Saturday, August 24, 2024, 1:14 p.m.
“We need more control over weapons that are easily accessible and can be used to commit brutal crimes,” said the German Minister of the Interior, the Social Democrat Nancy Faeser, a few days ago. Her words seem prophetic now, in light of the multiple stabbings in Solingen, where three people were killed and seven injured by a man who later fled the scene.
Faeser was not referring to firearms, whether legally or on the black market, but to knives, such as those that can be bought in any shopping centre or hardware store. From the kitchen knife to a fan or butterfly knife. Knife attacks have skyrocketed in recent years. More than 12% in one year, according to police statistics from the Interior Ministry. And, in addition, their spectrum has amplified: they are no longer brawls, robberies or crimes attributable to common crime. Jihadist attacks with knives are also increasing, as well as attacks on police officers, controllers on trains or medical staff in hospitals and medical surgeries.
Faeser is considering at least toughening up the laws regarding the carrying of any bladed weapon in public. She proposes banning any knife or blade with a blade longer than 6 centimetres. Currently the limit is 12 centimetres. She has the support of the Social Democrats, to which she and Chancellor Olaf Scholz belong, as well as of her partners the Greens, although not of the third ally in the governing coalition, the liberals. This situation is not unusual in the German government, where liberals almost constantly reject many proposals, especially those that, according to this party, affect “individual freedoms”. The Minister of Justice, Marco Buschmann, is a liberal, so the minister’s initiative will have to overcome numerous obstacles from his department.
Cases of jihadism
But Faeser at least has a good ally in the police force, whose union supports the proposal. The conservative bloc, the largest opposition force, even believes that the carrying of all knives should be prohibited. And the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), currently second in voting intention, uses the debate to argue that a high percentage of knife attacks or crimes come from the population of foreign origin or illegal migrants.
The recent case of the policeman stabbed to death in Mannheim by a 25-year-old Afghan, who attacked a far-right rally and ended up killing the officer, fuels the arguments of the AfD. Also the most recent case of the 19-year-old Austrian-Macedonian, arrested in Vienna for allegedly planning a jihadist attack before a Taylor Swift concert. The photograph released by the Austrian authorities, and which the suspect himself had posted together with an oath of allegiance to the Islamic State (IS), shows him carrying two large knives, supposedly to carry out his attack.
But in addition to the cases allegedly linked to jihadism, there is an increase in violence with knives that is not even related to common crime. While the attacks, including those carried out by so-called ‘lone wolves’, respond to plans that can be intercepted by espionage, other knife attacks can originate spontaneously, as a violent response from someone who carries the weapon in their pocket or who reacts by using it in situations of panic or nervousness. They are, therefore, impossible to detect.
Last year alone, 8,951 cases of physical injuries caused by knives were recorded in Germany. In 2023, the number of stabbing attacks on German trains stood at 777. So far this year, there have been 430 cases of assaults on railways or stations.
The total number of knife crimes in Germany rose to almost 400,000 in 2023, an increase of 12% compared to the previous year.
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