German broadcaster sorry for slow reporting on mob assaults

[MowCowWhoHow III]

Source: AFP

BERLIN: German public broadcaster ZDF has apologised for delays in reporting on a wave of sexual assaults blamed on men of Arab appearance amid accusations Wednesday of media self-censorship of the inflammatory issue.

The rash of attacks and thefts in a New Year’s Eve crowd in the western city of Cologne was only widely covered by national media early this week, after police had initially reported no major incidents.

News editors of ZDF’s flagship “heute” (today) evening news programme apologised on social media for not reporting on the incidents at least in its Monday evening bulletin, four days after the attacks.

“The news situation was clear enough. It was a mistake of the 7pm ‘heute’ show not to at least report the incidents,” wrote deputy chief editor Elmar Thevessen on the show’s Facebook page.

Read more: http://tribune.com.pk/story/1022911/german-broadcaster-sorry-for-slow-reporting-on-mob-assaults/

[MowCowWhoHow III]

1. German police face criticism amid outrage over New Year's sex assaults

German police face criticism amid outrage over New Year's sex assaults

Cologne police chief Wolfgang Albers on Wednesday ruled out stepping down amid criticism of alleged police inaction while dozens of women were sexually assaulted and robbed in the center of the city on New Year's Eve.

Abers told WDR5 public radio, "I think I am needed here, especially now."

Abers admitted, however, that upcoming Carnival festivities in the city from Febraury 4-10 could pose a security challenge.

"We will put up a good deployment, and I'm needed there as well," he said.

Read more: http://www.dw.com/en/german-police-face-criticism-amid-outrage-over-new-years-sex-assaults/a-18963082

[geek tragedy]

2. Rotherham part II. Political correctness gone berserk. nt

[xocet]

10. Here is an article on what actually happened...

I don't have time to translate it properly, and Google's translation of German is sometimes suspect, so I don't usually recommend it:

...

Anders, als erste Presseberichte suggerierten, handelt es sich nach bisherigem Informationsstand also nicht um enthemmte Männer, nicht um Flüchtlinge, nicht um Muslime, sondern um polizeibekannte Intensivstraftäter mit klarer krimineller Motivation, die diese allerdings zu massiven Sexualdelikten ausdehnten.

...

Dies ist auch insofern interessant, als dass ähnliche Delikte unter Nutzung des "Antanztricks" aus Hamburg und Stuttgart berichtet werden.

http://www.netz-gegen-nazis.de/artikel/silvesternacht-k%C3%B6ln-organisiertes-verbrechen-nicht-enthemmte-fl%C3%BCchtlinge-10812

My rough translation of the previous statements is:

"Differently than the initial press reports suggested, this concerns itself, according to the presently available information, not with uninhibited men, not with refugees, not with Muslims, but instead with known, serious offenders having clear criminal intent that they, indeed, expanded to serious sexual offenses."

...

"This is also interesting in that similar offenses using the 'on-dancing' attack are reported in Hamburg and Stuttgart."

...

Instead of a case of political correctness gone awry, you might want to look more deeply into the situation. That being said, it might be difficult to do so across the language barrier.

[geek tragedy]

11. The following are not mutually unexclusive categories

1) Uninhibited men;
2) Refugees;
3) Muslims;
4) Known, serious offenders having clear criminal intent.

It is very possible for many people to belong to all 4 categories

[xocet]

19. You are correct about the categories. There is an update at the near the article's end that I must

mention, since it concerns what I had posted:

...

Offenbar missverständlich formuliert war der Satz, bei den Tätern handele es sich "nach bisherigem Informationsstand also nicht um enthemmte Männer, nicht um Flüchtlinge, nicht um Muslime, sondern um polizeibekannte Intensivstraftäter mit klarer krimineller Motivation, die diese allerdings zu massiven Sexualdelikten ausdehnten." Gemeint war: Wir wissen bisher nicht, wer die Täter sind, und sollten deshalb nicht darüber spekulieren, ob es Flüchtlinge oder Muslime sind. Die Polizei hatte bis zum Zeitpunkt des Artikels lediglich gesagt, unter den Tatverdächtigen seien polizeibekannte Intensivstraftäter. Inzwischen gilt auch das nicht mehr (siehe unten). Wir bitten die Missverständlichkeit zu entschuldigen.

...

http://www.netz-gegen-nazis.de/artikel/silvesternacht-k%C3%B6ln-organisiertes-verbrechen-nicht-enthemmte-fl%C3%BCchtlinge-10812

...

Evidently, the sentence regarding the suspects was mistakably phrased - "this concerns itself, according to the presently available information, not with uninhibited men, not with refugees, not with Muslims, but instead with known, serious offenders having clear criminal intent that they, indeed, expanded to serious sexual offenses." Intended was: We as of yet do not know who the suspects are, and should not therefore speculate whether they are refugees or Muslims. As of the publishing of this article, the police had merely stated that among the suspects were known serious offenders. As of now, this is no longer a valid statement (See below). Please excuse the mistakable phrasing.

...

A lot more current information follows this update. Tm;dnt (too much; did not translate) will have to be my response to that though.

Obviously, there will be a lot more reported on this. When the facts are known, it too will be known if your assertion regarding political correctness is valid.

Have a nice night!

[branford]

14. If the men were actually "known, serious offenders,"

why haven't the police made dozens, if not hundreds, of arrests (and why were these men free and on the streets at all).

The obvious conclusions are that the statement is demonstrably untrue, few or no arrests have been made for the same reasons the incidents were not promptly reported, i.e., political anger and opposition to government policies concerning refugees and unassimilated Arab and Muslim populations in Germany and fears of civil unrest, and/or the police are shockingly incompetent. All these issues are equally disturbing.

[xocet]

16. The article also brings up the seeming inability of the police to act to prevent this sort of crime.

Namely:

...

Denn die wirklich interessante Frage lautet: Wie ist es möglich, dass so eine massive Zahl von Delikten begangen wurde, ohne dass die Polizei damit adäquat umgehen konnte? War die Aktion organisiert? Und lässt sich ein ähnliches Szenario in Zukunft verhindern?

...

http://www.netz-gegen-nazis.de/artikel/silvesternacht-k%C3%B6ln-organisiertes-verbrechen-nicht-enthemmte-fl%C3%BCchtlinge-10812

Again, roughly:

"So the really interesting question reads: How is it possible that such a large number of offenses could be committed, without the police being in a position to adequately circumvent with them? Was the operation organized? And can a similar scenario be prevented in the future?"

Again, I apologize, but I don't have time to translate the entire article.

[branford]

17. I understand that police resources are limited, particularly during a holiday,

and its very difficult to prevent large-scale mob behavior.

Nevertheless, even when viewed quite generously, the police statements are internally inconsistent, do not appear to balance with the press reports of the incidents and offenders or explain the lack of arrests, and totally fail to explain why such an incredible and pervasive stream of serious criminal conduct took days to report to the public.

I'm reminded of the old axiom, "that the cover-up is worse than the crime" concerning the government's handling of these inexcusable incidents. Ironically, the apparent attempt to cover them up and downplay the demographic details has made the story far worse and more interesting to the general public, and might engender an even greater anti-migrant/immigrant push-back than the German government was originally trying to avoid.

[xocet]

18. There is an update to the article that touches upon the excerpt that I had translated.

I am translating a little bit of the update and will post it here for you in the very near future....

[xocet]

20. Here is the link to the update (posted upthread) that I mentioned:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10141305048#post19

Have a nice night!

[FLPanhandle]

3. Truth should be greater than Political Correctness

Never be afraid to report the facts even if they make some people uncomfortable.

[Yo_Mama]

7. Yes, you are right. Absolutely right.

Germany has probably admitted close to a million men aged between 15-30 over the last two years. Of course there are some lawbreakers among them.

They have made two mistakes - 1) Not enforcing the law for less serious infractions in this group (in part because they can't - they have no effective way to deal with them), and 2) Pretending it is not happening.

The non-enforcement blew up this year, with police not even taking reports for shoplifting, etc.So they have created a culture in which a 2-10 thousand people can destroy the broader culture. Obviously it can be fixed, but not without publicly admitting what is going on.

[exboyfil]

4. You also have the mayor of Cologne basically blaming the victims

http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-35243482

Should U.S. media report the race of a suspect? It seemed to go both ways in the recent shooting of the North Texas student.

[24601]

13. Whatever those who decide journalistic practices settle on, it should be uniform. Wouldn't it be a

nice change if when reading a story, reporting (as distinguished from opinion/editorial segments) would be consistent regardless of whether it originated from by C-SPAN, Fox or MSNBC?

You also could ask the same question about reporting a suspect's gender, sexual orientation, age, religion, political affiliation. Sometimes those could be important to the story line. Sometimes they are not. A former KKK leader in BLM is newsworthy as would be a black member of the Westboro Baptist Church.

I do believe that when the police have requested assistance finding a suspect, a complete physical description should include race. The following just wouldn't be all that helpful:

"Boston police are asking the public to be on the lookout for a suspect who attempted to rob the 1st National Bank on the corner of Mayfield and 6th Streets on Monday, January 4th, 2016 at 11:43 AM. The suspect, who fled after being asked for a photo ID, threatened the bank's senior teller, James P. Smithson, who was working at at window two with a Sportsman's Model 621 Gerber Knife that had a 5 2/3 inch double-edged blade and a Glacier Blue handle wrapped in #2 red yarn from Michael's craft store. Using a medium-tip black sharpie, the suspect wrote a 9-word hold-up note on the back of a bank deposit form, version 9.3 dated 07/2012 . Police Spokesman, Lieutenant Sarah Bell Knowlton, a 14-year BPD veteran, said the department would appreciate all tips regarding the suspect who she described as likely a human who may have been wearing clothes.

[Democat]

5. This is why people like Trump are getting popular

Who thinks that blaming the victims or hiding the problem is a good idea?

[christx30]

6. I've been saying that for a while.

People dismiss me as a right wing troll. Truth is, I hate trump, and I think he would be absolutely terrible for the country. But a lot of what he says makes sense to a lot of people.
The whole "I'm saying what everyone is thinking" thing goes a long way.

[AuntPatsy]

9. His talk is cheap for us, ensures new cash flow for himself and his circle...

Nothing more nothing less, we've heard it all before and by more than the medias present day front news story consisting of sound bites with no true bite and or substance unless the listener lacks common sense....

JMO

[Blue_Tires]

12. What a clusterfuck...

[Ash_F]

15. Is it still not known how many reports there were and their breakdown by category?

1 rape, 1 attack with a firecracker and 88 reports of something else? Cologne has 1 million people. 90 crime reports in one day is not a shocking number. People are jumping to conclusions before getting any details.

It is not even clear the race of the attackers in those two cases.

Some analysis based on what little has been provided:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=1305298