accepts so much stupidity before they teach you a lesson about stupidity.
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