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Tensions Rise in Germany Over Handling of Mass Sexual Assaults in Cologne
The Guardian reports:
A ferocious debate has erupted in Germany over the handling of mass sexual assaults and muggings carried out by groups of young males during New Year's Eve celebrations in Cologne, amid accusations of a police and media cover-up over fears of whipping up anti-foreigner sentiment in the wake of the migrant crisis.
About 100 complaints have now been made to police, two-thirds of which are linked to sexual assault, including two rapes. According to police and witnesses, the perpetrators were of north African and Arab appearance, although neither the identity nor origin of any of them has so far been established.
If you're not already feeling queasy enough be sure to read the link "Asian sex-grooming gangs in the UK" in the article. Apparently you can find similar stories from all over the UK, these sexual crimes against underage girls perpetrated by muslims are sickeningly common.
Conspiracy of Silence - or Sensationalist Reporting?
There are a number of marginal news sites posting stories out of Europe these days, mostly from Germany, Sweden, as well as other claims made regarding Finland and the UK. The claims all center around a huge increase in rapes by immigrants, outright take over of public train stations, and mass groping of women passing through the stations.
According to these reports, the incidents started in midsummer and continue to this day, but the local news organizations have refused to publish reports of these incidents even after arrests have been made. Often police are accused of withholding the news of any complaints or arrests for months.
The clear implication, more often implied than stated is that the national leaders who went public in their pledges to accept refugees from the middle east war zones as well as northern Africa are leaning on main stream news outlets to suppress news reports of these rapes and sexual assaults. This suppression, if it exists, also appears to extend to the US press.
The assaults aren't limited to European women, but also include women in the immigrant shelters, some as young as 16. The immigrant shelters population in Munich is 80% male. But not all the alleged perpetrators are migrants from the recent wave of mass migrations over the summer and fall. Some are earlier immigrants from North Africa who don't necessarily live in the camps.
Finally some reports are leaking into the western press in the US, such as this brief report in the New York Times about events on New Years Eve. That same event was reported by a couple of the British tabloids.
Many reports are in German, Here and Here. (Google Translate does well with these pages). Others are in English such as this one and this one.
Are any Soylentils living in the EU near refugee centers seeing these problems? Is it being reported? Is it being repressed? Or is the whole thing a made up issue by biased articles in fringe news sites?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by fritsd on Friday January 08 2016, @07:19PM
It's being reported in the main-stream media. It's headline news in Germany and the Netherlands and Sweden.
I was well shocked when I read about it, and I have family in Köln, so I've been reading up a bit. You too can practice your German today :-/ Hold a paper puke-bag ready.
I'm not terribly familiar with the German "news-scape" so I thought I'd read the Frankfurter Allgemeine first (reputable newspaper and Frankfurt is 200km from Köln). Der Spiegel is much more sensational, but they have a very good opinion page about it. (of course the commentards vary a bit in quality ...)
German:
This seems to be the latest news about the actual attack (excluding all the politicians falling over each other right now)
http://www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/uebergriffe-in-koeln-in-der-silvesternacht-zwei-festnahmen-14003875.html [faz.net]
I can imagine they could only arrest 32, if it all happened at night during a new years eve of drunken fireworks-throwing chaos. The next line from that quote talks about some kind of jurisdiction issue that these are only arrests from people very close to the train station.
I found this next one, by the bemohawked Sascha Lobo, a reasonable commentary; that's personal of course..
http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/web/koeln-silvester-mob-und-gegenmob-kolumne-a-1070724.html [spiegel.de]
Be sure to read as much of the comments as you can stomach. Some are really good.
You may call him "mealy-mouthed" but I think it's quite brave that he writes:
N.B. one commentard wrote that it wasn't normal fireworks. Didn't see any other references but that also points at a deliberate attack on fellow citizens. Haha what fun.
In general I'm not so impressed by der Spiegel but YMMV: http://www.spiegel.de/thema/uebergriffe_in_koeln/ [spiegel.de]
This writer Margarete Stokowski doesn't mince her words (WARNING probably NSFW/racist/sexist/painful to read/whatever)
http://www.spiegel.de/kultur/gesellschaft/margarete-stokowski-ueber-sexualisierte-gewalt-a-1070905.html [spiegel.de]
and I quote:
"Des Rudels Kern ist die Vorstellung vom wild gewordenen - wenn nicht schon immer wild gewesenen - Ausländer, der sich all das nimmt, was andere gern hätten: Frauen und iPhones."
with "Rudel" she means the Rudel of Neonazis not the Rudel of attackers. It's a bit confusing.
Dutch:
http://www.volkskrant.nl/buitenland/-politiechef-keulen-op-non-actief-gezet~a4220827/ [volkskrant.nl]
(I felt sick when I read about the note with the German-Arabic translation (don't remember where, maybe FAZ). And I felt cold when I saw the photo of the naked artist. Oh yeah that photo is probably NSFW, because nudity. She points at the important issue though: respect for women)
Swedish:
http://www.dn.se/stories/massovergreppen-i-koln/ [www.dn.se]
I'm not actually that interested in which of the authorities will fall on their sword now (apparently the police chief of Köln). But I'm worried, that, because of the Rule of Law, the Germans can only pass sentences for groping and stealing, and that probably carries only short jail sentences, and therefore it's too short to make an example of these men and kick them out of the asylum procedure and out of the country. As a consequence, this wound will fester.
The authorities were overwhelmed. That's bad of them, yes. But I wouldn't have wanted to be a police officer or mayor in such a situation. What the fuck are you supposed to do?
I don't think any nation has laws about "if you organize a group of men with the purpose to go somewhere to insult, HUMILIATE, grope, and rape women (and steal) then the sentence is X". Except possibly Kongo's Southern Kivu Province [wikipedia.org]....
This is organized mass humiliation of women, people. I don't remember anything like this in Europe during my lifetime (then again I grew up quite sheltered, and I'm a man).
Who does that kind of thing? Why? Has it happened before, in living memory? Maybe during the 2nd world war.. but why in Köln at New Years' eve 2015?
WHAT THE FUCK WERE THEY THINKING?????
I seriously believe that this attack is worse, in the meaning of: more disruptive to society, than most terrorist bombing attacks. Because it doesn't state: "you are not safe if you're in city X", but it says: "you are not safe if you're a woman".
How many girls in Köln are going to get themselves totally wasted with beer during Karnaval in a few weeks? Their freedom to do that has been attacked.
And because it's not murder or rape (except in 2 cases), the punishments are going to be mild, if they can even find the bastards who did it, disguised by that throng of people. They're going to get away with it. And more than half of the arrested suspects are guests; asylum seekers. That's got to hurt, it will create rancour.
For the victims it's horrible whichever sick man does this. But for society as a whole, it's worse if a large number of organized people do it. Why would they stop now after the "success" of Köln?
But a society is unhealthy, if the underdogs resort to humiliating people they percieve as even more inferior than them (i.e, women). Guess what? Neonazis are also underdogs. Hmm I wonder what their reaction will be to these events..
That's what I believe, anyway, but I'm not a people person so I'm not very smart in these things. I sincerely hope Merkel can make the best of this situation.
(Score: 2) by Alfred on Friday January 08 2016, @07:43PM
(Score: 4, Insightful) by frojack on Friday January 08 2016, @08:12PM
if it all happened at night during a new years eve of drunken fireworks-throwing chaos
To many, the focus of attention only happened after the New Year's Eve incident.
However, as some of the links lead to stories that were appearing long before New Years, and they weren't about groping, but rather an alarming rise in rape by immigrants.
(If you doubt this, use a google date range search for Feb 1 thru Dec 1 of 2015.)
The focus on the groping incidents is, in itself, a not-too-subtle form of minimizing the problem, dismissing the actual rapes and making it a deplorable, but understandable case of those frisky arab boys just being boys on new years eve, wink wink nod nod.
Its a disgusting way to paper over the facts, while seeming to report them, but only after some huge number (too big to ignore) of women reported incidents to police on the same night.
And because it's not murder or rape (except in 2 cases), the punishments are going to be mild,
....But I see that you have fallen for it. Perhaps reading reports from elsewhere around the EU will disabuse you of this notion?
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by fritsd on Friday January 08 2016, @10:35PM
I didn't mean to dismiss or minimize the Köln attack at all, we're miscommunicating here.
There are two overlapping events here:
(1) increase of rapes in Europe by immigrants
You wrote about this. I haven't read much about it. Post more links from "long before New Years" then, where you read about it.
(2) groping and rapes on "Sylvesterabend" in Köln on a massive scale, women having to "run the gauntlet" through hundreds of men to reach the station with their underwear ripped to shreds. Thats new I think.
There was one person who reported she saw men coordinating the mob. I hope she survives and can tell the authorities about what she saw.
I think these are two separate issues. I don't think that Köln is so full of rapist asylum seekers that you have to knock them to the ground to safely reach the station. That looks like a deliberate organized attack on women, frojack, not everyday rape statistics by small groups of men or individuals (horrible as those are).