Police officers know the abysses of society from their daily work.

It's the same with the officers who are currently looking for those abysses at the State Criminal Police Office (LKA) in Mainz.

But this case is special.

It's about the killing of two colleagues - and what followed.

Tim Niendorf

political editor.

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The experts belong to the Hate Speech investigation group, which was set up after a 24-year-old police officer and a 29-year-old chief inspector were shot dead near the Rhineland-Palatinate town of Kusel at the end of January while they were conducting a traffic check.

Another young officer, who prefers not to have his name in the newspaper, puts it this way: “It's distressing to see comments that disparage the deceased in a derogatory way.

It makes you wonder why some people write something like that.”

Whenever such acts happen, a wave of hate follows in the digital space.

This was also the case after the crime in Idar-Oberstein, also in Rhineland-Palatinate.

There, a gas station clerk was shot dead by a customer after telling them to wear a mask.

That was only a few months ago, and an investigative team was also set up at the time to track down the hate commentators.

Many who were already part of the team are now again.

A minority poisons the climate

The experts in Mainz now sit in a simple room in front of the monitors from morning to night trying to get an overview of what has accumulated in the vastness of the Internet after the fact - and that is not so easy given the large number .

A few examples are listed on a screen.

"Slaughter the cattle," it says, "Let them rot in the cemetery," or also: "May the mourning be long and unbearable!" The killed police officers are denigrated as "cops", "dirty cops" and "Nazi cops". .

"Those who express themselves in this way about the supposed protection of the Internet lose all shame," says Achim Füssel, Vice President of the LKA.

A week after the fact, the investigative team had already recorded 102 hate comments relevant to criminal law.

In the meantime, the number has skyrocketed again, to 483. Füssel also says that the act takes him away, since he used to be on patrol himself.

The police are not only met with more and more hatred online, but also on the street, in everyday life.

"The tone is becoming more aggressive from the clientele, who are more than critical of us," says Füssel.

“Atrocities against police officers are increasing.

We face more aggression and brutalization than we used to.

But that's not the majority of the population.

Most are kind to us."

he adds and reads out an email in which a citizen from Bavaria praises the work of the police and expresses his sympathy.

There is also encouragement, that shouldn't be lost with all the hatred.