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POLICE IN THE German city of Cologne said a heavy security presence on New Year’s Eve prevented a repeat of last year’s mass sexual assaults, while denying accusations of racial profiling.
More than 2,000 police were deployed, over 10 times last year’s number, in the western city where a year ago hundreds of women were assaulted and robbed, mostly by men described as of Arab and North African origin.
This year police at the flashpoint central railway station and on trains targeted large groups of men of North African origin, checked the identity papers of over 900 people, and ordered many of them to leave the area, police said.
The focus on people from north African countries sparked protests on social media, as did an overnight police tweet that said checks were ongoing of hundreds of ‘Nafris’ – police jargon for North Africans.
News site Spiegel Online, in an article headlined What is a ‘Nafri’ please?, quoted a police spokesman as saying the term was used in an effort to keep the Twitter message short.
City police chief Juergen Mathies denied social media criticism of “racial profiling”, arguing that many of those who were checked had acted in an “aggressive” manner.
“I reject such criticism,” he told reporters.
The clear aim … was to prevent similar events to those of last year.
At the Cologne railway station square, across from the city’s iconic cathedral, authorities also banned fireworks, all bags were checked and new high-definition video cameras provided a live feed to police headquarters.
In the capital Berlin, too, police reported a relatively normal New Year’s Eve night as thousands of revellers rang in 2017 at the landmark Brandenburg Gate.
Following a December 19 jihadist attack in which a truck ploughed through a Berlin Christmas market and 12 people died, the mass event was shielded by concrete barriers and guarded by police carrying automatic rifles.
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Obviously worked considering there was no assaults on the scale of last years celebrations. As an Irishman that travelled to the north and the uk during the IRA bombing campaigns you were always profiled and searched. If you have nothing to hide what’s the problem
It’s madness to give the police grief for this. Ppl were happy to call out the perpetrators by race and it sends a strong message. In the circumstances and following last year I can’t say I blame them.
There is nothing wrong with racial profiling when it comes to security concerns. In its most basic form you fit the description of people who have carried out assaults or attacks previously. You are not assumed to be guilty, you’re just under more scutiny. f you’re innocent the worst that will happen is you have to undergo an additional minor inconvenience. Treating everybody with the same level of scrutiny isn’t practical when you have limited resources. The only caveat is a person with bad intent may try to disguise their appearance to avoid detection so any profiling has to be very broad brush. It’s still useful though. Doing an additional pat down of your granny is a waste of time.
Honest to goodness.. some people need to be told to go f themselves… there is nothing wrong with racial profiling provided it’s done for genuine security reasons..
Security cost must be huge $$. Also a real shame fireworks were cancelled. Talk about a bunch of loonies spoiling traditions for everyone else. Send these trouble makers back to where they came from and have been making trouble for thousands of years. And jail merkel while ur at it for treason.
@gregory: Jail Merkel for treason ? Please elaborate.
Political correctness gone mad.
Statistically most of those involved in child porn are middle aged white males, which is precisely why police focus on that demographic.
Does that make them racist?? No, it just makes them sensible.
so Nafri is racist but Nordic isnt??
Of course they were racially profiling and, guess what, it worked. If a certain demographic is prone to commit a certain crime then of course the police are going to target that demographic in operations to reduce said crime. Campaigning for unchecked and unrestricted immigration and now complaining when the police are forced to take measures to protect women from the people they campaigned to bring in. You couldn’t make it up.
Well, and the facts are that a certain demographic IS prone to commit a certain crime. Let’s remember the horde that attacked women in Cologne last year was not made up of white nordic males.
@JASON Culligan if the peoples countries were not invaded we would have no refugees, by the way your a immigrant yourself, you can’t make this sht up, I think the racially profiling part gets u off, you little insignificant racist.
@Paulo mclawlor:
“by the way your a immigrant yourself”
You’re right, I’ve made no secret of it. I’ve also learned the local language, adapted to the local culture, made friends and connections with the locals, work for a local company and never drawn social welfare in my host country. This is a common theme among EU migrants who have generally proven to be quite productive and integrate well into their host nations.
We’re not talking about inter-EU migration though are we? No, we’re talking about the results of unchecked migration from predominantly Muslim countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia.
@Jason Culligan we are not talking about mass immigration, we are talking about refugees, why cant they go home? Why are there so many refugees ? Because of war torn countries invaded by the west for Regime change, end the invasion of the middle east and send all the refugees home.
Open your eyes little man most of these people are not from war torn countries just Muslim hellholes
@mike cantwell, Muslim hellholes….you mean like Saudi Arabia,
Mike .. you’re wasting your time … they’re all poor refugees in his eyes ..
What do you mean by unchecked migration Jason?
Mike, so Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Sudan and Libya are not war-torn? Can you explain?
SILENCE OF THE CULLIGANS…. Bahhh!!!
@Paulo mclawlor:
The majority of those arriving in Europe are economic migrants and not genuine refugees.
“More than half of those fleeing to Europe from the Middle East and Africa are economic migrants and not asylum seekers fleeing the horrors of war in Iraq or Syria, according to first vice-president of the European Commission, Frans Timmermans.
Quoting what he said were new, unpublished, figures from the EU border agency, Frontex, Mr Timmermans said: “More than half of the people now coming to Europe come from countries where you can assume they have no reason whatsoever to ask for refugee status … more than half, 60 percent.”
Good to see the German police start to be proactive.
Damned if you do, etc. Welcome to the new normal, Germany, you asked for it.
Commenting on this article places me in a quandary. Profiling is based on a set of facts that may well be limited. What percentage of drivers are impaired. If you are driving, you may be a drink driver. You therefore may be stopped at a drink driver checkpoint. I don’t drink, so this is unfair toward me. It is, however, for the greater good. Certain males from certain regions were engaged in illegal behaviour at a train station last New Years. This year, based on that set of facts, there were identification checks in place. Is it fair to all who were checked. No, some of those people were totally innocent. It was for the greater good. Society appears to have become allergic to sets of facts, perhaps limited.
Nice to see somebody actually thinking about both sides of the argument. The problem I have is the fact that anybody with dark skin is now on the police watchlist. I can understand why this is happening but I find it very unsettling. Are we now accepting that all dark skinned people need to get used to life with less civil liberties than white people? If so, we have far bigger issues in society than sporadic extremist attacks.
@Rathminder- you’re logic is flawed. I too am a non-drinker and have no problem with AGS checkpoints – indeed quite the opposite. It shows to me that AGS are on the case and treating all fairly.
You may not like it Nialls but it’s practical and is the lesser of two evils when you prevent the mass sexual assaults that occured last year. Less civil liberties is a bit of an overstatement. We’re talking about checking bags and ids at a large public event. And it’s not like this profiling is coming out of the blue. I think you’re hung up on the historical racism that would have gone along with profiling in the past. But scientifically race doesn’t actually exist. It’s just the pigment of a person’s skin that gives it its colour. So if you cast a wide net you will pick up Spanish people who look North African and Indians who could be Middle Eastern. As mentioned Irish people would have faced additional scrutiny travelling to the UK during the troubles. If a person with red hair and freckles robs a bank then the police will stop people with red hair and freckles who match the profile. Their freckles are just different skin tones. The way the police treat people equally is to ignore people’s historical hangups on race and profile people with consideration of purely aesthetic characteristics or any other shared characteristics with dangerous groups that share a single characteristic like nationality or religion. The main problem is perception and if profiling goes too far to the point it becomes harassment. The innocent parties may see it as unfair and it could push some to become radicalised like a self-fulfilling prophecy. It’s a fine line but there should be a balance that works.
O poor them. There came from a country where they never had to obey laws.So there now upset because the police stopped them from having there way with German women. If you don’t like it then go back to your own country. Laws of any given country are there for everyone to obey.
Does that include the law that forbids racial profiling or do we just ignore that one?
Well Nialls, maybe the law is an ass and should be repealed.
@Nialls : Fact check so : show us where it’s illegal in Germany then.
Racial profiling is not illegal in Germany..,
Don’t profile a certain demographic and end up missing a crucial piece of information which could stop a terrorist attack, you’ll be hammered for it. Profile a certain demographic and cause the usual suspects to be offended. A no brainer really.
“Well…….it wasn’t the mexicans!!”- Tommy Tiernan
@Jesper: brilliant!
What’s wrong with racial profiling?. I don’t see many Irish committing terrorism acts in Germany
The police did a great job in Berlin and Köln and Hamburg on New Years Eve. They are being criticised for taking photos of the North Africans close up. The only ones complaining about this are the Liberal Left lunatics!! Red/Red/Green (Liberal Link/SPD/Greens). The police have great support from the people here in Germany. The tide is turning against the cold, detached and robotic Frau Merkel!! The attack on the Christmas Market is the straw that broke the camels back!!
Great to hear the people are behind the police. Get Merkel out of office
Germany is finished.
“Hundreds of brown people screened”
@nialls which preventsed thousands of woman being sexually assaulted. What’s wrong with that?
Cultural incompatibility
Racial profiling is illegal for a reason. Think about the bigger picture
@nialls The bigger picture is thousands of women were prevented from being raped/molested. What don’t you get? If it was white Irish males that were profiled I would have no problem with my husband/brother/father being stopped and questioned. They were questioned because of racial profiling but they were denied entry because they acted aggressively and were thought to have posed a threat. If they had nothing to hide they would have been let go again
@Nialls – proof that profiling is illegal please…..
I’m fairly sure that sexual assault is also illegal, but only some of us got upset about it a year ago. It took the German press MUCH longer to report on it than on questionable tweets this year.
So what exactly are the cops supposed to do? Ignore nafries, and pat down white locals, to avoid being called RACIST? Is Political correctness is more important than keeping people safe?
This needs implemented Europe-wide.
Fuk em an their outrage
Welcome to europe do as you like as it’s wrong for the police to question you
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