Protests: Thousands protest against stricter police law in North Rhine-Westphalia

Stand: 15:49 | Reading time: 2 minutes

I Dusseldorf Thousands of people took to the streets Saturday against the new police law planned in North Rhine-Westphalia. According to the organizers, about 10,000 people gathered in the state capital, said a spokesman for the police in the afternoon of more than 9300 participants. Opposition parties, unions and football supporters joined forces in the alliance "No to the new NRW law"

They criticize the fact that the black and yellow government is creating more powers without adequately protecting the rights of those affected. It has been "overwhelming, how much protest today is broad," said Alliance spokeswoman Sonja Hänsler. "Even fans of different rival football clubs stand on the street."

The controversial bill aims to give more powers to the police of the most populous federal state in the fight against crime and the defense against it. Although the planned regulations are partly behind the new, also controversial Bavarian police law. However, even in North Rhine-Westphalia, the threshold of police intervention by introducing the legal concept of "imminent danger" is greatly reduced.

The Alliance criticized, among other things, the fact that contact and residence requirements were imposed "almost arbitrarily" could. This would constitute an excessive interference with the freedom of movement and privacy of the persons concerned, and the anticipated extension of pre-trial detention to one month is also unacceptable.

The police do not even have to prove in the future that there are crimes specifically planned alliance. The newly introduced legal terms of "imminent danger" and "imminent terrorist danger" could already be used on the basis of badumptions against persons.

There is "no guarantee that the police will handle such powers with care," Jasper criticized. Prigge of the Association of Democratic Lawyers (VDJ) Saturday. The law has an "imbalance".

Verena Schäffer, spokeswoman for the Greens' parliamentary group, said that the CDU and the FDP "approved their violation of the constitutional law". Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU) is therefore "a risk for freedom," she criticized.

The government of the black and yellow state had announced in its coalition agreement a "restart" of security policy and a more effective fight against extremism. Also in Bavaria, mbadive demonstrations were organized against the reinforced police law. Several constitutional trials have already been announced against the law. In North Rhine-Westphalia, FDP politicians and civil rights activists Gerhart Baum and Burkhard Hirsch want, if necessary, to oppose the draft law on the police in the Federal Constitutional Court.