The recent sexual assault in Cologne of women on New Year’s Eve has shocked the nation. As many as 1000 men, allegedly set upon women and made them run a gauntlet as they were grabbed, their clothes ripped, and their bodies groped. Police sources and witnesses have said that many were refugees — triggering renewed objections over a spate of rapes and assaults of women in the country attributed to recent immigrants. To make matters worse for the government, newspapers are reporting that one man told police “I am Syrian. You have to treat me kindly. Mrs Merkel invited me.” The result has been a rising tide of criticism of Merkel for her open-door policy. Yet, that criticism may now be muted by a move by the government to crackdown on anti-immigration comments as a form of “hate speech.” As we discussed today with the effort to ban Donald Trump, free speech is being rolled back in Europe under hate crime and anti-discrimination laws as an alarming rate. It is particularly worrisome when the government is under attack on an issue like immigration and responds by prosecuting people for such criticism. News reports indicate that 18 of the 31 known suspects from Cologne were asylum seekers, including “nine Algerians, eight Moroccans, five Iranians, four Syrians, an Iraqi, a Serbian, an American and two German nationals.
We have previously discussed the alarming rollback on free speech rights in the West, particularly in France (here and here and here and here and here and here) and England ( here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here). Much of this trend is tied to the expansion of hate speech and non-discrimination laws. We have seen comedians targeted with such court orders under this expanding and worrisome trend. (here and here).
Prosecutors are charging people who are “inciting hatred” in Germany by speaking out against immigrants and their impact on German society. Prosecutors and judges are determining what criticism will be allowed and what will be treated as criminal. In the meantime, the government has reached a deal with Facebook, Google and Twitter to crackdown on Internet speech. It is an effort to create the artificial appearance of agreement and tolerance by denying free speech to critics.
While it is still not clear how many of the Cologne attackers were immigrants (as many as 22 have been identified as refugees), the incident has been a flashpoint as numerous stories of women and girls being harassed about their clothing or assaulted by immigrants. For example, a 26-year-old Berlin man’s home was raided by police, who confiscated his computer and phones after he had posted the image of a dead 3-year-old Syrian boy on a Turkish beach and wrote “We are not mourning, we are celebrating!” A disgusting comment and one that is worthy public condemnation. However, it is also an act of free speech.
Nevertheless, many citizens are celebrating the denial of their own free speech rights. So long as they disagree with the speakers, there appears little concern over the rising tide of censorship and criminalization of speech. People are now unsure what they can say about immigration, which is precisely the chilling effect that governments seek in such measure. The result is a forced silence . . . which is golden for governments like Merkel’s that do not like what they are hearing.
Barking Dog. Until recently the largest group of Muslim immigrants to Germany were neither Syrians nor Moroccans but Turkish. Every resident of Berlin knows that.
Latest News (5 min ago http://mobil.fr-online.de/cms/politik/uebergriffe-in-koeln-viele-nationalitaeten-unter-den-verdaechtigen,4232484,33480158,view,asFitMl.html)
German: “Unter den 31 bekannten Verdächtigen der übrigen Delikte seien neun algerische, acht marokkanische, fünf iranische, vier syrische, ein irakischer, ein serbischer, ein US-amerikanischer und zwei deutsche Staatsangehörige. 18 von ihnen seien Asylbewerber.”
” Among the 31 known suspects of the remaining offenses were nine Algerian , eight Moroccan, five Iranian , four Syrian , an Iraqi , a Serbian , an American and two German nationals . 18 of them were asylum seekers .”
Please remind= Suspects > not proven Offenders.
Also “Among the suspects are also 18 asylum seekers . For these offenses , but if it were predominantly injuries and thefts . Sexual offenses were not previously associated with the asylum seekers .”
Typo: NRC-Handelsblad. Sorry.
Chris, these women must be lying then:
QUOTE: Police sources and witnesses have said that many were Syrian refugees who have been accused of a spate of rapes and assaults of women in the country since they arrived in large numbers recently.
According to a news item this morning in the reliable NTC-Handelsblad authorities of Cologne have by now identified 18 asylum seekers in the crowd as suspects.
Now who is correct? JT or NRC Handelsblad?
There are many points to see and to worry about, so it might be better, to worry not about false facts than about real problems.
Good luck with that elite point of view (“nothing to see here, move along”), Chris.
Dear Riesling
“And Chris, how do you know that there were so few offenders?”
I don´t know, but there have been only 1000 people on the place, men an women. It is a comon place to party after or while a visit of the old-town party area in Cologne. If you look critical into the few information, you get the number of offenders from the police reports.
“Every day the media tell us something new.”
And the news of today always prove the news of yesterday to be wrong. Maybe it is time to review it very critical about the few facts, that are in the news….
“Would you have stayed at the train station/cathedral for long? I assume you would have tried to contact the police, tried to help some of the victims or just gotten away as fast as you could like any other law-abiding person. The people who were hanging around there weren’t afraid because they belonged to the perpetrators! Think about it.”
I know about 10 people being in that (mixed) crowd that not knew anything about the sexual harrasment until they get information at the news on the next day. They say, there have been too much drunk, some of the drunk aggressive and some “situations” with people using fireworks in an dangerous way like rockets into the crowd. A mass event, that has gone wrong, but nobody was aware of this dimensions….
“…might generate the mistaken belief in many the government is aligned more with the miscreant immigrants than the German citizenry.”
It’s not mistaken, it’s true.
And the same thing is going on in the US and in every nation allowing immigrants from the ME.
The secular elites who started and welcomed this invasion have invited a true rape culture situation they themselves created. These elites are the problem, not the solution. The mass sexual assaults in Cologne amd Finland are merely the first of many to come.
All the efforts by the elites to prevent those who are now suffering the consequences of their actions from addressing the situation will accomplish nothing, but ensure that more extreme measures are taken, i.e. violence and political overthrow.
If Americans and Europeans are forced to choose between Muslims and nationalists/fascists/neo-nazis, they will choose nationalists/fascists/neo-nazis.
Dear Olly,
of course it is a shame, that there has been sexuell harrasment of women. Of course this is a risky situation and the possibility of refugees being part of this crime gives additional tendion to this. (Please be informend, that at the moment there are no clear facts about the situation. The information about this incident are very contradictory. The daily news about this change every day, with new information that prove each other to be wrong. And for me it is national and regional news. The only prove at the moment of refugees being part of it has been, that there have been refugees at the place and one man, that maybee been part of the sexuell harrasment, has been heared to claim, he came from Syria….).
But painting a picture of 1000 men “run a gauntlet as they were grabbed, their clothes ripped, and their bodies groped” ist a wrong picture, because the facts are wrong.
Painting a picture of Germany as country that is loosing it´s free right of speech is also wrong. Yes, there are dangers, like every freedom right is everytime in danger. But not because of this situation.
Chris
Darren, yoi are spot-on on all 3 of your points. And Chris, how do you know that there were so few offenders? Every day the media tell us something new. Would you have stayed at the train station/cathedral for long? I assume you would have tried to contact the police, tried to help some of the victims or just gotten away as fast as you could like any other law-abiding person. The people who were hanging around there weren’t afraid because they belonged to the perpetrators! Think about it.
Chris,
I appreciate your input but that does not help the argument. “It was only 45 men allegedly molesting women at the train station” is not comforting at all. It’s like John Kerry’s reaction to a reporters question that he took his eye off of North Korea, and I’m paraphrasing here. He said he has not missed a day of monitoring what they are doing. Great, you have been giving them your highest level of scrutiny and they test an H-bomb (supposedly)? I would hate to see what happens when you take a week off.
I believe it is risky for the German government to censor discussion concerning these aspects the immigrant situation. Several things could occur, resulting in almost a worse situation.
We also live in a day where this type of information will come out eventually, especially due to the internet and social media.
I apologise, but there are two main mistakes in the article:
1. The number of 1000 men, doing sexual harrasment ist wrong. There haven been around 1000 people at the open area between main station and cathedrale (men and women). In this event there has been a group of people (unclear but estimates are between 15 and 45) that sexuall harrased women at the event. (There is evidance that this has been done as distraction for the theft of money and mobile phones). There has been a misleading article that named 1000 offender that has been spread.
2. The German system for free speech is a little bit more complicated. The right for free speech i provided by the German constitution(Art 5 GG.) There are only limites given by the criminal codes, that differ from the US system. While you can basically say anything on the US Free Speech System in Germany you can bee criminal chased for public insults of person. Also there Holocaust denial and very strong forms of hate speech are a criminal offence. In case of hat speech only if it is against segments of the population and in a manner and strong enough that is capable of disturbing the public peace. Also the jurisdiction gives a very high limit for this to the press and for art. Basilly the rules that limit the free speech are constituted after the second world war to limit the potential of propaganda against individual ethic groups like there has been in Nazi Germany. Yes the German and the US System differ, but free speech is possible in both systems. The US System is based an though of a selfdefending free speech, giving everybody the right and the oblication to fight for himself for his rights and interest with his free speech. The German systems is based on the obligation for the state to defend the weak and to construct rules for defending the weak without the obligation for them to defend themself. Both systems have pro´s and con´s.
(Sorry, but this is a very short explanation with to much simplification, but this is a topic for books, not for short comments…)
Chris
(German lawyer, civic liberty acticist and living less than 50 miles from Cologne)
As many as 1000 men, allegedly set upon women and made them run a gauntlet as they were grabbed, their clothes ripped, and their bodies groped.
Mayhap if German police weren’t chasing phantom suicide-bombers on New Years Eve 2015 they would have have the resources available to have prevented these attacks from occurring in the first place.
Nevertheless, many citizens are celebrating the denial of their own free speech rights. So long as they disagree with the speakers, there appears little concern over the rising tide of censorship and criminalization of speech.
The time for German citizens to protect their unalienable human right to freedom of speech is now not after the German government has stolen/criminalized the right in order to “protect” immigrants/refugees from hateful speech.
If the German government (Europe) were truly concerned with the plight of the immigrants/refugees seeking safe harbor from the destruction of the very fabric of their society it would stop supporting the criminal US/NATO/Saudi/Qatar war on Syria which is the reason the vast majority of Middle Eastern peoples have sought safe harbor in Europe in the first place.
But then that would require the German government (Europe) to bite the hand of their favorite Uncle Sam and thus lose the “privilege” of their client-state status.
“First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.”
Pastor Martin Niemöller
If the German government has it’s way any German citizen may find their speech criminalized and there truly would be no one left to speak for me.
I think people would not be afraid of Muslims if their coreligous weren’t running around killing people…sorry but people fear groups who decide that God gives them the right to kill non believers. (I fear allegedly “prolife” fanatics who think killing people is a good way to enforce their views on the rest of us.) As to the situation in Germany, there is little doubt that even those in government who want to shut up criticism of their open door, eyes closed policies relating to the influx of young male Muslim immigrants know that the cultural ands relgious belifs of manyof these immigrants put all Germans, particularly female Germans, at risk.
When the guy crossed the border he said he only wanted one thing: Ich mochter ein dubble zimmer fur ein nacht.
There are antecedent times and parallels. The Reichstag Fire Decree has been commented upon by me on this blog before. I stated two years ago, and since then on occasion, that “the times they are a changin”. There will be a right wing revolt to these wrong side of the aisle right wing speech suppressions and the right wing revolt will be to deport all Muslims– whether they are from Syria or Morocco. The place of origin won’t matter to the Germans when they look down the street and see the burkas on the heads. Nostalgia for Buchenwald.
Angela Merkel announced that over a million “refugees” had entered Germany last year. Boy are things going to get ugly. Achtung!
“..people who are “inciting hatred” … by speaking out against immigrants and their impact on … society”
That would be national leaders and journalists more than anyone else. Those folks drive the national narrative. The public would not be afraid of Muslims if those in power were not demonizing everyone who lives in an oil -rich area.
Will they be arresting the women who were molested who identify immigrants as their assailants? Europe has gone mad! Apparently the only humans who have rights are are Muslim “immigrants” and terrorists. Residents are not allowed to have opinions or discuss the news as it might let the truth out about a failed policy of allowing hundreds of thousands of angry young men who see women as fair game into the country.