If you look at local news reporting out of Koln.....not German state-run TV news.....there was a good report this morning from www.report-k.de.
What the locals sum up is that a major presentation will occur on Monday (11 Jan) with the local police chief (Wolfgang Albers) and the state Interior Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia (Ralf Jager). This probably will be an attempt to show accomplishments and clean up the perception of local failures from the 31st of December riot in Koln.
To note currently.....the local cops have an investigation team assembled now of eighty officers....just working on the caseload from that one evening, interviewing witnesses, and assembling data. I'd take a fair guess that a number of the cops were brought up to beef up the local assets.
Right now today.....there are 121 criminal charges being pursued. Whether or not......they actually go to court.....would be a question mark. One curious part of the charges is that the local cops hint that three-quarters of the charges relate in some fashion to sexual events. These usually aren't the kind of thing that a prosecutor can overlook.
The use of video from the evening? There are various comments that indicate they are using every single minute of collection and they probably will be part of any court case.....meaning that the prosecutor gets a bump-up on any judge who questions the charges.
One odd thing from Report-K commenting.....the bulk of what went on that night....was not African-immigrant-related.....it was apparently Syrian-immigrant-related. This type of behavior and chaos has been noted before in both Syria and Egypt.
How significant will clean-up be? If you wanted to ensure people did attend carnival or fasching activities in four weeks.....you have to show some type of control and ability to punish bad behavior. If a quarter of the normal crowds don't show up, you got a problem.
The deal here in Koln over the carnival period involves roughly four days. Private and public parties, along with one major parade are on the schedule. The parade would typically involve one million participants.
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