Mayor Schwenke and City Council Member Bruszynski Condemn the Market Square Assault

The Southeast Hesse Police Headquarters and the public prosecutor’s office announced today that all three suspects are in pretrial detention. Mayor Dr. Felix Schwenke and Mayor Andreas Bruszynski have not yet commented on the incident so as not to hinder the investigation by the public prosecutor’s office and the state police. They have been kept informed of the investigation on an ongoing basis. Now both are issuing a joint statement: “We condemn the alleged assault that took place on the night of July 31 in the strongest possible terms. These were men who are alleged to have assaulted a woman. The fact that all of them were apparently heavily intoxicated and knew each other is neither an excuse nor a justification. Violence by men against women is a problem affecting society as a whole, as this incident demonstrates once again. ‘No means no’—or, to put it another way, ‘yes really means yes’—this principle must apply always and at all times. Only the woman herself decides what happens to her body. We stand firmly behind this principle. “We therefore continue to see it as our responsibility here in Offenbach to do whatever the city can to contribute to the safety and protection of women,” said Mayor Schwenke and City Councilor Bruszynski. “We are glad,” Schwenke and Bruszynski continued in unison, “that the state police, with the support of the Offenbach city police, were able to arrest all suspects on the very same day.”

Mayor and Head of Public Order Andreas Bruszynski, himself a criminal defense attorney and in office for only five weeks, has always advocated for and called for the use of surveillance technology. In this case, it proved effective and led to the apprehension of the alleged perpetrators. “The city police reviewed the footage from our video surveillance system on Friday. This enabled the city police to identify, arrest, and hand over all three suspects to the state police on the very same day. The city police officers’ thorough knowledge of the local population was crucial and very helpful in this regard,” said Mayor Bruszynski.

Although the camera could not prevent the crime itself, Bruszynski sees hope in the swift apprehension: “Perhaps this awareness will serve as a sufficient deterrent in the future to prevent potential offenders from committing such a crime again.”

Since taking office, Mayor Bruszynski has been consistently working to expand the city’s security infrastructure. This includes better working conditions for law enforcement officers as well as simpler ways to actively pursue and punish offenders. Additionally, given the threat, a new prioritization of staffing needs must be considered.

Together with elected officials and state authorities, Bruszynski also intends to examine which legal options in the area of law enforcement have not yet been fully utilized. Following initial discussions that took place some time ago, the mayor is now announcing an initiative in this direction. To this end, he intends to expressly invite neighboring municipalities as well as representatives from other major cities. “Without security and the enforcement of the law, a decent urban life is simply not possible in the long term,” Bruszynski concluded.