Mass sexual assaults in Cologne on New Years Eve

[Cellardoor1]

I've just read this and I'm shocked that such a thing could happen. A group of around 1,000 men gathered and assaulted at least 60 women and girls and also pickpocketed people. Apparently the news wasn't released until now out of fears it could stir up tension as the men appeared to be of Arab/North African appearance, possibly refugees.

abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/cologne-police-chief-condemns-sex-assaults-years-eve-36083833

Grace yes - the largest number by far is from Kosovo www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/refugee-crisis-six-charts-that-show-where-refugees-are-coming-from-where-they-are-going-and-how-they-10482415.html (some of whom are not actually Kosovars but Albanians) - figures from the Hungarian Embassy seems to indicate that Syrians are the third highest number of people seeking relocation to Europe in this 2015 wave, but in these Independent figures, they are 2nd

Joining. I live in Germany. My thoughts: Whether this atrocity was committed by refugees or not, the German authorities are pretty clear: It doesn't matter where you come from, you'll be treated the same under German law. They are also urging people NOT to jump to anti-refugee feeling.

Only read the first/last 100 posts so some points from page 1 which might have already been answered:

Cover and ceiling are the same word in German so "below ceiling" is likely to mean cover-up, yes. And I think this was due to confusion and miscommunication leading to what looked like a cover up, but it wasn't. It's just that not all of the information was brought together until later.

Totally normal in Germany on New Year's Eve for people to be launching fireworks from their bare hands towards buildings and across the street. They were doing it in our street, and barely stopped for the tram to pass through the middle of them! There seems to be no firework safety code here at all.

Also, it is being reported now that the number of 1000 is a huge overestimate, and the real number is thought to be around 400. Still horrible, and definitely capable of causing some real distress and damage, but not as dramatic as first feared. The local services are responding by increasing security staff at prime locations and there are talks of installing better security cameras. And, yes, women have been advised to avoid the area, but this is in line with advice after the Munich threat - people were advised to avoid crowds and large transport hubs if possible.

That is very different from advice issued in the uk after any "terrorist" incident where people are actively encouraged to carry on as normal. Certainly not to avoid city centre areas.

And thanks Bertie for the insight. I've found your and onthephone's comments really interesting today.

Have you got any insight as to why it's taken 5 days for this to emerge age for the authorities to respond?

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Not sure, sorry. But there isn't as much CCTV here as there is in Britain, very much not the same at all. Germans consider it "Big Brotherish" so I don't know whether the station had/has CCTV at all especially in the areas the violence was happening which seemed to be outside. If it did, it might be that it wasn't easy to see what was happening with all of the normal (good tempered) chaos of new year. This video is a pretty accurate representation of a typical German city NYE:

This advice about the Munich threat was not issued after a terror attack but after a threatened attack, which is not the same thing. When you receive a terror threat, you evacuate, you don't advise people to go about their business as usual. Same as why they closed the football game a few weeks ago.

The reddit Europe thread about the attacks has a lot of speculation but also a fair few witness accounts, it's an interesting read if you have the patience for it. Most seem to be reporting that it's not recent refugees but 2nd generation immigrants. But this doesn't tally up with the (unofficiated) report from (a, single) police officer that eight of those arrested had recent asylum seeking papers.

You can use the translate function on Chrome to get an idea of what the linked German articles are saying. It was reported by the BBC that a policewoman was attacked, too. Perhaps more than one. Honestly it just sounds like a terrifying and confusing and overwhelming scene. I wouldn't be surprised if it just took time to put several of the attending police reports together to build a coherent picture of what happened - think about the blind men and the elephant story. It also sounds as though it was too coordinated and violent for anybody to be taking videos etc - people were either cornered or running the fuck away really fast. They were stealing phones, etc, too. Because normally by now there is some footage of an event like this, but nothing. I think it escalated too quickly and there were too many different perspectives, but that is pure speculation on my part, I am not near the area mentioned.

Oh, and also, because obviously rape and sexual assault is pretty difficult to deal with it seems as though a lot of the women who were attacked have not come forward. So it may be that it was originally thought that it was "just" infighting, not some kind of mass attack, but as some tentative reports started to filter in, they realised that there was more to it. So women affected are being urged to report now, but as we all know, it's not that easy when you've suffered something traumatic :(

Have only skimmed a couple of pages of this thread, but in case noone has done so yet, I would just like to point out that under German law a lot of these sexual assaults were not strictly assault. Groping or kissing a woman (with or without her consent) are not defined as sex acts, so if someone gropes you without your consent, they are - astonishingly - not committing sexual assault. The reason the Cologne police are even looking into this is that it was a) a mass assault, b) people were robbed and c) at least one woman was raped. Had these people confined themselves to "just" groping women, there would be no basis for a police investigation. These are the Western values we would like all migrants to adhere to - you can grope a woman all you like, just as long as you don't rape or rob her.

This has made me so angry ...
My long term DP is a European born Arab...he has certain attitudes from home that I tend to find amusing more than anything . (Basically I give him a look ...and he knows he is being an arse.) And so I do have some insight into the mentality - I know his father beat his mother and she was subjected to what we would consider was marital rape. (Summoned to the bedroom - beaten and dragged if she didn't drop everything and go )
And quite few arabic friends over the years - one (who I really liked before this) came to visit us after we had relocated -they picked someone up in a nightclub for a ONS. (I was pissed off he'd bought a stranger into my flat without asking ...especially as I had left my purse etc sitting out) but then his attitude to the girl the next day was truly horrible. (He wasn't invited to visit again).
Also on holiday in Egypt I had to deal with the police over someone trying to rip me off - they thought it was hilarious that I had paid - especially as they took me to the station for hours and I asked them to phone the hotel and get them to feed DP and DC on 'tick' as I had the safe key and money with me. They also changed an internal flight ticket to Mrs DP's surname...even though I paid with my card in my name.

Certain cultures DO have a terrible attitude to women - they really are viewed as their husband's/father's possessions to do with as they like.
I've been told by someone who lived in a strict Arabic Muslim country for a while that the harder 'normal' people's lives become the more power the extremists get and the stricter the 'rules', the less freedoms for women but also for men. Which leads to a distorted view of sex. Things like brides on their wedding night having to be taken to hospital because of the sheer violence of the intercourse and that the young men involved were proud of that - it showed how good in bed they were.
These same men's views of the West - especially women - is formed by watching our TV, films and music videos...think of some music videos and you can see what a distorted view you would get - they do consider western women to be easy, available - basically whores.

We do need to make sure we don't regress and go back - we don't accept the values of cultures that have such a low opinion of women.

On a what to do? I know women shouldn't have to protect themselves but I think if I was going to the Karniveal I would be taking pepper spray at the least - in fact I have been trying to picture how you could fashion underwear with razor blades attached without causing harm to yourself.... wonder how many of these men would think twice before doing the same again if they got their fingers badly slashed trying to have a 'quick feel'...
(I really am angry - I could do violence - maybe because I have two DDs and I want to protect them for men like this )

*protect them FROM men like this....

I don't have the words to express my disgust and anger, not only at the assaults but also at the lack of news coverage. This is a major incident of international significance and demands full and frank discussion at every level. I'm absolutely sickened.

Just saw this load of victim blaming crap in The Independent.

The Mayor of Cologne said today that women should adopt a “code of conduct” to prevent future assault at a crisis meeting following the sexual attack of women by 1000 men on New Year’s eve.

The suggested code of conduct includes maintaining an arm’s length distance from strangers, to stick within your own group, to ask bystanders for help or to intervene as a witness, or to inform the police if you are the victim of such an assault.

Fucking unbelievable!

www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/mayor-of-cologne-says-women-should-have-code-of-conduct-to-prevent-future-assault-a6798186.html

the fact that they are asking women to change their behaviour shows that they aren't planning on doing anything about it. They know it will happen again. I feel so bad for the victims who went through these horrendous attacks and for German women who now don't feel safe on their own streets.

Ask bystanders for help? The tactic they used of surrounding one individual and commiting the crimes make this very hard to do. One man witnessed his wife and daughter being sexually assaulted and was unable to prevent it or intervene. Look at Lara Logan, she had bodyguards and it still happened to her. Maybe it was their own fault for not trying hard enough to get help?

I wonder if it were males who were the victims would they be told the same? That they are the ones who have to change their behaviour so as not to be assaulted. I highly doubt it.

I am Arab-born and I can say categorically that the Middle Eastern men are brought up with a sense of entitlement, superiority and aggression. Women are not important in these societies, except for pleasure, procreation and housewife duties.

My arab niece is a police air-wing helicopter pilot. Another is an SAS trained bodyguard to a very senior Gulf Royal. Another has just been announced internationally as "Woman of the Year in Oil and Gas". Then there are the two who are Bank Managers with two international banks, one who's a Dr, another a university lecturer in Chemistry, and thats just some of them because to write about the ones who have Phd's in their chosen fields would take too long. And then there are my girls.

So please spare us your Leftie guilt. Mature people have to call it as you see it, but you prefer to contort yourself to find an "out" for these men in Cologne. You are the only one whose stomach is churned because you have to face the unpalatable truth that immigrant men from my part of the world will NEVER change their behaviour towards women and you still don't get why. All non-Muslim women are seen as tarts.

Ive lived in this part of the world for almost 40 years as the wife of a national. There is nothing about my outward appearance that makes me look like anything but a middle aged British woman dressed from High Street stores so unless I tell people Im the wife of a national they wouldn't know. Never have I been treated with anything but the greatest of respect and Ive certainly never been seen as a tart. I love it here and I love the people who Ive been fortunate to live amongst for a lifetime. They bare no resemblance whatsoever to the kind of people you and others are generalising about.

I recognise your style of post and their content and your latest offering doesn't surprise me in the least.

I'm in Cologne and the scale of the attacks was clear shortly after it happened to those who are members of a Facebook group for people in Cologne. Unfortunately it doesn't surprise. I lived in London for many years and I always felt safe wherever I was. I can't say the same about Cologne, especially the area around the station.

One of the woman who was at the station on NYE has posted a picture in the Cologne Facebook group. I hope it's okay to post here.

I think the incident should be taken very seriously indeed. This was an organised mass sexual attack. Organised presumably by mobile phone.

Arguably if the reports of the ethnicity of the attackers/intimidators are true, it is a terrorist attack.

At the very least it will provide other groups of men (of any race) with an attack model. It could provide an excuse for retaliatory attacks.

The police were powerless. Was this because they weren't prepared? I'm surprised they weren't able to disperse the men and protect the ladies.

Important for police to provide a rapid response to this sort of thing and nip it in the bud asap.

"Cover and ceiling are the same word in German so "below ceiling" is likely to mean cover-up, yes. " what was the original sentence bertie?
There is some unwillingness to report crimes if they were committed by refugees or immigrants in an attempt to not stoke the flames of Pegida and the AfD, so this might have played a role in the slow reporting at the beginning.

BBC have finally reported on this incident.

Great - now women have been issued with a "code of conduct" by the mayor of Cologne to prevent this sort of thing from happening again. Because, of course, everything is our fucking fault.

Also Germany is signalling to the world that it really couldn't give a crap about women so I won't be visiting it any time soon.

I hope that include free pepper spray and jujutsu lessons.

I'm glad I am moving today. I lived a year in Cologne now and it was 12 months too long.

People's fears of appearing racist will always trump anything, & it's women & children who will suffer because of this.
Can you imagine if this had been 100 white British men who had assaulted these women? - I'm certain the reporting would have been very different.
I despair really.

Radio 4 were pussy footing around who these men were but it is relevant of it is a gang of North Africans, Australians or circus performers. You can't fix a problem by ignoring the source (ie some men of a specific origins' attitude to women).

That photo has made my blood run cold. The sheer volume and density of that crowd. Why the hell wasn't it dispersed. The women (and the men they were with) must've felt so frightened and helpless.

It also makes even more of a mockery of the authorities' atrocious "guidelines" of keeping strangers at arms length doesn't it?

As if the the issuing of these atrocious victim blaming rules for women wasn't bad enough (i am raging about them still) it's as if they've made them up with absolutely no knowledge or understanding of what went on.