This was unthinkable just a year or two ago. Are Nordic left-wingers waking up to reality?
Nordic countries agree deal to share deportation flights
Denmark has spearheaded harder lines on migrants in the Nordics and stepped up initiatives to discourage immigration and put roadblocks for the acquisition of Danish nationality. Tuesday’s deal followed a two-day meeting with ministers from Sweden, Finland, Norway, Iceland and Denmark in Copenhagen.
Fury as German police are filmed tearing down Israel hostage
posters: Officials are blasted for ‘absurd’ excuse
that officers were protecting ‘social peace'
by Perkin Amalaraj, Daily Mail, November 1, 2023:
Berlin officials were accused of playing ‘bull**** bingo’ after trying to justify several of the city’s officers tearing down posters depicting images of Israeli hostages held by Hamas.
At least three uniformed officers were videoed wordlessly taking down posters that share information about some of the roughly 200 civilians who were taken from Israel into Gaza by Hamas following its deadly October 7 attack.
The posters were stuck to an advertising column, understood to be owned and operated by Ilg-Außenwerbung.
The video, shared to social media, comes after police in London and Manchester were severely criticised for taking down fliers depicting hostages taken into Gaza by Hamas.
Berlin’s chief of police, Barbara Slowik, defended the officers’ actions, and said the officers ‘apparently felt compelled to act’ upon seeing the posters.
The officers reportedly took the posters down without anyone asking them to, a move that has infuriated many
A police spokesperson told German newspaper Tagesspiegel that the officers’ actions were based on ‘their own findings.
The fact that taking down the posters hurt feelings “affects me and I regret that extremely,” she added.
But as chief of the Berlin Police Department, instead of defending the police who pulled down the posters, shouldn’t Barbara Slowik punish the officers who pulled down the posters? And shouldn’t she issue an order that no posters are to be pulled down, whether by the police or anyone else? And will she see to it that anyone who is caught violating that order will be slapped with a stiff fine or even jail time?
It is not currently clear what grounds the police used to justify taking the posters down, with a police spokesperson telling German newspaper Tagesspiegel that the officers’ actions were based on ‘their own findings.’
The spokesperson told the newspaper that there was no complaint that prompted the action, and no criminal charges were filed against the owner of the advertising column.
There had been no complaint about the posters. The police officers involved were acting only on their perception that Muslims would be angry to have the public reminded of Hamas’ atrocities, which might lead to greater sympathy for the hated “Zionist entity.” Better, in their view, to alienate Jews and others concerned with the hostages, by pulling down the posters, rather than risk the wrath of maddened Muslims. Thus do the police end up surrendering to the mere perception of a threat of violence from Muslims.
Berlin’s state minister for the interior, Iris Spranger, tried to justify the force’s move by claiming that the posters were torn down to preserve ‘security and order’, as well as ‘social peace.’
She later admitted that ‘the effect of the action’ was painful for the families of the hostages, and said she regretted it ‘with all my heart.’
But officials were heavily criticised for the way police handled the situation.
A spokesperson for the ‘Independents’ police union, Jörn Badendick, accused Berlin officials of playing ‘bull**** bingo.’
‘An explanation that there was a misjudgment would be sufficient. In the heated mood surrounding the Middle East conflict, someone may have feared that someone would feel provoked by the posters,’ he told Tagesspiegel
Berlin’s governing mayor, Kai Wegner, told BILD: ‘The impression that has been created is extremely regrettable. There is no doubt in my mind: our city and our police stand by the victims of terrorism and their families.’
If the city stands by the “victims of terrorism and their families,” why has Mayor Wegner not charged the police who tore down the posters with acting ultra vires, that is beyond the scope of their authority? No one had ordered them to pull the posters down; they were acting on their own. And why is it that “social peace” must be kept by yielding to the violent bullyboys of Islam? Why must “social peace” be achieved by caving to Muslims, and treating Jewish feelings with such contumely?
Alexander J. Herrmann, a legal policy spokesman for the Christian-Democratic Union party, said: ‘In view of the numerous illegal posters without legal notice in the city and also in view of the existing discretion of the officers, I am not convinced by the Berlin police’s attempt to justify this.’
In other words, there are many “illegal posters” all over Berlin that the police have done nothing about. They have been highly selective in what they chose to remove — so far, it seems, only the hostage posters have been taken down because, the police said, if they were allowed to stay up that would provoke “someone” to violence, and break the “social peace” that is apparently to be achieved by sacrificing the rights of Jews to disseminate their pleas for the freedom of the hostages.
Media figures also attacked Berlin officials, with the political editor of Die Welt, Frederik Schindler, writing shortly after the video circulated: ‘This is an absurd setting of priorities – and a capitulation to those who are bothered by such posters.’
Social media users were furious with Berlin’s police force.
One person wrote on X: ‘The police are simply too cowardly to show civil courage and independence.’
Another said: ‘This is called selective justice.’
“Capitulation” is exactly the right word: the police so fearful of antagonizing Muslims who have repeatedly shown their readiness to engage in violence, know that Muslims will pull down the posters themselves if the police don’t do it for them, so the “cowardly” police have anticipated their desires and done it for them. Unlike Muslims, Jews don’t riot or threaten violence, so there is no need to worry about their reaction to the posters being taken down.
What should now be done by way of remedying this appalling incident? Here’s what: the Berlin city government should order the police to put back up the same posters as those some of their members took down. Furthermore, the police, dispensing with heir previous concern not to anger Muslims, should promptly arrest for “disturbing social peace” anyone who attempts to tear down those posters. That would reestablish a semblance of sanity, and decency, in the Berlin police department.
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