Cops and Trouble

It was one of those situations that will barely get mentioned in German news, but it displays some of the continual situations arising from rapid immigration.

Somewhere along 6PM on Tuesday night (3 Mar)....up in Altendorf (a smaller town near Essen in the north of Germany).....the cop station had this situation develop with Lebanese families from the area.

Based on various descriptions.....the scene came up this way where someone from one of the Lebanese families felt that he'd been screwed over on a deal with a guy from another Lebanese family.  You can compare it to mafia-like situations or Scottish clans....where it became a family versus family episode.

So as guy number one and his assorted friends arrive at this Altendorf station to lodge a complaint.....some guys from the opposing family began to arrive as well.  It's not completely clear but you get the impression that they were going to counter-complain.

As both groups of families grasped the situation.....they apparently called out to associate families and they began to show up as well.    In the words of one reporter....."dozens" of family members descended upon this one station.

For small town police stations, like Altendorf.....a burb of Essen....the population is around 20,000.  A typical cop station, on an evening shift.....might have thirty to forty folks, at least at the beginning of the shift.  The situation reached a point within an hour of the first guy arriving....where the cops in the station didn't think they had enough people to control the situation.  They called out to surrounding towns for more reinforcements.

After these other cops arrive.....the situation starts to chill out and tensions lessen.  The cops took the original guy's complaint and it would appear that the second guy got a chance to lodge his counter-complaint.

What'll happen now?  The prosecutor will get the complaints and assign some junior guy to read them over and invite witnesses. None of this may ever go to some city magistrate, but you can't be sure where the facts will lead this case.

The odds of something like this occurring with a German?  Virtually zero.  You simply don't have German clans or mafia-like families.  If there was some disagreement to erupt between two Germans.....it typically gets turned to lawyers and they drag this off to a court area with a magistrate making a decision.  In some radical situations......a guy might come over to burn down or damage the second guy's business.  But some massive family or mafia-like episode?  No.....it just doesn't happen.

An episode like this will get some notice locally....mostly as a immigration issue and why things aren't working the way that German political figures try to suggest.  As for the cops?  It says a lot about the way that German cops defuse a situation....put plenty of people into the mix and let them know more are coming.  Strength in numbers....usually works.