Members of the "Last Generation“ Bonn police investigate ten climate ‚glued-down‘ activists
Bonn · In the past weeks, climate protesters who glued themselves to the ground had triggered two police operations in Bonn. The police do not charge them for the costs of the operations. There is currently no legal basis for this in NRW.
Twice, members of the Last Generation have obstructed traffic in Bonn by glueing themselves to the ground. On 3 March they did it on Adenauerallee in the direction of the city centre. On 10 March they glued themselves on Reuterstraße. Police officers used cooking oil and wooden spatulas to loosen those glued to the road. The police announced that they are currently investigating "ten people", five for each event. After criminal charges were filed, they are suspected of coercion, dangerous interference with traffic and holding an assembly without prior notification or special permission.
50 officers were involved in the blockade operations
The usual procedure during and after the police rescue from a self-inflicted predicament: documentation with photos on the spot, securing possible adhesive residues for obvious reasons, identification of the suspects and, if necessary, arrest for the rest of the day, as was the case on 3 March because the ongoing strike of Verdi and Fridays for Future was still in progress.
The effort involved in such operations is not inconsiderable. According to police spokesperson Simon Rott, a total of 37 officers were involved in the first operation on the B9, and 13 officers in the following one a week later. The Bonn authorities do not specify the costs of these operations. According to the police, the taxpayers have to bear the costs. In North Rhine-Westphalia, the taxpayer pays for those operations.
Section 2 of the North Rhine-Westphalian Fees Act provides that "the individual official acts for which fees are charged are to be determined in a schedule of fees". Rott, however, says: "The existing schedule of fees does not contain any regulation on the offence of sticking. An analogy to other offences is ruled out." There is therefore no legal basis for NRW to charge climatic adhesives for their use. The federal states of Bavaria and Hesse have a different approach. By mid-March, the Bavarian police had charged more than 7500 Euro for 50 operations, the Hessians charged a total of 13 suspects 2800 Euro, the German Press Agency reported.
Apart from deployment costs, climate protesters who got stuck on roads have been sentenced to fines and even imprisonment by various courts in recent months. Last week, a Cologne magistrate sentenced a man and a woman belonging to the Last Generation to pay 2250 euros and 1200 euros respectively for getting stuck at the Gleisdreieck exit from the A57 in July 2022 because of what they saw as misguided climate policies.
The Bonn police are still investigating. Jonas Stallkamp, press spokesman for the Bonn public prosecutor's office, told the GA in principle: "Of course, these actions can have criminal consequences if there is sufficient suspicion of a crime." First and foremost, there is the suspicion of coercion. If convicted, the sentence could range from a fine to probation or imprisonment. It also depends on whether the suspects have a criminal record. (Original text: Philipp Königs / Translation: Mareike Graepel)
