Family hospitalizes cops over parking fine

It took German special weapons and tactics officers to put down a miniuprising in the Rhineland burg of Düren after a father-son team called on their comrades to avenge a parking ticket on Saturday.

In line with German privacy standards, the media are not naming the 46-year-old father or his 27- and 25-year-old sons, who allegedly burst out of a building as a code enforcement officer prepared to levy a small fine for poor parking.

Feeling threatened by the brutish brood, the officer called armed police to the scene to back him up. But the malcontented kinsmen had their own backup, according to the police, and the lot of them let loose on officers "with raw violence and aggression." In the end, 10 police officers were so battered that they ended up in the hospital, with one sustaining serious injuries.

Police won't say how many men in total took on the cops, but the father and one son were eventually taken into custody and SWAT officers arrested the other in a late-night raid on an apartment. More men are sought in connection with the beatings.

Ralf Jäger, the justice minister for the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, said the men would get the brunt of the law if found guilty. "What began with disrespect for members of the order enforcement ended in a brutal attack on the police who were called to help," Jäger said. The justice minister added that, as he sees it, such attacks are unacceptable.

German police have had a rough go of it lately. Recent reports connected several officers with the far-right Reichsbürger movement, which has also staged attacks on police, and at least one former member of their ranks is on trial for a cannibalistic murder.

mkg/rc (AFP, dpa)