Pyro show from Karlsruhe with consequences (nd-aktuell.de)

At seven in the morning in Germany: the coffee is steaming, the children are rubbing the sleep out of their eyes. Then the doorbell rings, and hooded police officers are standing outside. Shortly thereafter, the apartment is in a disastrous condition. And dad has to explain a lot to the crying children that he doesn’t really understand himself. The Tuesday began something like this for some football fans of the second division club Karlsruher SC: They received a visit from the police, who carried out raids on the fans’ private rooms. 25 apartments in the western part of Baden-Württemberg were affected. According to the police, “pyrotechnic objects and masking materials” were found. Arrest warrants were not issued.

The investigations are a reaction to KSC’s home game against FC St. Pauli on November 12. It was actually not harmless what happened back then: The ultra group »Rheinfire« had celebrated their 20th anniversary so excessively with pyrotechnics and fireworks that the game had to be kicked off fifteen minutes later. The claim, popular among ultra groups, that pyrotechnics, if handled correctly, are harmless and do not affect bystanders was also shattered. Nine people suffered smoke inhalation at the time, including a child.

Only, and the Berlin fan advocate René Lau attaches importance to this difference: »You can think of pyrotechnics as you like. But unlike violent crimes, there is never intent. Someone who lights a torch in the middle of the block is surrounded by their friends.” Nobody was to be injured in Karlsruhe either: the fact that the smoke in the newly occupied new stadium would not escape under the protruding roof during the pyro premiere was not taken into account . Of course, that doesn’t make it any better for the injured.

The day after the police action, the Karlsruhe fan scene was still bewildered, not because the public prosecutor’s office had reacted to the events, but because the fans felt the raid was disproportionate. In fact, when 100 officers were deployed, there were apparently some scenes like the one described above. Another person was taken into custody at their place of work – in handcuffs. According to reports, the doors were also kicked in during some searches without the bell having been rung beforehand. The measure apparently also affected employees of the security service, who are suspected of having turned a blind eye during the entry checks. For “reasons of investigation tactics” the police did not want to confirm or comment on “nd”. One continues to investigate and sifts through the seized material, which also includes mobile phones and storage media, and which is “open-ended,” as a police spokesman emphasized.

Regardless of how you feel about pyrotechnics, there is no reason to treat the fans as if they were guilty of grievous bodily harm or worse crimes, says fan advocate Lau. But: “The Karlsruhe public prosecutor’s office is known for the fact that they like to shoot sparrows with cannons in the context of football”. And on the other hand, this approach corresponds to the nationwide police line since the end of the Corona game: »There is no longer any sign of the way of relying on dialogue and de-escalation. It’s all about repression as a panacea.«

In fact, incidents from all parts of the country indicate that the police act against fans in a much more accessible and repressive manner than before the corona-related special game operations. An example: Before the regional league game between Carl Zeiss Jena and Lok Leipzig, the police wanted to forbid all fans of other clubs from entering the stadium – and search the fan rooms of the home scene.

Not an isolated case: With reference to the danger prevention, the police carried out preventive actions like in Jena in many places in the past six months, which would have been unthinkable before. In September, without any reason, portrait photos of St. Pauli fans were taken in the guest block in Regensburg. Drones circle over the stadiums at many third and fourth division games. This does not bode well for the second half of the season in the third division, which begins at the weekend, or for the weeks that follow, in which the first and second divisions start the second half, especially since the fan site is currently not contributing to the de-escalation when it comes to pyrotechnics. Even long-time stadium visitors cannot remember that there was ever as much igniting in the fan stands as in the past first half of the season.