Berlin Police Chief: Jews and Gays Should Hide their Identities in Arab Neighborhoods

More than half a million crimes occur in Berlin every year. Despite this, the police are to make even more cuts, writes the Berliner Zeitung’s Andreas Kopietz on Monday, noting that the leaders of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the Social Democratic Party (SPD) were about to decide on further cuts.

The Berliner Zeitung spoke to Berlin’s police chief Barbara Slowik about this, and the soon covered bans on “Palestinian” demonstrations.

Barbara Slowik Meisel, 58, has a doctorate in administrative law. She was a government councilor in the Senate Department for the Interior and moved to the Federal Ministry of the Interior in 2002. Among other things, she helped set up the Joint Extremism and Counter-Terrorism Center and headed the information technology department for the Federal Criminal Police Office of Germany (BKA), the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, and the Federal Police. She has been the police chief in Berlin since April 2018.

Dr. Slowik, is Berlin a safe city?

Slowik: Berlin is as safe as many other cities in Germany and safer than many other European capitals.

Are there no-go areas?

Slowik: Basically not. However, there are areas – and we have to be honest about this – where I would advise people who wear a kippah or are openly gay or lesbian to be more careful. In many big cities, you should be vigilant in certain public places anyway to protect yourself from any kind of crime.

Do you have another example?

Slowik: We urgently need object-related video surveillance, especially at embassies, also using AI. That would relieve us enormously. In terms of property protection, we have never had such a tense situation. We currently need 380 law enforcement colleagues from the protective and criminal police to support the 1,500 property protection officers in order to meet the calls for protection since October 7, 2023. That corresponds roughly to the staff strength of a police department and two operational units. That will be noticeable in the city.

They are then lacking in law enforcement and threat prevention.

Slowik: Yes, we still have to continue working with these deficits if that happens. These deficits are compensated for by our colleagues by sitting well beyond their normal working hours and, for example, laboriously evaluating data manually. At the same time, some of them then make makeshift improvements or renovate their offices and work rooms themselves.

More than 6,200 investigations have been initiated since October 7, 2023. You said earlier that there are certain areas in the city where you shouldn’t wear the kippah so openly. Who poses a danger to Jewish people?

Slowik: I’m not going to defame any groups of people here. Unfortunately, there are certain neighborhoods where the majority of the people are of Arab descent and also have sympathies for terrorist groups. Open anti-Semitism is expressed there against people of Jewish faith and origin. We have initiated more than 6,200 investigations since October 7, 2023. A large proportion are hate postings on social media, another large proportion are property damages, and a significant proportion are propaganda offenses.

The violent crimes, which account for 1,300 investigations, are predominantly directed against police officers on the sidelines of gatherings. It is important to me to establish this. I am very concerned that people from the Jewish-Israeli community in Berlin are aware of the overall number of anti-Semitic crimes and that this increases their fear of becoming the target of an attack.

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