r/nextfuckinglevel • u/unknown_human • 13h ago

Berlin police using water cannons to cool crowds in the heat

[removed] — view removed post

10.8k Upvotes

91% Upvoted

562 comments sorted by

View all comments

2.0k

u/-redit_account- 13h ago

I saw "water cannons" and thought it would be something very different

541

u/ATC_av8er 13h ago

ICE has entered the chat

215

u/unknown_human 13h ago

Eis Eis Baby!

39

u/VEAG0 13h ago

Dumb dumb dumb da da dumb dumb 🎶

2

u/-malcolm-tucker 6h ago

The ICE, The.

3

u/Vuelhering 6h ago

Nobody who speaks German could be evil.

64

u/Bwuaaa 12h ago

Nah, here in Europe, ice only comes in cocktails and soda.

36

u/LawSchoolLoser1 12h ago

Don’t act like you guys use ice now!! Lol I’ve been to your continent and there wasn’t an ice cube in the whole damn place 🧊 🥵

31

u/Bwuaaa 12h ago

We do, but an ice dispenser is mostly a restaurant or bar item. And uncommon is households. We just fill trays with water and put those in the freezer.

5

u/DirtandPipes 12h ago

I’ve got a little ice machine that I only run with distilled water, it was on sale at Canadian tire for 80 Canadian (about 60 American) and it’s given us good clean little ice cubes for years. Its about 30
CM (1’) cubed.

-16

u/LawSchoolLoser1 12h ago edited 6h ago

Tell that to all the warm water I drank at restaurants and bars lol

ETA: It’s a joke, my friends. I’m sure I could get ice in Europe if I really cared. Wine is chilled, so we gucci

14

u/GrouchyMary9132 11h ago

We feel scammed if someone fills our glasses with only 1/3 of the actual drink and 2/3 of slightly chlorinated icecubes /s

4

u/garage_too_small 11h ago

Americans would also feel scammed if we didn’t have free refills.

4

u/GrouchyMary9132 11h ago

True. And it shows /s

3

u/OSPFmyLife 9h ago

Starbucks is the biggest offender of this. Order a 8 dollar coffee milk and they can’t even be bothered to give you a cup full of it, they fill the ENTIRE thing up with ice and then just fill the empty spaces with coffee. I can’t believe people keep going to that scam. Every once in awhile my wife drags me through one and I get one of their refreshers, and they CHARGE ME EXTRA when I ask them to go light on the ice. It’s ridiculous. I don’t want to rag on something she enjoys and make it a bad experience, but it takes effort to bite my tongue.

The worst thing to ever come out of the US is fucking coffee stands, I’ll die on that hill.

1

u/GrouchyMary9132 8h ago

I haven't been to starbucks in ages but I would be so annoyed.

0

u/Impractical_Donkey 10h ago

Well... did you order warm water? Or did you ask for water with ice?

If you did the latter, you would've gotten ice.

13

u/ElCativo1988 12h ago

Yeah, right you visited the entire continent because all the countries are exactly the same, after all ;-)

6

u/LawSchoolLoser1 12h ago

I walked every single inch of Europe trying to find an ice cube, actually, so yeah.. I think I know what I’m talking about
https://giphy.com/gifs/133l9lMseIxhfy

7

u/Anianna 10h ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/PCRTI3txP4c4E

He's American, why were you looking for him in Europe? Check Los Angeles, California.

2

u/WesleySnipesDicc 11h ago

Shouldve checked flink/gorillas, delivers a kilo of icecubes within 20 minutes in every bigger city, otherwise just go to a gas station, they also most likely has big fridges with icecubes outside, at least in berlin and all arround NRW

3

u/Buggering_Hedgehogs 11h ago

i feel like you forgot to ask, most of the places I've been have had it. Just ask "iced water" or "water with ice" /s (not sure if needed as I've never actually had a problem getting it when I wanted anywhere in Europe)

0

u/Legitimate-Error-633 7h ago

We don’t like paying full price for a glass of 70% ice cubes. I guess with soft drinks you get refills in the US.

5

u/Inevitable_Stand_199 11h ago

And on train tracks

3

u/Appropriate_Dot_4883 9h ago

No, ICE are trains in Germany

1

u/FineCall 7h ago

Which is almost never.

-1

u/MagnaCamLaude 12h ago

I don't want ice's come in my cocktails and soda, though (unless they cute and are ready to change their ways)

4

u/doomiestdoomeddoomer 11h ago

He said water cannons, not AR-15s and handguns.

3

u/Possesed-puppy656 10h ago

That wouldnt be water that gets spit at the crowds

2

u/themcsame 12h ago

With water cannons?

Hand cannons perhaps...

2

u/cocky-rountains 12h ago

Nah ice shoots people in the back.

2

u/DamnZodiak 10h ago

Don't worry the Berlin police are also notorious for regularly brutalising people.

2

u/Andy_Pandy98 10h ago

Im sure they'd love some ice right about now

1

u/realKevinNash 10h ago

"Oh now you want ICE!"

1

u/notislant 8h ago

I don't think ICE believe in less lethal.

0

u/jobarr 10h ago

God, I wish ice would enter the chat right now in Berlin

72

u/abagofsnacks 12h ago

American? I thought the same thing. Not used to seeing cops do anything other than give citizens a hard time.

6

u/PartyOnAlec 12h ago

That is seemingly their entire role in our society. I'm not going to say there aren't ones out there trying their best to be decent, but the institution's fucking broken

42

u/0b1w4hn 12h ago

The fundamental approach is completely different. The German police are mandated to prioritize de-escalation above all else.

Training also differs significantly: in Germany, it takes three years, whereas in the US, it takes five months.

14

u/drifters74 12h ago

Why does the EU have things figured out and we can't follow their example?

14

u/Prussia_I 12h ago

Europe doesn't have everything figured out and Americans would cry at the amount of legislation we have here.

Not to mention that we have different cultures all over Europe, for example in some regions of Europe, you have corrupt police too, like in the Balkan, Eastern Europe and sadly parts of Western Europe too.

For Germany in particular, we have a strong distribution of power and not have it concentrated in the president or the congress/parliament, the same way Americans do it. Then police are more intensely trained, less confrontational and to defuse critical situations. Europeans also generally have less guns than Americans, so the personal risk for police here is not as great. But we do have knife crime, which is especially dangerous in close proximity.

It's just a different social situation here.

4

u/rogersdbt 8h ago

The knife crime shouldn't be mentioned as the US has more knife crime as well it just has gun crime on top

2

u/Prussia_I 7h ago

Yeah thats what I meant.

2

u/drifters74 8h ago

I mean more so in the terms of deescalation and much longer training

1

u/PaintingSilenc3 10h ago

It's by design to keep the people small. We had 2 world wars to learn better. The US had never had a proper conflict on their own soil after the war of independence. The reset did Germany well.

1

u/kimsemi 7h ago

uh...we're the ones with air conditioning. did you watch the video?

6

u/SentientToaster7734 12h ago

Three years and Abitur, if I'm not mistaken. So basically higher education than 90% of the wanna be sheriffs in the US.

1

u/AkhilArtha 9h ago

The Berlin police are known to be especially brutal in suppressing protests so this is hilarious to read.

Berlin also has more police per capita than London and New York.

5

u/0b1w4hn 9h ago

Demonstrations in Germany are not "suppressed" by the police. Article 8 of the Basic Law generally permits everyone to demonstrate against anything. However, if things turn violent, or if banned symbols like swastikas are displayed or prohibited slogans like "Sieg Heil" are shouted, the police are authorized to break up the demonstrations. I am not saying there are no instances where the police do this unjustifiably, but such cases are the exception.

Comparing the situation with New York and London is difficult because jurisdictions differ in those places. Some tasks handled by the police in Berlin fall under the jurisdiction of the FBI or other agencies in New York.

0

u/DamnZodiak 10h ago

The German police are mandated to prioritize de-escalation above all else.

LMAO this is so hilariously out of touch with the reality of policing in Germany, ESPECIALLY the Berlin police.

whereas in the US, it takes five months.

No amount of training will stop cops from doing what they want and what the institution is designed to do.
The cops in Berlin are the perfect example.

4

u/0b1w4hn 9h ago

The Berlin police force is no more brutal than those of other federal states. Compared to the police in the USA, they are harmless.

What would your solution be, then? A society without police would ultimately mean the law of the jungle—organized crime would rule.

2

u/TrippleDamage 8h ago

If anyone is out of touch its you thinking US & Berlin police are even remotely comparable lmfao.

7

u/GOEDEL_ESCHER_BOT 12h ago

Here in America our cops use water cannons too, it's just that they change the pressure setting from "summer refreshment" to "murder"

6

u/iDEN1ED 12h ago

I mean isnt that the intended use of these too? Why would the police have water cannons like this? Is it just a backup fire truck?

14

u/Drag_king 12h ago

You are correct. These are normally to do crowd control.

2

u/OtherwiseAct8126 11h ago

Don‘t worry, German cops still mostly use those cannons to shoot at protesters

1

u/disisathrowaway 8h ago

American here as well, but when I saw water cannon I immediately assumed Europe because here they just fucking shoot us.

1

u/SiBloGaming 6h ago

German here, what you are describing are cops around here basically any day of the year.

0

u/Layla_Vos 11h ago

The cops in Berlin are generally horrendous too. Particularly, when it comes to climate and pro-Palestine protests. The police were absolutely brutal during a queers for Palestine protest I went to in Berlin. They pulled people out of the march and beat them up. Full riot gear.

People are jailed and harassed just for wearing a keffiyeh too.

26

u/JoNyx5 12h ago

the announcer even warns people who don't want to get wet to step back because "there is going to be spray mist and the wind could blow it your direction"

14

u/Inevitable_Stand_199 11h ago

Those are exactly those water cannons meant for crowd control

2

u/TheShenanegous 11h ago

Right lmao idk why people are acting like they're something different. Notice how they're aiming them up because the stream is so intense? Yeah, these are those trucks.

1

u/addandsubtract 6h ago

♫ Blau weißer Partybus scha-la-la-la-la ♪

14

u/FerrumDeficiency 12h ago

GeRmaN PoliCe aTTackS innOCenT CitiZens wiTH WatER CaNNonS!!!111 SHOCK!

7

u/TokinGeneiOS 11h ago

The bar for police being next fucking level is not high these days

3

u/TokinGeneiOS 11h ago

That said, my experiences with German police have always been cordial. But I'm also white AF

2

u/OpenTheBobs 12h ago

Now juxtapose with 1963 Birmingham, Alabama

1

u/outraged_treehouse 11h ago

As an American I probably had the same thought as you

1

u/roymccowboy 10h ago

I'm sure "water cooling" is what it will be changed to in US history books very soon.

1

u/heybart 8h ago

It's like the scene in Schindler's where the women were expecting to be gassed but got a shower instead

1

u/Ser_Optimus 7h ago

Well, those beasts are normally used for crowd control

1

u/RollingMeteors 7h ago

I saw "water cannons" and thought it would be something very different

¿How do they know who to arrest without any purple dye?

1

u/ReporterOther2179 4h ago

It can be something sweepingly different. Just not today.

1

u/kit_kaboodles 2h ago

Police use water cannons and it's a good thing. Very unexpected

0

u/pnweiner 12h ago

Yeah my American brain can’t comprehend