Hamburg's interior senator insulted - house search is ordered

"You're such a dick": With these words, a Twitter user is said to have insulted the Hamburg Senator for the Interior, Andy Grote, three months ago. Six officers arrived this Wednesday.

Is a house search proportionate to a Twitter abuse? After a police operation on St. Pauli in Hamburg on Wednesday morning, this question worries numerous Internet users under the hashtag #Pimmelgate.

The background: On May 30, Hamburg's Interior Senator Andy Grote (SPD) criticized the celebrating crowds in Hamburg's Schanzenviertel.

As reported by various media, including Die Welt, this tweet triggered numerous reactions. For example that of a user with the pseudonym "ZooStPauli", who wrote: "You are such a dick."

On this Wednesday "ZooStPauli" tweeted again. Six officers carried out a house search. Accordingly, they were allegedly looking for the device from which the user's contribution had been canceled more than three months earlier. According to Die Welt, the officers secured several of the man's electronic devices.

In response to this tweet, a discussion sparked about the proportionality and usefulness of the police action, #Pimmelgate rose in the Germany trends of the short message service.

According to the report, the offensive tweet on May 30 was followed by a criminal complaint, which was not brought by Interior Senator Grote, but by a police officer. Only after the police approached Grote did he file a criminal complaint. As a result, the report could be followed and the investigation started. In the course of these investigations, the search warrant for the apartment of the Twitter user was approved by the Hamburg District Court.

Grote himself came under criticism last year when he organized a party with 30 people during the corona pandemic and thus violated the corona requirements.

Source: Der Spiegel