The press interest is greater than usual this morning in the Potsdam district court. Probably because the case that is to be heard on Thursday fits the debate that is currently being held in public: A 32-year-old German is accused of presenting himself called an ambulance and prevented it from continuing.

He is said to have insulted, spat on and threatened police officers.

After the riots on New Year's Eve, there had been discussions in recent weeks about whether violence against the police and rescue workers would increase and what to do about it.

The Bundestag also debated this last Wednesday.

And indeed, according to statistics from the Federal Criminal Police Office, which keeps a table of incidents in which "law enforcement officers and emergency services" were victims, there has been a continuous increase in recent years.

However, the statistics say nothing about what exactly the individual incidents looked like.

In the case of the accused, it will turn out during the hearing that the allegations are true, but not as serious as they seem at first glance.

“Thought this was our emergency”

The accused has multiple convictions.

A few months after the crime that is to be dealt with on Thursday, he had already sat before the same judge.

At that time, among other things, because of drug cultivation, drunk driving and theft.

When asked by the judge whether today's allegations are true, he briefly says "yes".

And then says that he was in a crisis at the time and was in the middle of separating from his then girlfriend.

He took too many drugs and drank too much alcohol.

Also on that day two years ago when he came back from the party with a friend and met the witnesses who had been called for that day.

The first witness is a paramedic.

He reports that he and a colleague met the two men when they were on their way to a child with a febrile seizure.

The defendant's friend carried a child on his shoulder, the defendant waved.

"We assumed that this was our emergency," says the witness.

When they realized that this was not the case and wanted to continue, the situation escalated - apparently for no apparent reason.

According to the witness, the man with the child crossed the street “in what felt like slow motion” and thus delayed the onward journey.

The accused threatened: "If you continue like this, something will happen." He stood next to the car and hit it with a glass bottle.

Then he ran away.

He threatened to throw a flower pot

The paramedics then followed his friend, who got on an S-Bahn.

In a "movie-worthy action", as the judge put it, they were forced to stop to ask the friend for the defendant's address.

When the police arrived there a little later, the second witness, a police officer, says the accused did not let them into the apartment and insulted them through the door as "idiots", "bull pigs", "sons of bitches".

Shortly after, he spat from the balcony, flicked a cigarette at a paramedic and threatened to throw a flowerpot.

The defendant listens calmly to the testimonies and will later apologize.

The defense has nothing to add to the police officer's description, but points out that the accusation formulated in the prosecution that his client stood in front of the rescue vehicle is not correct.

The judge agrees.

But that doesn't change the sentence.

Either way, "helping people" were disturbed, in what form is irrelevant - the facts are still fulfilled.

The accused receives a suspended prison sentence of seven months, which, together with the facts of the previous trial, adds up to a total suspended sentence of one year.

The thirty-two-year-old accepts the verdict.