Police to form new riot squads to combat growing extremism
The Czech police plan to establish new riot units in two of the country’s
regional centres, Ústí nad Labem and Ostrava. They should help combat the
growing threat of extremism which has seen a sharp rise over the last two
years. At the same time, police units across the country face serious
understaffing due to budget cuts.
A prosecutor in the northern city of Ostrava filed charges this week
against four men accused of racially motivated attempted murder. The men
face charges for throwing firebombs into a Roma family’s home in north
Moravia last April, critically wounding a two-year-old girl, Natálka. The
incident was a shocking example of a steep rise in extremism in the Czech
Republic. According to police statistics, the number of extremist-related
incidents rose by an alarming 650 percent in the last two years. To counter
the trend, the police are planning to establish two new special riot police
squads in north Bohemia and north Moravia, in addition to the existing
units based in Prague and Brno. Jaroslav Ibehej is a spokesman for the
police command.
“The aim is to have two special riot police units in Bohemia, that is in
Prague and in Ústí, and two in Moravia: in the South Moravian and
Moravian-Silesian regions. We also want to reinforce the policing of areas
with high levels of disturbances and relieve police officers from regular
units.”
North Bohemia and north Moravia are among the regions with the highest
extremism-related crime. Both have large Roma communities as well as the
highest unemployment rates in the country. In November 2008 extremists
fought running battles with police after trying to attack a Roma ghetto in
the north Bohemian town of Litvínov.
The new riot police units should be created this year – or next year at
the latest. But the police are seriously understaffed, with a current
shortage of 4,000 officers, or nearly 7 percent. And due to state budget
cuts, the police cannot afford to fill the vacancies. Mr Ibehej again.
“Staff shortages affect all branches of the Czech police force. But
combating extremism is one of the priorities of the police command for
2010. Besides riot police, it involves other branches of the police as
well, such as criminal investigation. However, the fact that the police
faces understaffing, partially caused by budget cuts, does not mean we are
not doing as much as we can to make people safe.”
To prevent a further rise in extremism in the Czech Republic, the police
also want to improve training and education, and make better use of its
anti-conflict squads. But with the government trying to trim spending, it
remains unclear when sufficient funds will be allocated to increase the
number of officers.
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A prosecutor in the northern city of Ostrava filed charges this week
against four men accused of racially motivated attempted murder. The men
face charges for throwing firebombs into a Roma family’s home in north
Moravia last April, critically wounding a two-year-old girl, Natálka. The
incident was a shocking example of a steep rise in extremism in the Czech
Republic. According to police statistics, the number of extremist-related
incidents rose by an alarming 650 percent in the last two years. To counter
the trend, the police are planning to establish two new special riot police
squads in north Bohemia and north Moravia, in addition to the existing
units based in Prague and Brno. Jaroslav Ibehej is a spokesman for the
police command.
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