Riots? Havoc?

“The Riots in Chemnitz and Their Aftermath.” Strange. I must live in another Germany than the one Der Spiegel is reporting about. I can’t find any serious reports about riots or havoc having taken place in Chemnitz. But what can you call “serious reports” these days, anyway?

Chemnitz

Maybe, just maybe, these riots and this havoc stuff is going on in another parallel universe we are all familiar with: The parallel universe of the Brain Police mind. As usual, the story one wants to tell depends entirely upon what one insists on looking at.

In Chemnitz, refugees find themselves under threat by neo-Nazis and hooligans. Politicians have pledged to take a hard line against right-wing extremist violence, but they look helpless nonetheless. Meanwhile, the right wing seems to have the upper hand in Saxony.

Ruhige Nacht in Chemnitz. (That means “peaceful night in Chemnitz,” as another report put it).

“Police And Politicians Lack Empathy”

I couldn’t agree more. A lack of empathy for the guy who was just murdered.

Protest 2

But even more lacking in empathy here is the German media. It’s all about the threat from “right-wing mobs,” as usual. Whether they are an actual threat or not. We get it already: Hitler and the Nazis were really, really bad but these people aren’t those people, distasteful as some might be – and Hitler salute or not. We’re tired of your ritual obsession with the past (or at least I am) and by pretending that these people are those people you are elegantly ignoring the real issue, the thing that got this guy killed. You can pretend it’s not there and that it’s not happening but it is. And pretending it isn’t happening is what the people back then did to help Hitler get to power. Please move on already.

A right-wing mob has been rampaging through the eastern German city of Chemnitz. The police are on site, but authorities seem out of their depth. They lack the will to intervene, argues Hans Pfeifer.

Ausschreitungen in Chemnitz: 6000 Rechte, 1500 Gegendemonstranten, 20 Verletzte.

German Of The Day: Verschiedene Nationalitäten

That means “various nationalities.”

Stabbing

It ain’t getting prettier, folks.

The death of a 35-year-old German man drew spontaneous protests, organized by several far-right groups. Police struggled to control the rowdy crowds, some members of which allegedly chased and attacked foreigners.

A street festival in the eastern German city of Chemnitz was canceled on Sunday, hours before it was supposed to conclude, after 800 people took to the streets to protest the death of a 35-year-old man.

The victim, said to be of German origin, was stabbed during an altercation that involved 10 people, several of whom were of “various nationalities,” police sources said.

Iraker und Syrer als Tatverdächtige festgenommen – Regierung verurteilt Menschenjagd in Chemnitz.

How State TV Works

When it comes to the news. Pretty much as you imagine it would. It’s kind of like CNN, only you have to support it with your tax euros whether you want to or not. And there is even less accountability, believe it or not.

Tagesschau

Take a recent murder case in Offenburg, for instance. Please. In what appears to be an unprovoked attack, a Somali migrant is reported to have stormed into a family doctor’s surgery area and stabbed the doctor to death. The man then attacked and wounded a medical assistant before fleeing the scene, where a knife was found by police.

Although clearly of great public interest – it was everywhere else in the papers – Germany’s Tagesschau news program chose not to even mention it. The program’s editor-in-chief doesn’t seem all too concerned about the harsh public cirticism that followed this omission, however. Why should he? It’s not like he can be held accountable or be fired for anything. And the show must go on.

“Wir berichten in der “Tagesschau” über Dinge von gesellschaftlicher, nationaler oder internationaler Relevanz.”

German Of The Day: Vergewaltigung

That means rape. And three in a row popped up in the news today

Rape

Strange, they never used to be in the news this much. Now hardly a day goes by without a report or two. It’s been, I dunno, two or three years now. Times seem to have gotten a little rougher here in Germany – and elsewhere in Europe – for some reason.

Nach Vergewaltigung in Hamburg Politiker fordern Aufklärung – und Härte… Der Verdächtige ist vorbestraft und sein Asylantrag abgelehnt.

I Know Nothing

Nothing!

Winterkorn

Uh, yes you do. Former VW boss Martin Winterkorn has maintained from the start of the Dieselgate scandal that he knew nothing about the manipulative tricks going on in his company. But it’s now coming out that a high-ranking VW engineer who knows better is cooperating with the German prosecuting attorney’s office and spilling the beans on Winterkorn big time. This is going to cost VW a whole lot more than they figured on, I bet. Even the Germans are holding them responsible. Think of that. And it couldn’t have happened to a nicer bunch of guys. Talk about systematic criminal activity.

I mean, do these people really think they can get away with this stuff and nobody is ever going to squeal on them? I guess it’s too lonely up there at the top when you’re, well, on the top, in your little I know nothing dream world.

„Ich bin bestürzt über das, was in den vergangenen Tagen geschehen ist. Vor allem bin ich fassungslos, dass Verfehlungen dieser Tragweite im Volkswagen-Konzern möglich waren.”

Trump Responsible For Germany’s Weakening Economy

What a jerk.

Trump

Worse still, he tweets awful things about German officials and the increased crime rate they have brought to their country due to the influx of migrants.

Migrants

Worserer still, he’s also the reason why Germany will be missing its CO2 emissions target for 2020.

Emissions

And worstest of all, he is personally responsible for Germany’s loss to Mexico in the World Cup.

Mexico

And all of this on a Tuesday? They should rename it Trumpday.

Die deutsche Wirtschaft schwächelt, das stellen führende Wirtschaftsforschungsinstitute fest. Schuld ist demnach auch die Politik von US-Präsident Donald Trump.

Speaking Of Corruption…

As far as I can tell, there isn’t a German automobile company that isn’t involved in emissions manipulation. Or maybe this is just another misunderstanding/accident kind of thing again.

Daimler

Remember when Germany used to have a clean image? Me, neither. It has been a while now, hasn’t it?

Daimler faces a recall order for more than 600,000 diesel-engine vehicles including C-Class and G-Class models because of suspected emissions manipulation, German magazine Der Spiegel reported on Friday.

Auch Daimler soll bei Diesel-Pkw bei den Abgaswerten getrickst haben. Das Kraftfahrt-Bundesamt könnte einen Rückruf von über einer halben Millionen Autos anordnen.

Disproportionate Reporting Of Crimes Committed By Migrants In Germany?

I suppose that’s true, but not in the way you would think.

Media

There are “disproportionate,” near daily state TV and news reports that point their fingers at migrant perpetrators – by going out of their way not to point their fingers at migrant perpatrators. It’s an embarassingly simple code that everybody here was able to crack in no time.

By reporting, for instance, that “a man stabbed his daughter at a local shopping center” and refusing to give any names or indicating directly that the man was a German, everyone knows who this guy is, his background.

So, yes. Disproportionate it is. The number of crimes committed by migrants reported in the news, I mean. But you can see by the way these crimes are reported that the media is not making them up (for once?). They’re just covering them up.

The somewhat dubious concept of lawless areas in Germany has been promoted in no small part by disproportionate reporting of crimes committed by migrants and foreigners in popular media, particularly outlets like Bild.

PS: The first article I read made no indication as to who the perpetrator was. A later one did indicate – at the very bottom of the article – that father and daughter were Turkish citizens.

A Life Sentence?

Nice try. A life sentence in Germany means fifteen years.

Shameful

This is rather, well, lasch, don’t you think? That means feeble, listless, lame. And shameful, too.

An asylum seeker has been jailed for life for the rape and murder of a woman in Germany in a case that fuelled tensions over the influx of migrants.

Hussein Khavari, who claimed to be Afghan, admitted to attacking student Maria Ladenburger, 19, in October 2016 in the south-western city of Freiburg.

After his arrest, it emerged that he had already been convicted to 10 years in jail in Greece in 2014 for attempted murder after pushing a woman off a cliff. But he was freed in October 2015 due to overcrowded prisons.

He fled via Austria to Germany, where he arrived with no documents a month later, claiming he was 17 years old… But during the trial evidence emerged suggesting that he was in fact from Iran and could be as old as 32.

Ein Urteil, das die Gesellschaft stabilisiert.