A known Islamic State supporter, convicted of preparing a terrorist attack and walking free on a suspended sentence, rammed a van into a Berlin Pride crowd and hacked at revelers with a blade — and German officials' response is to demand sweeping new extremism powers rather than answer for why existing laws weren't enforced.

Abdul Ballout, a 21-year-old German national with Lebanese roots, killed a 65-year-old Polish woman and injured 29 others Saturday night at the edge of Tiergarten park, just outside the security perimeter of one of Europe's largest LGBTQ+ celebrations. Berlin police shot him dead Sunday after a daylong manhunt.

The facts are damning. Ballout was well known to authorities. He was an avowed Islamic State supporter who attempted to travel to Syria to join the group last year. He was arrested in Lebanon, repatriated, and convicted in May of "preparing a serious act of subversive violence." A Berlin court sentenced him as a juvenile to one year and ten months — then suspended the sentence entirely. He walked free under what The Guardian described as "sporadic police observation."

So a convicted terrorist, caught trying to join ISIS, was released back onto German streets. The consequence was entirely predictable.

Now officials are exploiting the carnage they enabled. Chancellor Friedrich Merz pledged to act with "prudence but also determination" on security gaps — a phrase that signals anything but prudence when governments reach for new powers after their own failures. Berlin justice official Felor Badenberg called for fundamentally overhauling juvenile criminal law, telling public broadcaster ARD that "perpetrators must indeed be punished more severely."

That's the playbook: government fails to enforce existing law, citizens die, officials demand broader authority. The same cycle plays out in American politics after every mass violence event — expand the state's tools, never audit the state's incompetence.

The Guardian framed the political story around the rise of the Alternative für Deutschland, noting the party is "seeking to mobilise outraged voters" before three key state elections and emphasizing that the AfD is "the top party in national opinion polls." The paper devoted more words to the far right's electoral prospects than to why a Berlin court released a convicted ISIS sympathizer. The New York Times, meanwhile, centered the feelings of parade attendees — the community felt "more and more unsafe" — while noting the massive security presence of 2,200 police officers that still failed to stop an attacker who was already on their radar.

Neither outlet pressed hard on the central accountability question: who specifically decided to suspend Ballout's sentence, and on what basis? The Guardian noted Berlin's top justice official "acknowledged public anger" — but Badenberg's own office oversees the system that produced the outcome.

The parade had 2,200 police — up from 1,300 the prior year — plus anti-vehicle barriers. The attacker rented a van in his own name, a name that should have flagged in every security database in the country. He drove it through a side street outside the perimeter. The barriers held; the system didn't.

When government already has every tool it says it needs and still fails, the answer isn't more tools. It's accountability for the people who chose not to use the ones they had.