SPD and Greens want to check other no-gun zones

Firefighters, police officers and rescue workers were attacked in several Hamburg districts on New Year's Eve, mostly with pyrotechnics and stones - in one case the emergency services were even said to have been ambushed. A good two months later, the Hamburg government factions of the SPD and the Greens are responding with a joint motion for the upcoming parliamentary session. It is being considered to expand the number of no-gun zones.

The burning of pyrotechnics was already forbidden in some areas of the city center during the last New Year's Eve. After the riots, there were also calls to ban the New Year's Eve custom for the whole of Hamburg. But the SPD and the Greens do not go that far. Rather, in the joint application, the Senate is asked to examine "whether and at which locations further fireworks-free zones could make sense". In addition, it should be clarified whether inter-agency "preventive measures for clarification and conflict avoidance can be developed".

First of all, however, it should be explained which groups were actually involved in the attacks and in what form. The domestic policy spokeswoman for the Greens parliamentary group, Sina Imhof, speaks in this context of "incidents that have already been extensively and quite emotionally discussed in the media", which should now be "analyzed impartially and calmly". General prejudices against migrants “or milieus associated with them” are unacceptable.

Sören Schumacher, domestic policy spokesman for the SPD parliamentary group, calls for an evaluation of the events and a review of the available measures "so that the next turn of the year can be celebrated safely for everyone." The existing legal situation already offers extensive possibilities for burning off fireworks to limit - "for example, by setting up additional firecracker ban zones."