Near Uber Platz, a man was subjected to homophobic insults and assaulted in the early hours of Sunday. According to Berlin police, officers on patrol around 0:50 a.m. witnessed several men attacking another man and shouting anti-LGBTQ slurs at him. The victim told authorities that the assault was prompted by his sexual orientation.
A 20-year-old suspect was immediately stopped at the scene and identified. After the police completed their procedures, he was released at the location.
The incident occurred as part of broad stop-and-search and presence operations that the Police Directorate 5 (City) conducted the night before and into the early morning at so-called crime hotspots. The operations ran from 7 p.m. to 5 a.m., including the Warschauer Bridge, Alexanderplatz, Görlitzer Park/Wrangelkiez, and Kottbusser Tor. There, officers conducted public-safety checks and, in some cases, issued dispersal orders; at Kottbusser Tor they also checked compliance with the weapons- and knife-prohibition zone.
Berlin repeatedly reports LGBTI-facing assaults, as the state police actively publicize hate crimes based on sexual orientation or gender identity, making such cases relatively visible to the public. The police and the public prosecutors’ office in the capital maintain dedicated points of contact for queer residents.
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