For almost a whole weekend in mid-June, two rival clans of Arabic origin caused a stir in the Ruhr area. First a mass brawl in Castrop-Rauxel, where about 50 people attacked each other with baseball bats, knives, machetes and batons.
A day later there was an attack on a Syrian restaurant in Essen. A man was critically injured. Police officers who tried to intervene were also injured. NRW Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU) then said: “We have state law, not the law of any family.”
Video is said to show “peace agreement”.
However, video images from an event location in Duisburg-Hochfeld now document how representatives of the Lebanese and Syrian clans involved regulate their disputes without the state. It shows several men peacefully shaking hands. A “magistrate of the peace” is said to have brokered an agreement between the extended families.