It was an unusual weekend, even for Berlin data. Late on the night of Saturday, July 19, in the Guzudbrunnen area of the capital, a young man was fatally injured by knife hits in clashing with about 50 young people.
The, who rushed to the point of the attack, was unable to prevent the fate. Shortly thereafter, shots were heard in nearby coffee with many injured. At about the same time there were knive attacks on Cruitseburg, Nokkeln and Charlottenburg. The people who participated in the clashes were not aware of each other, were members of organized gangs. Gang violence is now evolving in its public places and especially in Berlin.
In Alexanderplaz the gangs are strictly separated by nationality – Afghans, Syrians, Vietnamese. When the darkness falls, conflicts begin mainly with knives, others have weapons. But what about? Was Berlin transformed into Far West?
Arabic Megalo Family
“It is not a new phenomenon, we have been experiencing it for decades mainly every weekend in the metropolises, but more strongly in Berlin.” says in “Step” Benjamin Gentirosa representative from 2016 of the Berlin Police Union.
He is not a police officer himself. He studied German literature in Potsdam and worked for a year as a police reporter on Bild and Bz. We met him at the headquarters of the trade union, on Kourfirest. “We are an international metropolis ,.
But we also have many areas of organized crime, where opposing gangs arrange their differences with violence on the streets, knives, mats, baseball sticks, and even weapons. We have about 20 Arabic soybeans, it doesn’t mean that all members are criminals, but many often appear in the files. “
These are large Arab families of Kurdish, Palestinian or Lebanese origin with closed structures that have been installed in Berlin and other German cities. Especially in Berlin, 25% of organized crime is in their hands.
They live in a parallel world inaccessible to the police, by their own rules. For many years the state has underestimated the problem. In the meantime, books that shed light on their structures have been written, such as “The Sogia Power” by two “Spiegel” reporters and an autobiography of Mahmut al -Zainhead of a bigger, entitled “The Berlin Godfather”.
In another book entitled “On the Road our Law”, a former member of the Arab Megalo Family, tells that the way to crime is usually paved by the older relatives. “In Beirut I only stole bread, there was nothing else, but Berlin is paradise, all in abundance.” Criminal prosecutions? “In most cases I escaped, and when they caught me, the case stopped.”
Hotspot of violence and lawlessness
Is migration problem? We ask our interlocutor. “We find that among the perpetrators, both the percentage of foreigners and the percentage of people with migration backgrounds are high.”he tells us. “But to be honest, it is very easy to say that it is only Mohammed and Ali who come out with a knife on the weekend, it is both Kevin and Alexander, we cannot separate them.
In Berlin, 40% of people living there have an immigration background. We are a multicultural society ». In addition to groups with a long “presence” in the underworld, such as the Russian and the Vietnamese Mafia, other players with vague hierarchies have entered, as Gedros tells us. The new violence is open, cruel, unpredictable. “This is e.g. For Chechens, who have war experience and are very violent, for Syrians, but there is an organized crime that we do not have on our radar, such as the Italian mafia, which is more present in Baden-Wurttemberg and Thuringia.
We also have gangs from Eastern Europe with mainly car thefts, prostitution with traffickers from the Asian area. Then, we have classic cases of crime, such as gangs of rock and motorcyclists, as well as far -right drug groups. But big drug players are operating internationally. Cocaine traveled to Gerlitz Park does not grow on trees but comes from South America and enters Germany mainly through ports, Hamburg and Rotterdam. ”
The public space in Berlin has changed shape in recent years and some areas have become a hotspot of violence and lawlessness, where passersby are afraid to approach and take other ways to get home. There are points in the German capital, such as Gerlitserbanhov Station in Cruceburg, where traffickers fall normally. And the police? “As a Police Trade Union we have been asking for staff for a long time, but there is no one,” he says Gedros.
“The police have long been under -staffed due to chronic austerity. In addition, it is not just organized crime. In Berlin there are many and large demonstrations, many times up to 50, on the weekend. All international conflicts, Russia, Ukraine, Gaza, have an impact on Berlin. That is why we need to prioritize our duties, it is not possible to deal with simple tracks, recording of car sheet damage and work for insurance companies or record bike thefts. We have to focus on the basics. Internal security is a fundamental mission of the state to its citizens. ”
‘We’re not bogs’
However, Berlin is a safe city compared to other metropolises. Crime may increase and its form change, but it does not mean that when someone goes out on the street they are in danger of not returning home or falling victim to robbery.
“This is created such an impression of the description of violent crime on the streets, that everything is bad. In a city of almost 4 million we had 90 homicides last year. One would say that there are many, but at 75 the victim knew the perpetrator. Yes, we have a lot of problems, violent crime has reached 2024 at a new historical high, but we are not bogs … “.
