‘The cowardly attack by 10 migrants on a single German had an effect’ – Large protest against migrant violence held after brutal beating caught on film

AfD state lawmaker Lena Kotré spoke at a demonstration against migrant violence after the brutal beating of a German teen in Frankfurt (Oder).
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Between 500 and 1,000 people rallied Tuesday evening in the eastern German city of Frankfurt (Oder), a large crowd for a city of approximately 55,000, after a video of a group of teenagers beating and kicking a 14-year-old student outside a high school circulated widely on social media. The Alternative for Germany (AfD) organized the protest and had regional politicians deliver speeches, while the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) condemned the event.

Roughly 500 people gathered at Leipziger Platz for the demonstration, according to estimates from a photographer for the German news agency dpa. AfD state lawmaker Lena Kotré, who spoke at the event, put the number closer to 1,000.

“The cowardly attack by ten migrants on a single German has had an effect. Around 1,000 people gathered this evening on Leipziger Platz in Frankfurt an der Oder to protest together with the AfD against migrant violence. We won’t tolerate it any longer! The perpetrators and their families need to be deported,” she stated.

The incident has become highly controversial, also in part because the police issued threats against publication of the video.

Police reported that about 10 suspects, ages 13 to 15, are under investigation in the assault, which occurred last Wednesday in front of a high school.

The group surrounded the student, punched and kicked him, including to the head, and continued the attack after he was on the ground. The suspects have Syrian, Polish, Russian, and German nationality and have been charged with dangerous bodily harm and robbery. Officers said the victim reported the incident and had facial injuries.

In a statement by the Brandenburg police, they threatened: “Furthermore, sharing content glorifying violence on social media constitutes punishable behavior. The police explicitly warn against publishing or forwarding such videos.”

Numerous individuals challenged this, including prominent legal attorney Markus Haintz, who published the video again directly under the Brandenburg police’s account on X. Notably, he pointed to an important legal exception for such videos, which permits publication if they deal with “events of current affairs.”

“You are vile hypocrites, @PolizeiBB. You’re covering for the murderous migrant gang in Frankfurt (Oder). And don’t come at me here with § 201a StGB (Violation of the most personal sphere of life and of personality rights through image recordings),” he wrote, adding, “Just take a look at the relevant subsection 4 there, if you’re intellectually capable of it. This video serves ‘the reporting on events of current affairs.’ And you just want to prevent people in Germany from seeing what’s going on daily on German streets.”

He noted that without X, the video would probably not have been seen at all.

“That’s what happens when you accept culture-foreign mass migration without any rules whatsoever for decades. The police try to suppress such videos, which you wouldn’t learn about anywhere outside of X,” he wrote. “This asocial rabble wouldn’t dare something comparable in their respective home countries. But in Germany, you can stomp on the skulls of bio-Germans with your feet without anything relevant happening.”

CDU criticizes demonstration

The local Christian Democratic Union (CDU) criticized the AfD rally as “political fear-mongering.” In a social media post, the party said demonstrations by the AfD help no one and that many young people with a migration background are well integrated.

It warned against assigning collective guilt and pointed instead to a planned security conference on Oct. 27 and discussions with those affected as the appropriate response.

A counter-demonstration that had been registered did not take place, a police spokesman said, without giving a reason. Police are also examining several potentially criminal incidents connected to the AfD rally, including statements by Hans-Christoph Berndt, the AfD’s parliamentary group leader in the Brandenburg state legislature, and slogans chanted by youths on the sidelines of the event.

City and police officials said they are reviewing ways to increase the presence of municipal order and security forces near schools and to identify potential threats earlier.

The AfD has called for lowering the age of criminal responsibility from 14 to 10 and for deporting foreign violent offenders and, in some cases, their families. Kotré said after the rally that the perpetrators and their families should be deported.

The attack is among several recent cases of youth violence in Brandenburg that have drawn public attention, including a migrant gang that has severely beaten victims in Potsdam, not far from Frankfurt (Oder).

According to Brandenburg Interior Minister Jan Redmann, on Sept. 25, roughly 20 people — mostly migrants, entered a private party uninvited and attacked guests. The following day, three youths were assaulted by a group of about 25 and injured, which Remix News reported on.

These additional attacks in early October left victims with head injuries requiring hospital treatment. Authorities are monitoring a group of roughly 25 mostly migrant suspects in connection with the Potsdam incidents. Currently, two alleged ringleaders are in pretrial detention and police presence has been increased. 

Redmann has said foreign perpetrators, particularly Syrians whose protection status can be revoked, could face deportation. “Whoever comes to Germany and simply has no respect for Germany, we will not tolerate that,” he told the state parliament. “The rule of law has the final say.” 

As Remix News has reported in the past, 40 percent of cases of school violence involve foreigners in Germany.

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