On the morning of March 16, the Mudra barracks in Wiesbaden were well attended.

The location was chosen on purpose.

The subject: unscheduled service meeting.

It was clear to everyone that it would not be a question of what a good job the police do or under what harsh conditions the officers do their job.

Only a few days earlier it became known that a paramedic had beaten a foreigner fixed on a stretcher to unconsciousness during an operation in Kassel, while the police were standing by.

Katharina Iskandar

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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    Beuth had had enough. There was this incident in Kassel. There was the chat group in the 1. Revier in Frankfurt and the investigation with the result, which was still unknown at the time, in the matter of threatening letters from NSU 2.0. Allegations such as “racial profiling” were received as new complaints almost every weekend, especially in Frankfurt. And even then, in mid-March, it was already known that there were no weapons from the Frankfurt evidence chamber and that the police officer who was responsible for the weapons evidence, in addition to his work in the Frankfurt Presidium for a security company abroad, was in a kind of paramilitary unit. In the Mudra barracks, Beuth spoke of a new leadership and error culture. About the fact that he will not tolerate police officers being of the opinion that legal and social rules do not apply to them.

    Grown in every crisis so far

    Three months later, the minister had to experience that members of the Frankfurt SEK had neither a healthy leadership culture nor a culture of mistakes. Around 20 officials are suspected of having participated in right-wing extremist chats. The exchange ranges from inciting images and messages to anti-constitutional symbols. In one case there is also a video that shows a naked boy, which is why there is suspicion of child pornography being spread. What many underestimated at the time: Beuth had meant his appeal seriously. The allegations against individual officials are grave and the interior minister is not left out. Beuth's resignation is being called for more vehemently than ever. The question arises as to whether a minister does not ultimately have to bear the responsibility forwhen there are apparently so many misconducts in the police force.

    But Beuth is tough.

    So far it has grown with every crisis.

    It is by no means said that the CDU politician will stumble upon this new scandal.

    Even if none of his critics would like to hear it, it is quite possible that he will emerge from this crisis even stronger in the end.

    In fact, Beuth is showing ever better instincts when it comes to dealing with misconduct by his subordinate authorities.

    At least in the police.

    Within the authorities, one grudgingly had to accept that Beuth had appointed special investigators.

    Once in the LKA to clear up the threatening letters NSU 2.0.

    And now recently, after the "brutalizations", as he called it, in the SEK.

    A political game on the back of the police?

    At least in this case he had no choice but to use an external investigation team to deal with the misconduct. The dissolution of the unit was inevitable in the end, even if many in the police see it differently. If he had not done so, the question would not have been wrongly asked how exactly one takes the processing if one allows the authority in which the errors occurred to determine itself. It has not had good experiences with it in the past.

    In spite of everything, the question that the minister has to ask himself is how to proceed now. His reputation in the police force has suffered badly in recent years. From his point of view, he must manage to stay in office and take up the thread again, right down to the depths of the authority structure. In these days alone, many police officers perceive what is happening to them as a political game that is being played on their backs. You accuse Beuth of not presenting himself to the police. A charge that is quickly made. The fact that an interior minister also has the task of taking tough action against grievances is a fact that people do not like to hear. The resentment is directed more towards the one who has to remedy the grievances than towards those who caused it.Obviously, this is a fate that an interior minister has to live with.

    Take action, even if it hurts

    Beuth learned to do that. When he gave information about the extent of the SEK scandal at the special meeting of the Interior Committee on Tuesday evening, he did so with great calm and sovereignty. Beuth is not considered the best speaker. In the past there have been situations in which he read almost exclusively from the sheet. He looked unsteady. He is compared above all with Herbert Reul, his colleague from North Rhine-Westphalia, who is also struggling with right-wing extremist activities in his country's police authorities, and who is said to have dealt with it better. However, it seems as if the days when Beuth almost crouched in front of the cameras are over. He found himself. Perhaps the crisis and challenge first had to be big enough for Beuth to show that he is also capable of taking tough action.

    The day in the Mudra barracks will be remembered from the perspective of the Hessian management team. Only in a different form. The appeal is no longer smiled at. He is taken seriously. Because everyone now knows that Beuth can and will take tough action if he wants. Even when it hurts.