After Kusel’s act of violence, there were hundreds of cases on social media in which the alleged perpetrators were celebrated and the dead mocked. Now the LKA is investigating.
Mainz – After the murder of a 24-year-old police officer and a 29-year-old police officer near Kusel in western Rhineland-Palatinate, investigators from the Rhineland-Palatinate State Criminal Police Office are taking action against hundreds of hate crimes on the Internet that directly relate to the crime. According to the Ministry of the Interior, 399 cases of online hate speech have been investigated so far, 102 were classified as criminally relevant. In 15 cases, the people behind the statements have been identified so far.
The cold-blooded killing of the two officials on the Internet was already celebrated on the day of the crime, said Interior Minister Roger Lewentz (SPD*) at a press conference on Monday (February 7th, 2022). In some cases, even the victims’ relatives were mocked. “We do not accept that people are really celebrating the cold-blooded killing of the two police colleagues and mocking the victims,” the daily newspaper Rheinpfalz quoted the interior minister as saying.
After the bloody deed in Kusel: suspected Reich citizen called for imitation
A particularly shocking example of hate crimes on the Internet is the case of a man from the Birkenfeld district northwest of Kusel, who in two videos called for police officers to be lured to lonely dirt roads elsewhere and to be ambushed and shot. The man was arrested on Friday night.
LKA President Johannes Kunz said on Monday that there were indications “that speak for an assignment to the Reich citizen spectrum”. The Koblenz Attorney General Jürgen Brauer underlined that likes or affirmative comments under such social media entries could also be punishable.
Police murder in Kusel: investigative group set up against “Hate Speech”.
According to the Koblenz Attorney General Jürgen Brauer, the cases investigated by the 14-strong team of investigators involve allegations such as the approval of crimes, disparaging the memory of the deceased or incitement to hatred. To this end, social media such as YouTube, Facebook or Twitter are specifically examined for hate postings. The “Hate Speech” investigative group is also investigating numerous reports from the population and from police departments in other federal states.
The authors identified so far came from all over Germany, said LKA President Kunz. In some cases they have connections to the Reichsbürger milieu, others are apparently opponents of the Corona measures *. In one case, the murder of the two police officers was praised because now two fewer officers could intervene against “peaceful walkers”.
102 criminally relevant hate crimes after the double murder of Kusel
According to the authorities, the 102 hate crimes that have already been prosecuted after the murder of the two emergency services in the West Palatinate are about 23 cases on the short message service Twitter, 21 on Facebook and 20 on YouTube. Similar “resonance crimes” would have recently occurred after the murder of a gas station employee in Idar-Oberstein by an opponent of the Corona measures.
The 24-year-old police candidate and the 29-year-old police officer were shot dead during a traffic check on a country road near Kusel on Monday morning a week ago. Two suspects were arrested the same day and are in custody. According to the current status of the investigation, the perpetrators wanted to cover up the fact that there were numerous poached animals in their vehicle. (ska with dpa/epd) *fr.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA
