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

Are you saying sexual violence doesn't exist without cinegraphic evidence?

It's deliberately obfuscatory to try and prevent the focus being placed on ethno-cultural specifics, in the same way it's deliberately obfuscatory not to look at the gender break down in domestic violence.

Sansoora Your various nieces have achieved their jobs because they come from educated middle-class. Unless you "know someone", or their fathers are well-placed, it is not possible to obtain training or indeed go to uni in many parts of the Middle East and N. Africa if you are a WOMAN.

Which part of the world are you referring to, what national are you referring to? This part a bit confusing ......
*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."

The refugee/immigrant issue is pertinent here. Whether this group are new arrivals, second, third generation, etc. or not is irrelevant given that the images available of the group are so reminiscent of the same images of the refugees/immigrants walking across countries. The images are almost identical - and for this reason, important. People are asking why the refugees/immigrants are predominantly male. The answer to this is because of the ways the system/invitation has been set up. These refugees have been issued with an almost Herculean Labours scenario - scale mountains, trek thousands of kilometres, traverse seas. If you are successful, you can come in. Who is likely to undertake this? Aside from the fact that this way of handling the refugee/immigration issue is an absolute scandalous tragedy (if Germany need a labour force, then bring them to your country safely although even this is just so unpalatable on so many levels. Shameful), there is little long-term planning (we had a taster of the implications of a lacking long-term strategy with Iraq) as to what will happen next. So, they arrive... and then what? Statistics show that over 70% will remain unemployed ten years later. Also, statistics show that there is little integration, judging by the 'no go' areas (we lived in an area where we were told that "This is our town now. Don't come here"), the support for anti-equality ideas and actual behavioural violence. I mention statistics to ward off anecdotals such as "Well, I know someone who is a nuclear scientist at Oxford". As a society, we have no plan to integrate anyone due to the way that liberalism has been misinterpreted by politicians (for liberalism, read 'multiculturalism - all ideas are equal, however crap', discussed up-thread). People are left floundering because there are no strong, powerful, successful and desirable ideas to unite anyone - "Of course you can come here and more or less do what you like - we are so liberal here). As someone mentioned above in the context of rape in war, this incident in Cologne is symbolic. It is sending a signal to westernised, liberal nations that their raison d'être is hated and despised.

I agree with you Surferjet. Pussyfooting around any problem and not addressing it can never bring a solution.

I once made the mistake of going to one of the London Walkabout pubs on NYE with my male flatmates and (now) DH. Aged about 26, I think.

The male female ratio was alarmingly skewed - somehow it had ended up with a situation of a few girls up on the raised area, dancing in front of a salivating, almost entirely male, audience on the main dancefloor. There was a very odd sexual tension in the air. My group went to an upstairs bar area and as I was standing with my back to the rest of the crowd, I felt someone grope me between my buttocks from behind, touching my vaginal area through my thin skirt. I turned around and saw the man immediately turn away, all 'not me' in his body language . As my DH immediately guessed what had happened I lied and said that I didn't know who it was, because I didn't want to risk a confrontation or worse. We called it a night and went home.

I wasn't traumatised, although I still remember it 14 years later, but certainly put off from going somewhere similar again.

So what did I 'learn' from that?

Not to go out to an environment with a lot of men and few women
Not to identify a perpetrator for fear of further violence
To leave a social environment in response to something happening
To protect both a perpetrator and my DH by lying myself

There are various factors that made this mob attack possible in my view.

The misogynist culture of the perpetrators.
Socio-economic factors.
Lack of integration.
Opportunity and total police failure.
Cologne courts are notorious for letting off criminals lightly.

I still am flabbergasted that the mayor of Cologne has proposed women and girls to keep strangers at arm length and avoid being alone.

I am glad that the women of Cologne gathered yesterday to make their concerns heard. www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-35239503

My first thought was the men are likely to be 'Mediterranean' looking of many nationalities and likely drawn from the poorer parts of the city where immigrant populations tend to congregate.

The group has some sort of loose cohesive nature and the police say a number of the men were already known to them - hence likely petty criminals. Such people are undoubtedly going to be drawn to Germany and other places like it for easy money. Similar pick pocketing gangs operate in London.

The general lawless chaotic nature of NYE allowed the situation to morph quickly beyond merely street robbery. Women are easier to attack and they carry bags. It may be the assaults were actually being used as distraction to facilitate robbery.

Which part of the world are you referring to

Im surprised you've had to ask given your first paragraph.

I thought you knew everything.

funnyperson You say: Do you really think the aim is to terrorise European society into depriving women of freedom? I hadnt really thought of that.
YES, it is a tactic. Just as the UK has been cowed into PC silence over so many things, the Muslim men in Germany (even those born there) want women to get back to their place. It will take a decade or so, but they're in it for the long game anyway.

Yes, ABetaDad, this is how your bog standard pickpockets tend to operate. Several hundred men organising themselves in advance and assaulting women all over while also filching wallets on the side. Did you read the victim quotes on the BBC? A hundred hands on one woman's body within the space of two hundred meters, ripping clothes off underage girls? Likely just petty criminals. Yep. Totally.

One woman's bag and phone would be thin pickings for the large gang of men described by victims. Methinks the sexual assaults are not just a distraction for that. Why minimise a sexual assault by a mob?

ABetaDad1 - why don't you just say 'I guarantee none of the men were from the Middle East or recent immigrants' & be done with it.

The Mayor of Cologne sounds like a shoulder shrugging twit.

ABetaDad1, maybe these men were just trying to steal wallets and purses but their fingers just happened to slip into these girls orifices by mistake?

Peregrane/BuildMore - it was sexual assault by a mob. The initial objective or facilitating factor may have been robbery. One man grabs a woman's breasts to distract and frighten her while the other picks her pockets.

I also think robbery of a woman's property and then robbing her of her dignity and bodily autonomy are closely linked. These men don't respect women at all - you don't rob, assault, rape people you respect. It all comes from the same place

I think the situation is much more complex than the news reports have made it out to be. Newspapers and TV news reports are always looking for the simple sensational story.

The most worrying aspect of this is a complete breakdown of law and order for a few hours immediately resulted in massive numbers of sexual assaults by a group of men who seem largely to be exsting outside society in Germany and their target is women. Like wartime as many on this thread have noted.

That is the nightmare scenario - a complete breakdown in society.

Just parking the race and gender element here for a moment, why are the German police not doing more?

During the UK riots a few years ago, (the comparison being large groups of people committing crime in a smallish time scale and area) the police piled in and then over the following days arrested lots and lots of people, many of whom were prosecuted. The police were criticised in the UK for not doing more in the event, but their follow up response appears to have prevented repeated riots.

I understand that there is more pressure on the police on nights like NYE, but what are German taxes being spent on, if it's not a fit for purpose police force?

If I lived in Germany, that would be my primary concern. After all, if perpetrators are successfully discouraged from these horrible crimes, then the nature of the crime / perp / victim wouldn't actually matter, would it?

It would be lovely if we could all sit down and successfully encourage people to be nice to other people. But it's not going to happen is it? We need to use legal consequences as that's the best instrument we have.

ABetaDad robbery, as horrible as it is, is completely different from sexual assault and rape and doesn't "come from the same place"

These were not a group of "people" looking to rob "people", as bad as that would be. They were a group of men looking to sexually assault, rape and intimidate women

But You said the attacks were in your opinion "a distraction in order to facilitate robbery."

Flinging thestatement from the authorities said they had no idea who these peole were. Like a PP just said, lots of shoulder shrugging it seems

Be clearer yourself before bemoaning reporting as simplistic.

Who is that aimed at build?

Moreshabby - the question not being answered here is why/how a group of men gathered together apparently spontaneously resulted in large numbers of sexual assaults in a short space of time.

What/who caused it to happen, what/who organised it?

That is the nightmare scenario - a complete breakdown in society. That I do agree with unequivocally. Unless we all demand that everyone sharing our society signs up to equality, fairness and justice for all, we have no chance. I can see these values disappearing very soon unless we fight for them.

Sorry it was the aBetaDad poster.