Lützerath.
Aachen’s police chief rejected allegations that the removal of Greta Thunberg was a “staging”.
Police officers hold Greta Thunberg while photographers take their pictures – this scene has triggered accusations of “staging” on social networks. A spokesman for the Aachen police rejected the impression on Wednesday. The scene came about when Thunberg, together with other climate activists, demonstrated on Tuesday directly at the edge of the Rhenish lignite mining area, which was dangerous and therefore prohibited. All members of the group were then briefly taken into custody to determine their personal details. The spokesman emphasized that it was not an arrest.
In this situation, Thunberg was photographed by photojournalists who were present. Allowing this is a requirement of press freedom, said the police spokesman. The police officers would definitely not have “posed” with the activist. When it was Thunberg’s turn, their data were recorded. The activist group was then taken away from the edge of the mine and then “released from the police measure”. All activists were treated equally.
Chief of Police defends robust use in Lützerath
Aachen’s police chief Dirk Weinspach also rejected allegations that the kidnapping of Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg on Tuesday was a “staging”. “We would never give ourselves to make such recordings, we are not the extras for the staging of a woman Thunberg.”
Weinspach also defended the robust clearance operation in and around the brown coal village of Lützerath. “We said that if there was a storm on the security system, a storm on Lützerath, then we would have to use all the means available to us, taking into account proportionality,” Weinspach told the newspaper “Die Welt” on Wednesday. (dpa)
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