German police flex muscles to calm Cottbus refugee tensions

 Violence has turned city into barometer of whether country can integrate migrants

https://www.ft.com/content/b97b0fc2-0753-11e8-9650-9c0ad2d7c5b5


Some 10 officers in heavy protective gear stand guard at the entrance of the Blechen-Carré shopping mall in the centre of the eastern German mining city. They ask for IDs, search backpacks and pat down young men to search for weapons.

Their mission is clear: to prevent another outbreak of violence and show that the state is present. 

On January 17, a Syrian refugee slashed the face of a 16-year-old local with a knife. A few days later, another Syrian refugee pulled a knife on a German couple outside the Blechen-Carré but was disarmed before he could attack.