Riots involving hundreds of far-Left radicals in Leipzig, Germany, protesting at the conviction of the activist known as ‘Lina E’, resulted in what a German police chief said was sabotage designed to kill officers.
Regarding the sabotage of officers’ private vehicles during the upheaval over the weekend of June 3 and June 4, the chairwoman of the German police union in Saxony, Cathleen Martin, said: “Unfortunately, we have been dealing with this phenomenon for years, especially in Leipzig”. She described the damage to officers’ cars as “an attempted homicide”. Every police officer has the right to come home safe after duty, Martin stressed.
While police tried to control events during the so-called ‘Day X’ riots in Leipzig, unidentified individuals intentionally tampered with vehicles belonging to law enforcement officers, she said. For one, that almost ended in tragedy.
“After the end of duty, several colleagues noticed tampering with their vehicles,” one of the officers affected said. “Sometimes the wheel nuts were loosened, on other cars the inner flanks of the tyres were punctured or the air was half deflated”. One officer was said to have only noticed the damage to his vehicle while driving on the motorway, narrowly escaping what could have been a fatal accident.
The Ministry of the Interior confirmed there had been acts of sabotage during the demonstrations and that damage to property is “currently being investigated”. The number of vehicles involved was not revealed.
Martin pointed out the dangers of loosened vehicle wheel nuts, adding that officers’ relatives also used their private cars and thus sabotaging those vehicles put others at risk of injury.
‘Day X’ was a protest organised by the far Left following the conviction of Lina E and her accomplices. They were jailed for carrying out “commando-style” attacks on what they described as neo-Nazis as well as targeting the German police and an uninvolved member of the public.
The demonstration quickly turned violent, with rioters throwing stones, bottles and fireworks at police and setting fire to barricades. Fifty officers were wounded.