07-01-2016, 03:26 PM
Just been wondering about this and what it is. Is it organised? Is it strategic? Is it just men in groups behaving badly? Just men behaving badly? New Years eve being a prime time for drunken lecherous men out in public. Would expect the same from football yobbos too. Is also reminiscent of the moral panic re Chinese men and black men and white women.
Quote:http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/ja...CMP=twt_guCologne police 'struggled to gain control during mass sexual assaults'
Leaked report says officers were overwhelmed, as minister says asylum seekers could be deported if convicted
Cologne attacks: victims describe ordeal Mark Tran and agencies
Friday 8 January 2016 00.09 AEDT
A leaked police report into a string of sexual assaults in Cologne at new year has revealed officers struggled to gain control of the situation, as Germany's justice minister said asylum seekers could be deported if they were found to have participated in the attacks.
Tensions rise in Germany over handling of mass sexual assaults in Cologne
Victims described their attackers as being "Arab or North African" in appearance but authorities have said there is no concrete proof that the perpetrators of the attacks in Cologne were asylum seekers. Sixteen people are being investigated, but no one has yet been charged, Agence France-Press reported.
The police report, leaked to the German tabloid Bild, described how officers were initially overwhelmed by the events outside the city's train station on New Year's Eve, after which more than 100 women filed criminal complaints of sexual assault and robbery, including two accounts of rape.
It said women were forced to "run a gauntlet … beyond description" to reach or leave the station.
"The officers on the ground couldn't gain control of all of the events, attacks and crimes there were simply too many at the same time for that to be possible," a high-ranking officer wrote, describing the scene police arrived to. "On the square outside were several thousand mostly male people of a migrant background who were firing all kinds of fireworks and throwing bottles into the crowd at random.
"Even the appearance of police officers on the scene … didn't hold the masses back from their actions." The report added that police who tried to clear the square faced a barrage of fireworks and bottles.
The incidents in and around the square in front of the main train station next to the city's gothic cathedral have led to accusations of a police and media coverup to avoid anti-foreigner sentiment following Angela Merkel's open-door policy towards refugees and migrants, which has led to more than a million people arriving in the past 12 months.
On Thursday, Heiko Maas, the justice minister, said that if asylum seekers were among the perpetrators, that was not a reason to place all refugees under general suspicion. But he added that "deportations would certainly be conceivable" for those convicted.
Maas said the law allowed for people to be deported during asylum proceedings if they were sentenced to a year or more in prison. "The courts will have to decide on the level of sentences, but that penalty is in principle absolutely possible for sexual offences," he told the Funke newspaper group.
Thomas de Maizière, the interior minister, said on Wednesday: "Anyone who commits serious crimes, whatever status he is in, must reckon with being deported from Germany."
Ralf Stegner, the deputy chief of the Social Democrats, junior partners in Merkel's coalition, told Die Welt newspaper that constantly "reacting to current public moods is not a responsible manner of governance."
"The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it." Karl Marx
"He would, wouldn't he?" Mandy Rice-Davies. When asked in court whether she knew that Lord Astor had denied having sex with her.
“I think it would be a good idea” Ghandi, when asked about Western Civilisation.
"He would, wouldn't he?" Mandy Rice-Davies. When asked in court whether she knew that Lord Astor had denied having sex with her.
“I think it would be a good idea” Ghandi, when asked about Western Civilisation.