According to the Guardian, the manager of a park in Berlin’s Kreuzberg neighborhood has come up with a controversial solution for a well-known problem. Instead of enforcing the zero tolerance policy for drug dealers that police have unsuccessfully tried to implement in the past, the manager declared certain zones where drug dealers can carry out their transactions.
The zones are identified by spray-painted pink boxes. This unusual solution, the manager hopes, will keep away dealers from the park entrance and make visitors (as well as children) feel safer.
In an interview with a local radio station, Cengiz Demirci explained that the unorthodox solution has “purely practical reasoning behind it” and does not mean that they are “legalizing the selling of drugs.” He also pointed out that many dealers were migrants who were prevented from working because they did not have working permits. In his view, the government could solve the issue by allowing them to work.
Police and the public have criticized the strategy and fear that it will look like the authorities have capitulated. According to the Guardian, drug dealers did not follow the new rule last Thursday.
