German residents buy all the beer in town to keep it away from far-right event

Residents of Ostritz, Germany, bought up hundreds of crates of beer to keep it out of the hands of neo-Nazis descending on the town for a music festival, according to the BBC.

A Dresden court imposed a ban on the sale and possession of alcohol at the Shield and Sword Festival, prompting police in the state of Saxony to confiscate more than 1,000 gallons of beer Friday and Saturday.

Suspecting the festival attendees would seek to buy alcohol at the local supermarkets instead, town residents reportedly bought more than 200 crates.

Auch heute setzen wir das Alkoholverbot in #Ostritz weiter durch. Bei Vorkontrollen konnten wir bisher mehr als 200 Liter sicherstellen. pic.twitter.com/fIg1B4XKkx

— Polizei Sachsen (@PolizeiSachsen) June 22, 2019

{mosads}”The plan was devised a week in advance. We wanted to dry the Nazis out. We thought, if an alcohol ban is coming, we’ll empty the shelves at the Penny [supermarket],” local activist Georg Salditt told the German-language Bild newspaper.

“For us it’s important to send the message from Ostritz that there are people here who won’t tolerate this, who say ‘we have different values here, we’re setting an example, which is not the image of a far-right concert, which dominates the media coverage,'” a local woman told ZDF television.

The court ruled the festival had “an obviously martial and aggressive character” and that the presence of alcohol was likely to exacerbate the risk of violence. About 1,400 police officers were deployed for the event, with officials saying there were only a few minor incidents.