BERLIN, Aug. 22 (Xinhua) — Hundreds of people have attended an illegal small-town protest against the YouTube caster “DrachenLord1510” under the watchful eye of local security officers, a police spokesperson confirmed on Wednesday.
According to the spokesperson, as many as 800 largely-adolescent individuals followed an online rallying call to Emskirchen, Drachenlord’s hometown, from locations as far and wide as Northern Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
The protestors hereby ignored a formal assembly ban which was imposed by authorities out of fear that a long-standing social media dispute between the YouTube caster and his critics could escalate into a violent physical confrontation.
Police said that it was forced to call in backup forces from across Bavaria to regain control of the situation and dismissed 300 protestors from the 40-soul village of Emskirchen due to rowdy behavior.
Amongst others, attendants of the demonstration against Drachenlord spat at and insulted police officers, as well as setting off a small grassfire with firecrackers.
DrachenLord (German for “dragon lord”), whose actual name is Rainer Winkler, is a highly controversial internet figure in Germany. He has repeatedly provoked outrage with views expressed in his popular Youtube videos. Winkler also published his home address online and encouraged his adversaries to come to Emskirchen to challenge him in person.
Ever since, local police have recorded several criminal offenses in the village as a result of the digital stand-off. Winkler has been threatened, injured and had his windows smashed by critics. A then 24-year-old was also sentenced to several years in prison after having unnecessarily sent large numbers of police and firefighters to Winkler’s address by making a phony emergency call.
Responding to the recent organization of event on social media, security authorities preemptively issued a multi-day ban on any public assemblies in the village last week. Nevertheless, authorities failed to deter some of the roughly 10,000 people who initially announced that they would march to the house of Winkler on Tuesday.
Police told press on Wednesday that normalcy was only restored in the Bavarian countryside around midnight when a contingent of special security forces was re-allocated from a simultaneous German football championship match to Emskirchen.
The spokesperson said that local authorities unfortunately did not believe that the illegal protests would be the last time that online controversy surrounding the Winkler spilled over into the real world.
In the meanwhile, the other residents of Emskirchen are increasingly angered by the regular disruptions to every-day-life in the village caused by the YouTube celebrity status of one of its inhabitants.
Speaking to the German magazine SPIEGEL, a local restaurant owner complained that he no longer answered the phone given how many times anonymous callers had already made fake table reservations in Winkler’s name.
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