It is clear now from both eyewitness and police reports that the panic was ignited by the storming of and the falls from that staircase. The professor who made the safety analysis said that "no one could have foreseen this" and blamed the people who climbed that staircase. However, critics say something unexpected can always happen, especially with thousands of drugged youth who can't be expected to behave sanely, and the situation in the tunnel in the half hour prior to the panic was already described by eyewitnesses as critical.
Police mis-organisation is also in discussion: whatever role the tunnel and the staircase and the limited size of the site played, there was the crowding in the tunnel prior to the panic that strained people's nerves and also led some to climb of that staircase. Why didn't police keep more people from entering?
The police trade union, individual policemen talking to the media anonymously, a firefighter with name (talking to lawyers), the original inventor of the Love Parade, and several non-experts say that there were warnings ignored and even a larger-scale police safety plan thrown out, and point the blame at the organisers and the city who just wanted to make money. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
there were warnings ignored and even a larger-scale police safety plan thrown out, and point the blame at the organisers and the city who just wanted to make money.
the phrase "nobody could have foreseen" has a mocking quality keep to the Fen Causeway
Also, SPIEGEL reports (in the above linked article) it has information that at at least one police center, electronic data was wiped. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
The Love Parade was started with a trick: it was announced as a political protest march, thus security and cleanup was organised and paid by Berlin. In the last few years however, the political protest trick didn't work, and especially the heaps of rubbish left behind by the partypeople and the protection of parks was a cost factor difficult to meet without sponsors and tickets. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
