After Berlin Truck Attack, Are German Police Wielding Empty MP5s?

[Zarvan]

The Heckler & Koch MP5A (Courtesy image)


POSTED BY: BRENDAN MCGARRY DECEMBER 23, 2016

German police are on heightened alert after a Tunisian man on Monday plowed a truck into a crowded Christmas market in Berlin, killing 12 people and injuring 56 others.

That’s what makes this image that purports to show two female German police officers holding Heckler & Koch MP5 submachine guns — without magazines — so provocative. (Click the link; there was a glitch embedding the tweet into this post.)

The Stuttgart-based media outlet Online-Magazin on Friday tweeted the image along with the caption, “Germany: After the #ISIS terrorist attack in #Berlin. Policemen guard Christmas markets with HK-MP5 without magazine and ammo.”

It wasn’t immediately clear exactly where or when the image was taken, who the officers were, or to which law enforcement unit they belonged. But the idea of patrolling with empty firearms obviously seems dubious.

What do you think? In what scenario does it make sense for police or troops to stand guard with weapons but without magazines — or ammunition?

Meanwhile, the terrorism suspect, Anis Amri — whom ISIS claimed as one of its own — was killed early Friday in a shootout with police in Milan, ending a Europe-wide manhunt, the Associated Press reported. The police officer he shot sustained non-life threatening injuries, according to AP.

http://kitup.military.com/2016/12/berlin-truck-attack-german-police-wielding-empty-mp5s.html

 

[Penguin]

These lady-cops are not holding their weapon provocatively. The reason there is no magazine inserted is precisely the opposite. The fact that no mag is in the weapon does not mean these police do not carry filled magazines on their body. Incidentally, the MP5s effective range is quite short (15 - 20 meters)


Where are the middle guy's reserve magazines? Or do we believe he only has the clip that's in the weapon?

Also just a single clip?

Likewise this here gentleman

http://www.rnz.de/politik/suedwest_...estet-fuer-Terroranschlaege-_arid,169194.html

http://www.swr.de/landesschau-aktue...error/-/id=1622/did=16946466/nid=1622/5i3kyh/

http://www.badische-zeitung.de/sued...kommen-3000-maschinenpistolen--117473886.html

Possibly clips are carried e.g. under the arm(pit)

http://www.maz-online.de/Brandenburg/Brandenburgs-Polizei-mit-MP-auf-den-Weihnachtsmaerkten

See this translation of a German wiki page on arms and their usage by German police services.
https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=nl&sl=de&tl=en&u=https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waffengebrauch_der_Polizei_in_Deutschland

Essentially:Federal units (Border patrol e.g.) may have full auto weapons and handgrenades, but in most state units these are not allowed. This has to do with rate of fire and magazine capacity: large mag's and burst/ full auto are military requirements that preclude focused, individually targeted use. Hamburg police is state police, not federal, hence the semi-auto (= self loading but single shot) Haenel CR223: it allows rapid but not burst or full-auto fire of military rounds.

Source: https://defence.pk/threads/germany-unveils-its-new-anti-terror-cops.461162/page-2#ixzz4U8EVuBSG
Given that the use of fully automatic waepons for police is controversial, and the MP5 is rather short ranged, many police forces in Germany are currently investing in semi-automatic 5.56×45mm NATO weapons, comparable to HK416.
https://defence.pk/threads/hamburg-police-germany-issuing-hk-mp5-and-haenel-cr223-ar15.462296/

e.g. Haenel-cr223
https://defence.pk/threads/germany-unveils-its-new-anti-terror-cops.461162/page-2#post-8916608

 

[jhungary]

Actually, this is not something new......

In US military and Law Enforcement sense, there are what we called Cold Weapon / Blue Status, Amber Status and Hot Weapon /Red Status regarding our weapon when you are conducting a patrol.

In most Military Patrol, a Hot weapon (or red status weapon) are actually not quite common. A Hot Weapon means a round is chambered with a loaded mag and the safety is off. Amber Status is the most common (Where a weapon does NOT have a round chambered with a loaded mag and safety is on) Cold Weapon or Blue status is probably the same occurance as to patrol with a hot weapon. (Cold means weapon is unloaded with safety on)

The different weapon status is set to fit the patrol requirment. In Law Enforcement, Blue status is quite often as you don't want your police officer to get trigger happy. In fact, in some country, only Special Police (like SWAT or Special Police unit) are allowed to patrol with either an amber or red status.

 

[Friendly]

Some Police Special units SEK / MEK got already MP7.