Arson attacks have burned down one invader center in Germany every two days since 2015, the head of the German Federal Criminal Police (BKA) has announced.
There have been a total of 45 arson attacks against “refugee shelters” since January this year, Münch said, adding that the tempo of attacks was now speeding up. This averages out at one every two days.
In 2015, there were a total of 173 arson attacks “with a right-wing background”—which also averages out at one every two days.
“We are concerned that the intensity of the violence is increasing,” he said. “The perpetrators are predominantly male and nearly 80 percent come from the place where the offense was committed.”
He said that there are currently no indications of any formal “right-wing” organizations which are organizing the attacks on the invader centers, and that the perpetrators all appeared to be locals acting out of anger.
“However, we do see that there is a risk that terrorist organizations could be forming,” he said. “We cannot exclude this possibility and take the threat very seriously.”
Münch also expressed his “concern” about the “increasing verbal violence on the Internet,” revealing that the police are currently investigating no less than 3,000 such thought crimes.
“The number of offenses that we have registered in 2015 here has tripled in one year and currently stands at about 3,000 cases,” he said. Read More