Essen district of Altenessen-Mitte on Saturday morning just 36 hours after the New Year’s Eve riot. They have provisionally secured the completely demolished bus stop with red and white tarpaulin, the red paving stones are covered with shards of glass. The trail of devastation can be seen from the stairs of the underground station to Altenessener market: a dozen waste paper baskets, torn from their anchors and destroyed, lie on the ground. Of the two green dustbins set on fire in the middle of the market square, one is half melted. A little further on, the demolished neon sign with a pile of broken glass underneath.First the closed St. Mary’s Hospital, in some cases fights between Lebanese and Syrians, now the New Year’s Eve riots. The district is not calming down. “Something has to happen here, we definitely need more police,” says dog trainer Franziska Thelen, waiting for the bus and looking at the demolished bus stop. “A year ago they broke those windows on New Year’s Eve, too.”A passer-by stops by, pulls out her mobile phone and takes a photo of the sign of the outbreak of violence: the shattered bus stop. “Yes, it has become worse here,” says the woman who has moved from Oberhausen. The sight of the damage is terrible. Until now she had felt safe in Altenessen, but now doubts come up in her mind. “You don’t dare walk past here at night any more.The small area between the Alter Badeanstalt and Altenessener Markt is one of the busiest in the whole district. Three bus and two underground lines meet here, plus the busy Altenessener Street, and only a stone’s throw away is the highly frequented Allee-Center.Was the New Year’s Eve riot a spontaneous outbreak of violence or possibly a carefully staged and planned action? The “Tik-Tok video”, set to gangsta rap and composed with precisely edited riot images, speaks more for the latter. The sequence with the sledgehammer at the bus stop underpins this. No one goes to a New Year’s Eve party with a sledgehammer.”The police have to be tough,” says the taxi driver, who is of Turkish origin. And he adds: ” When I see the destruction here, it makes me cry. He is sure that young men with Arab-Kurdish-Lebanese roots committed the riot. Disrespect and violence – that’s what they learned from their parents. “The old tell the young: Nothing can happen to you, we are stateless”.

https://www.waz.de/staedte/essen/silvester-randale-altenessener-enttaeuscht-von-der-polizei-id231253464.html

Protests in Dublin continued during the weekend over the death of George Nkencho, who was shot dead by police, after he attacked officers with a knife. Even the Nigerian government condemned the shooting.

The Nigerian government called the death “ruthless and wicked” and demanded an independent public inquiry.

The 27-year-old was killed on Wednesday outside his home near Clonee in West Dublin. There had been a report of a man wielding a knife in a nearby supermarket.

A spokesperson for the Nigerians in the Diaspora Commission said: “The circumstances surrounding the murder of a young man with an intellectual disability angered the African community.” But the attacker’s sister and a friend gave a different view. His sister said her brother had supported the family. “I have no brother now, he was the eldest in the family. I have to take care of my mum now.” The friend said he had “mental health issues”, not a disability.

Nkencho entered a supermarket in Hartstown and punched a manager in the face, injuring the victim’s nose. The manager had to be taken to hospital.

When the police arrived, they had used pepper spray followed by the firing of two Taser guns. They had also verbally ordered the attacker to drop his knife several times before using force, one source told the Irish Times.

Meanwhile, the African Advocacy Network Ireland called Mr Nkencho’s death an “execution”, reported Dublin Live.

https://freewestmedia.com/2021/01/03/ireland-knife-wielding-african-shot-black-activists-demand-justice/

Corona may have meant a different New Year’s Eve for most people, but one thing did not fundamentally change for the police and fire brigade in Essen: once again, they were pelted with firecrackers during their operations. The police reported two major incidents in the Südostviertel and Altenessen districts.

Shortly after midnight (0.16 am), however, the officers were called to the street Steeler Straße/corner Kurfürstenstraße. There, witnesses had reported about 30 youths who were setting fire to rubbish bins and apparently using accelerants to do so.

When the fire brigade and police arrived at the scene, the hooligans did not hesitate: “Immediately, our colleagues were attacked from within the group with fireworks,” Wickhorst said. According to the fire brigade, emergency vehicles were also fired upon with firecrackers and rockets. According to current information, the fireworks that were thrown were “category 4 fireworks”, which are sold for professional use.Fortunately, no one was injured. However, what could have happened is shown by the damage caused by a single firecracker in the attack. The firecracker had fallen a few metres away from a parked vehicle. “But the force of the explosion was enough to trigger a side airbag and tear off the interior mirror,” police spokesman Christoph Wickhorst describes in vivid detail.

The police arrested a youth after receiving hints from witnesses. The 16-year-old allegedly threw the fireworks. After the measures were completed, his legal guardians were able to pick him up at the police station.

A short time later, the police were able to identify another 16-year-old, both of whom (of Syrian and Syrian-Turkish origin) were questioned, fingerprints were taken and photos were taken.

Only a little later, the police were dealing with a larger group in the Altenessen district. Around 0.40 am, residents had called the police and reported that about 50 people were rioting and vandalising the Altenessen market.

“Smashed bus stops, smashed advertising boards and kicked or burning rubbish bins,” Christoph Wickhorst lists the damage. When the police arrived, the group fled.

https://www.waz.de/staedte/essen/essen-junge-maenner-werfen-boeller-auf-einsatzkraefte-id231247648.html

A court in the Italian city of Milan ruled that the coronavirus situation in a migrant’s country of origin will be taken into account when deciding which migrant can stay in the country. According to the ruling, migrants could be endangered by a lack of medical staff, equipment, or intensive care beds if they are returned to their country of origin.

As the Italian ANSA news agency branch focused on the Mediterranean area reported, a court in Milan ruled that the risk of COVID-19 infection could be used as a reason for granting humanitarian protection.

This so-called humanitarian protection status is given to those who do not obtain refugee status but would be at risk if they would return to their country of origin. However, each case would be reportedly assessed individually and migrants will not receive automatic protection.

In the decision process, authorities will take into account whether COVID-19 negatively affects the health care and economy of the migrant’s country of origin, i.e. whether he or she would be at risk of lack of health care or hunger as a result of the pandemic.

The Italian media reported that the court’s decision concerns applications submitted before the changes introduced by the then Minister of the Interior Matteo Salvini in 2018.

According to Italian judges, the pandemic must be considered a risk factor in deciding whether a migrant is entitled to humanitarian protection as he or she could face issues in the country of origin due to the lack of intensive care beds, the lack of lung ventilators, or the lack of hospital staff.

With Italy’s left-wing government relaxing rules at the border, the country has seen a massive surge in migrants entering the country in the last year. 

https://rmx.news/article/article/coronavirus-to-become-a-factor-in-accepting-migrants-in-italy

In 2021, scenes of urban violence were witnessed throughout France despite the Corona curfew. There were 662 arrests, with 25 police officers and gendarmes injured.

The French Ministry of the Interior did not give a quantified assessment for material damage suffered by the state or persons.

In total, 45 400 police checks were carried out and 6 650 tickets for non-compliance with the curfew were handed out by the internal security forces.

Even if the incidents were less numerous than in previous years, some individuals targeted, sometimes in a very violent way, the police with the use of fireworks. These attacks led the police and gendarmes to carry out 662 arrests and to place 407 individuals in police custody.

The police and gendarmerie enforced curfew measures throughout the country, the Ministry of the Interior said in a statement.

In Angers, 41 vehicles were set on fire during the night of December 31 to January 1 and mobile gendarmes, police officers and firefighters were targeted by fireworks.

Many fireworks were set off during the evening, despite the prohibition on sale decided by the prefect, reported Ouest-France.

The police intervened many times on New Year’s Eve in Bordeaux and its metropolis for urban violence and non-compliance with the curfew. Fireworks mortar fire was observed, as well as about thirty burned cars. Building were also set on fire even before the New Year started, according to regional daily Sud-Ouest.

Several dozen vehicles were reportedly set on fire overnight in the heart of Lyon  as in the Minguettes district in Vaulx-en-Velin, Vénissieux, Bron and Rillieux-la-Pape. These districts are all immigrant areas.

Fireworks were also fired in several places in the metropolitan area of Lyon, in particular in Bron, just a few hundred meters from the checkpoint organized by the Prefecture and in the presence of the Prefect Pascal Mailhos shortly after 8 pm on Thursday, December 31, Actu.fr reported.

Three cars burned in Mantes-la-Jolie between in the Val-Fourré district. In the last case, the police were targeted.

In Nantes, the police and firefighters were targeted by fireworks in several neighborhoods. Vehicles and garbage cans were set on fire in several districts: Malakoff, Bottière, northern and southern districts, reported le Parisien.

For the city of Nice, nearly 45 trash fires were identified and 17 cars burned. Four vehicles of firefighters from the Bon Voyage barracks were targeted by stone throwing, fortunately without causing any injuries. Police and gendarmerie crews were also targeted, in particular in the Ariane district in Nice, in Drap in that of Condamine and in the Vignasses district in La Trinité, all immigrant areas.

The New Year’s Eve was also punctuated by the fire of some sixty vehicles in Strasbourg, Schiltigheim, Ostwald and Mutzig.

In Toulouse, twenty vehicles were set on fire during New Year’s Eve. Targeted by fireworks on rue Paul-Gauguin, police officers from the Anti-Crime Brigade (BAC) were targeted during the night.

The Real Estate Agency of the City of Paris (RiVP) did not want to take any risks. On the eve of New Year’s Eve, as for Christmas, it had asked all its Parisian employees not to take out the trash. The order was issued via a document posted in the 110 buildings it takes care of: “For safety reasons, the containers in the trash cans will not be taken out on December 24 and 31. We wish you happy end of year celebrations.”

For the boss of the RiVP questioned by the le Parisien, this decision was the result of a year which had been “a little special”. “We had to be educational and effective,” he said. Parisian homeowners are in fact afraid that the rubbish bins will be burned as is the case every year in the capital, and this despite the curfew this year. Thus, according to our colleagues, the other lessor, Paris Habitat, asked the same thing of its caretakers.

Their decision was based on the recommendations from local police stations as a “security measure” and  was a relief for the firefighters for whom the fires of rubbish and cars “represent 75 to 80 percent” of their interventions, indicated their spokesperson. Trash fires most often take place … next to homes and cars in Paris.

The mayor of Paris has always refused to communicate on the number of green bins destroyed during New Year’s Eve, but also wants to avoid at all costs that it does not increase, especially at 150 euros per unit.

In Germany, after several Bundeswehr vehicles in Leipzig were burned out on New Year’s Eve, the State Criminal Police Office has started investigations. Arson is assumed, said a police spokeswoman speaking to the Bild newspaper.

The fire brigade was called out on Thursday night. The flames had destroyed a total of seven armed forces jeeps. Other cars were also damaged by the heat. The damage amounts to tens of thousands of euros.

Meanwhile, a letter of allegiance appeared on the left-wing extremist scene portal Indymedia. The perpetrators justified the arson attack, among other things with the rejection of the state and its institutions. “The repressive organizations such as cops, the armed forces, justice or job centers deserve our attacks in particular.”

https://freewestmedia.com/2021/01/02/urban-violence-ushers-in-new-year-in-france-germany/