After attacks on the police and fire department on New Year’s Eve, the federal government is planning harsher punishments. “Those who attack the forces of law and order and put the health of people at risk with highly dangerous explosives, only understand harshness” said Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) to the Bild newspaper (Friday edition). “We want it to be the case in the future that up to five years in prison can be imposed if police officers, paramedics, or doctors are lured into dangerous ambushes.”
The government will enable the widespread use of Tasers by the federal police to stop dangerous perpetrators and protect the forces of law and order, Faeser said. “The draft bill should be passed as quickly as possible.”
Federal Justice Minister Volker Wissing (formerly FDP) also spoke out in favor of consistent and swift punishment. “What’s important is that the criminal laws are consistently applied” he said to the newspaper. “The perpetrators must quickly feel the harshness of the law. That must be our top priority now” Wissing said.
“Our criminal code already offers the possibility of severely punishing attacks, as we saw on New Year’s Eve. Individual adjustments are sensible, though. We, the federal government, had a draft bill put forward in September that provides for a harsher punishment of attacks on police officers, rescue workers, and firefighters” said the justice minister. “The Bundestag should pass it before the election.