January 25, 2019
An Iranian already ordered deported from Germany and three Afghans have been arrested after going on a wild rampage in a small German town, injuring 12 people and feeding anti-immigrant sentiment all across Germany.
The quaint Bavarian town of Amberg, with a population of 40,000, was in shock after the group of teenaged asylum seekers randomly beat passengers exiting a train and then moved to the city center to continue their rampage December 29.
According to reports, the attackers shouted “kafir,” a derogatory term for non-Muslims, and “nigger” at some victims. Some news reports said the teenagers were drunk.
The four attackers fled the scene, but were later captured by police. Some of the victims said there were other attackers beyond the four arrested.
In all, 12 victims ranging in age from 16 to 42 needed medical attention. Most of the injuries were minor, according to news reports, but a 17-year-old was treated for severe head wounds.
German authorities announced that two of the Afghan attackers have already had their asylum claims rejected, while the Iranian should have been deported already.
The incident got front-page coverage across Germany and prompted the federal interior minister, Horst Seehofer, to call for tougher laws on expelling unruly asylum seekers.
Later, rightwing immigrant bashers descended on the town and launched patrols looking for immigrants. Amberg Mayor Michael Cerny warned against the rightwing reaction and said it posed a greater danger to the town than the four teens in police custody.
“I can understand the insecurity seen in some of the reactions of some Ambergers, but the hatred and the threats of violence from all over the country go way too far,” he told the local daily Mittelbayerische Zeitung.
Another victim, 29-year-old Marco Steck, said, “In the train station hall, four guys looked at us. Suddenly, the biggest of them kicked a 13-year-old boy, who was standing next to me, in the stomach.”
Several people ran into a shop at the train station, and a saleswoman locked the doors. “People immediately told me that they were being attacked,” she said. “Everyone was scared. Such people do not deserve to be here.”
The attackers then left the train station and went to the city center where they randomly attacked bystanders, injuring nine there. A restaurant manager who came to aid a woman being harassed received a head butt from one of the attackers.
Two days after the Amberg rampage, a German man was arrested in another city for driving a car into a crowd of immigrants, injuring several of them.
Only a handful of immigrants have been charged with violence in Germany. Immigrants are more likely to be on the receiving end of violence from rightwingers and neo-Nazis. However, one of the worst cases of violence involved an Iranian teen, Ali Sonboly, 18, who went on a shooting spree in Munich in July 2016, killing nine people before committing suicide.
All of the people he killed were either immigrants or the children of immigrants, which police initially said they assumed was just a coincidence. However, the case file was reopened this year after it was learned that Sonboly, who was born in Germany, had been in contact with at least one American involved in a school shooting. Sonboly had been under psychiatric care in Germany.