Berlin CDU calls for tougher action against clan crime

The Berlin CDU has called for stricter action against clan crime. In a position paper that is available to WELT, the state and parliamentary group leader Kai Wegner presents a ten-point plan "against organized crime". It states that Berlin has not acted with the necessary consistency against organized crime "for decades". That has to change now.

The basic requirement for this is to call the problem of clan crime by its name. The origin and social background of the perpetrators should not be "taboo". Police and public prosecutors would have to push back clans through "permanent observation" and "consistent raids".

The CDU relies on a "strategy of 1000 pinpricks", as used in North Rhine-Westphalia. All business and private activities of clan members would have to be “screened” in order to be able to punish “even the slightest violations” of the law. A special unit should pool information and develop common strategies.

Furthermore, the CDU wants the data exchange between different authorities to go "to the furthest limit of the applicable laws". Data protection should not be used to protect offenders. If possible, clan members should be deprived of their driver's license and car.

Prevention and dropout programs are intended to keep young clan members from criminal careers. As a "ultima ratio", the CDU also calls for the possibility of taking children away from their parents temporarily or permanently. "Children are being robbed of their chance of a life in mainstream society," the statement said.

Most of the ideas of the CDU are not new. Some things are also difficult to implement in practice. The “strategy of 1000 pinpricks” demanded by the CDU has long been applied. The police, customs and regulatory agencies check shops that belong to clans and check whether the owners are complying with fire safety regulations.

The Berlin CDU politician Falko Liecke raised the question of whether children from the clan milieu can be taken into state care four years ago. At the time, the “Tagesspiegel” quoted lawyers with the assessment that such an approach would probably only succeed in individual cases.

In 2018, several Berlin authorities decided on a five-point plan to fight criminal members of Arab clans. The core of the agreement was cross-departmental cooperation and a new coordination center for the various authorities.

The Berlin CDU, like all parties in the capital, is preparing for a possible repetition of the election to the House of Representatives. There were massive glitches in the election in September last year. The Berlin Constitutional Court will announce a decision on the matter on November 16. In the event of a repeat, the election would take place in February.