Everything used to be better – the criticism that generations of young people hear from their grandparents or parents seems to be confirmed by an alarming interim report from the task force to combat youth crime, set up at the beginning of March: some 30,000 checks, almost 400 arrests.
Within four months, 30,000 (!) suspects were checked nationwide in public spaces. There were 4,200 advertisements (an average of over 30 per day), half of which were in hotspot areas of Vienna.
One in four perpetrators is under 18 years of age
And: more than 1,000 – that is one in four – of the criminals registered by the authorities were under 18. There were also 380 arrests across the country, more than 280 of them in the federal capital. The crimes range from bodily harm to illegal possession of weapons, drugs and aggravated robberies.
The rule of law is powerless, the advertisement ends up in the trash
The age trend in total crime is also dramatic. The number of crimes committed by young people and children under the age of 14 has doubled in the past ten years. Many of them have a migration or refugee background. In these cases, the rule of law is powerless. The perpetrators cannot be prosecuted in court and the report effectively ends up in the trash.
Debate on criminal liability
As reported, the ÖVP therefore wants to reduce the age of criminal liability to twelve. Parents must also be held more accountable and called in by the police. Participation is mandatory; violations can lead to sanctions such as fines. Of course, there will be no more agreement with the green coalition partner until the elections…
In 1944, brave Viennese carved the combination of a letter and a number into the wall right next to the gigantic gate of St. Stephen’s Cathedral: O5. The fifth letter of the alphabet is E, and so the abbreviation OE should mean – Austria! Free and peaceful, against terror and war. This O5 is protected by a glass plate and is a national monument.
Hastily spray-painted, sometimes crossed out, we see a new number today in the once livable working-class neighborhoods of Brigittenau, Favoriten and Meidling in Vienna: 505. This is the nationalist code of a vigilante group in Syria, now used by rival youth groups at war in the middle of Austria, or as top police officer Franz Ruf explained to astonished TV viewers: “ethnic groups are fighting for dominance in public space.”
Syrians and Afghans against Chechens. Guns, baseball bats, knives and machetes.
The violence is spreading like a cancer. In places with historical names: Jakob Reumann, the first social democratic mayor of Vienna, lived in the 10th district, and Anton Kummer, the legendary priest and preacher, lived in the 20th district. There are stabbings and beatings. Where Viennese and guests from all over the world happily and calmly queued for the famous ice-cold apricot dumplings from Tichy, a ‘gun ban zone’ is intended to prevent acts of violence, according to the police, a ‘ban on carrying knives’; for the whole of Austria would be “desirable”.
What is this supposed to mean? Do we not live in a functioning constitutional state? Have the rival gangs destroyed our existing laws?
Dedicated top lawyers help against convictions and deportations, but who pays the fees of the expensive lawyers seems unclear. The police want even more social work, which we all have to pay for.
This probably won’t help the twelve-year-old girl who was abused for months by the ‘Antons Gang’ from Favoriten. Not even the Algerian who stood in the way of drug smugglers and had his legs and arms chopped off.
This crisis is the result of a completely unregulated mass immigration from war zones thousands of kilometers away from Austria.
O5 at St. Stephen’s Cathedral.
505 on house walls in problem areas.
The signs on the wall are clearly visible.
Source: Krone
I am Wallace Jones, an experienced journalist. I specialize in writing for the world section of Today Times Live. With over a decade of experience, I have developed an eye for detail when it comes to reporting on local and global stories. My passion lies in uncovering the truth through my investigative skills and creating thought-provoking content that resonates with readers worldwide.
