Police chief calls for knife-free zones with sense of proportion

The entrance to Görlitzer Park.

According to Police Commissioner Barbara Slowik Meisel, the new no-knife zones in Berlin will not prevent deliberate attacks.

"No-knife zones cannot prevent intentional crimes," Slowik Meisel told RBB-Inforadio. Rather, the aim is to prevent acts of violence, which are often committed in the heat of a dispute.

Three gun and knife ban zones from Saturday

In essence, the aim is to be able to confiscate weapons from "certain groups of people with an affinity for violence" and thus prevent serious or fatal injuries. These are often crimes "in criminal milieus, among drinkers or drug addicts". From Saturday, permanent gun and knife ban zones will be set up at Görlitzer Park, Kottbusser Tor and Leopoldplatz. It will then be forbidden to carry weapons and knives of any kind.

Police should make sensible use of powers

Slowik Meisel announced that the police would use their discretionary powers sensibly. They will "of course point out to the mother peeling the apple that she is now in the no-knife zone and should please leave it and not carry a knife with her in future".