A Southwest cop sends pictures of Adolf Hitler to chat groups. The man is caught and suspended. There are more police officers under suspicion. Politicians promise a "zero tolerance strategy".
Ulm (dpa / lsw) - A police officer is said to have distributed pictures of Adolf Hitler and swastikas in various chat groups with at least 70 colleagues - now the authorities are investigating the man, among other things, on suspicion of sedition. The 28-year-old was suspended from duty, as the Baden-Württemberg State Criminal Police Office and the public prosecutor announced on Thursday. Disciplinary proceedings are to be initiated against five other police officers.
According to the authorities, they confiscated the suspects' mobile phones and checked about 6,000 chat groups - in 13 of these groups they found criminally relevant content. Around 70 officers from ten police headquarters and police facilities in the country have so far been identified as participants in the chat groups. It was initially unclear whether all investigations would be initiated against them.
Baden-Württemberg's Interior Minister Thomas Strobl (CDU) made it clear on Thursday that the police in the south-west had a "zero tolerance strategy" - against the use of an anti-constitutional symbol and against any extremist, racist, discriminatory or anti-Semitic offence. "If we have even the slightest suspicion that a police officer is on the wrong track, then we investigate it immediately and comprehensively, with all the criminal and disciplinary consequences."
Every single case is one too many, said Strobl. However, according to the CDU politician, these cases must not "unjustly and across the board put the police and all employees in the wrong light and discredit them". The country wants to continue to take consistent action. According to reports, Strobl offered the interior committee information about the events in a special meeting.
The domestic political spokesman for the SPD parliamentary group, Sascha Binder, said it was not a trivial offense to send right-wing extremist image material or texts. "Anyone who doesn't have both feet on the ground of the constitution has no place in our police force."
