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Dems to Win

(2,161 posts)
Fri Jan 15, 2016, 01:32 PM Jan 2016

Germany’s leading feminist says that Germany is “naively importing male violence, sexism

and anti-Semitism"

http://www.economist.com/news/europe/21688418-ultimate-victim-sexual-assaults-migrants-could-be-angela-merkels-liberal-refugee



Cologne’s aftershocks
snip....

But as the extent of the crimes became clear, it raised questions about Mrs Merkel’s liberal response to the crisis in Syria and the wider Middle East. The chancellor has repeatedly told Germans: “We can handle this.” Now her optimism is being hurled back at her with disdain. One of the Cologne offenders purportedly taunted police: “I am a Syrian, you have to treat me nicely—Mrs Merkel invited me!”

Growing numbers of Germans worry about the large influx of Muslims. In a survey by INSA, a pollster, 61% of respondents have become less happy about accepting refugees since the assaults; 63% think there are already too many asylum-seekers in Germany, and only 29% still agree with Mrs Merkel that the country can handle it. The sceptics are not only on the populist right. Alice Schwarzer, Germany’s leading feminist, says that Germany is “naively importing male violence, sexism and anti-Semitism”.

snip...

Yet the legal hurdles to increased deportation are daunting. First, it is not clear how many of the Cologne offenders can be identified. Second, German judges typically cannot deport criminals with sentences of less than three years; the sexual offences in Cologne mainly fell short of rape, and would carry lighter penalties than that. On January 12th the interior minister, Thomas de Maizière, and the justice minister, Heiko Maas, said they would expand the definition of rape (currently, an assault does not count as rape unless the victim fights back). They also promised to lower the deportation threshold, making it an option even for those on probation. But even with these changes, the Geneva conventions forbid deporting people to a country where they might be executed, tortured or harmed. Finally, home countries must co-operate; many don’t. Mr Gabriel is musing about cutting aid to such states.

snip....

In retrospect it is clear that Mrs Merkel’s hopeful New Year’s address coincided with the appearance of immigration’s dark side on German streets, and that her warnings have not been heeded. Some refugees have not respected German rules and traditions. Germans are divided. Germany’s neighbours, from Hungary and Poland to Switzerland and Denmark, have sneered at Mrs Merkel’s “welcome culture”. It now looks tenuous even at home.



Cologne Changed Everything.

I hope that Germany can find a path forward to restore the freedom of movement for women.

It's unfair and outrageous that German women are now being advised not to go out at night, not to ride the trains at night. European women have to stay home so that migrant men can roam through their cities and hometowns. This situation cannot continue.
6 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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virgogal

(10,178 posts)
1. Legal question. In the article they said that these weren't considered rapes
Fri Jan 15, 2016, 01:49 PM
Jan 2016

so the sentence would be too low to deport.

Wouldn't surrounding the woman and not allowing her to leave be the same as holding someone captive? That experience would be terrifying.

Holding a person captive must be a crime in Germany.

 

Dems to Win

(2,161 posts)
5. It's unlikely that there will be any convictions of the Cologne attackers
Fri Jan 15, 2016, 02:02 PM
Jan 2016

Police have told the women that they probably won't be able to identify the attackers and gather enough evidence for prosecutions.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/06/tensions-rise-in-germany-over-handling-of-mass-sexual-assaults-in-cologne

As women’s groups demonstrated on the square outside Cologne’s main railway station, calling on the government to do more to tackle male violence, fury over the attacks only increased as police admitted it was unlikely they would manage to convict any of the perpetrators.


A thousand men got away with mass sexual assault in the town square and train station of one of Germany's great cities.


 

LittleBlue

(10,362 posts)
2. This is what happens when a country gives absurd legal rights to non-citizens
Fri Jan 15, 2016, 01:51 PM
Jan 2016

Not being able to deport non-citizens who break the law was a horrendous mistake. The law should be changed retroactively.

pampango

(24,692 posts)
3. "The assaults were a boon to Germany’s xenophobic right—from a movement that calls itself Pegida
Fri Jan 15, 2016, 01:55 PM
Jan 2016

(short for “Patriotic Europeans against the Islamisation of the Occident”) to the new Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. Predictably, AfD has called on Mrs Merkel to resign. In social media and on the streets, the angry are more audible than the nuanced. In Cologne 1,700 anti-migrant demonstrators faced off against 1,300 pro-migrant demonstrators until the police broke it up. Thugs roamed the streets attacking foreigners, injuring two Pakistanis and one Syrian.

Among the indirect victims of Cologne are the many migrants who would not dream of assaulting anyone, and who came to Germany seeking safety for themselves and their families. Four refugees have drafted an open letter to Mrs Merkel in which they express their support of women’s rights and their shock at the assaults. They are handing the letter round to collect signatures. Many refugees and German Muslims fear being tarred with the same brush as the offenders."

I'm glad that the police official in Cologne who advised women not to go out at night has been suspended from his job and widely condemned by liberals in Germany.

One would hope that enforcement of the law against criminals, rather than against those who have done nothing wrong and have condemned the actions of the criminals, will effectively deal with the problem. I don't think liberals have an alternative. Mass deportation and building border walls has a familiar ring to it and its not liberal.

 

Scootaloo

(25,699 posts)
4. "an assault does not count as rape unless the victim fights back"
Fri Jan 15, 2016, 02:01 PM
Jan 2016

Wait... say what?

I dunno, Alice. With the law saying "it's not rape unless you fight back," seems like Germany's misogyny is completely native.

 

Dems to Win

(2,161 posts)
6. Germany is finally changing their rape law
Fri Jan 15, 2016, 02:08 PM
Jan 2016
http://www.dw.com/en/germany-set-to-finally-update-rape-law/a-18967875

Germany set to finally update rape law
Angela Merkel's office seems to have dropped its objections to a legal amendment that would widen Germany's definition of rape. Until now sexual assault has often not been prosecuted if the victim failed to fight back.

Germany's rape law is set to be bolstered after months of campaigning by women's groups against government resistance, bringing in new measures that will make it easier to prosecute the perpetrators of the mass sexual attacks in Cologne. A new amendment being planned by the Justice Ministry has been passed on to regional governments, meaning it has entered the next stage of the legislative process after initially being blocked by the chancellery and the Interior Ministry for at least half of last year.
Though the proposal predates the New Year's Eve assaults in Cologne, it could well have a bearing on those cases if they come to trial.
Women's groups and many politicians have long been arguing that Germany's sexual assault law is archaic, with loopholes that mean groping and surprise attacks are not necessarily prosecutable unless the woman tries to fight off the attack - which police often advise against.
"There have been very many cases that you and I would probably unequivocally describe as rape or sexual assault that haven't come to a conviction, because the women allegedly didn't defend themselves enough," Elke Ferner of the Social Democratic Party's women's group told DW.
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