Police union calls for preventive detention against climate activists

The police union (GdP) advocates nationwide preventive detention against climate activists based on the Bavarian model. "The preventive custody is an effective instrument of the legal mandate to avert danger," said union boss Jochen Kopelke to the editorial network Germany (RND). According to the Bavarian Police Duties Act, citizens can be detained for up to two months on the decision of a judge in order to prevent a serious administrative offense or a criminal offense.

Kopelke criticized a "lack of coordination between the states with a view to averting danger". It is necessary to agree on the same standards. The protest group "Last Generation" is currently making headlines with blockades or attacks on works of art. She wants to draw attention to climate change. Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann (FDP) had announced after protests in art museums that heavier penalties would be examined.

Most recently, several activists were taken into police custody for several days after a double traffic blockade in Munich. The Munich District Court examined the cases and ordered custody, the police said on Tuesday. On Monday, the activists blocked traffic twice at the Luitpold Bridge, some of them stuck to the road. Three of the eight people involved now have to stay in Stadelheim Prison until December 2nd.

Since a similar protest action in Munich a few weeks ago, there are already 13 other members of the group there. They had been placed in police custody by court order for 30 days. One of the activists in custody was still on Monday, the group said, on a hunger strike he had begun just over a week earlier.