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

Every news report I have read have mentioned that these men were African/arab appearance but obviously they are all wrong according to BetaDad.

views like your Beta are part of the problem, not the solution. Are you by any chance an avid Guardian reader? My guess is yes.

Oh and betadad funny how you mention minority groups in Germany. Presumably you mean the Jewish people. Now, which groups do you think have been linked to the rising incidence of antisemetism in France?. I'll give you a clue. It isn't the native French population.
There's a saying that goes 'don't be so open minded your brain falls out'. Your posts made me think of that.

Mslad that might have been your experience of cologne but it isn't mine. As far as my experience goes, your post is bullshit.

Sorry but I'm not going to have some know-nothing tell me they're not surprised, it was always going to happen etc etc. Cologne is a city like ANY other and we're all saddened and sickened because it IS shocking and it IS unusual.

Are you by any chance an avid Guardian reader? My guess is yes. If you are actually able to get to the article before it's pulled from their webpage. Sniff.

Calm down onthephone my experience is as valid as yours.

Your appalling generalizations arent valid

I don't think there is anything wrong with being a Guardian reader.
Incidentally it is true that it as been at least a decade since Trafalgar Square has been safe for ladies to be out on NYE without risking being kissed and groped by strangers

It's not about one drunk stranger trying to grope you though is it? It's about a mass of aggressive men subjecting you to sexual abuse.

Although I take your point that cologne is not unusual is having these sorts of issues.

It is my experience and therefore valid. Here's a crazy idea- perhaps we lived in a different area?

In fact at the millennium standing on Westminster Bridge with the 2 DC I still remember a (white) male saying loudly to his (white) male friend that he was thinking of kissing a pretty boy at midnight (while staring at DS age 7)
I was not impressed and GLARED and nothing happened but I still remember it even though it was most likely a joke

What a horrid, unfunny joke

I have read the Guardian. I read lost of things although I think you will find I am far from 'the Guardian reading type' you imagine.

I vote UKIP and strongly disagree with uncontrolled immigration. I want the UK to leave the EU and I want to close our borders immediately.

There you are. A UKIP supporter who apparently doesn't think that we should knee jerk blame immigrants for mass criminal behaviour for sexually assaulting white women'.

Who would have thunk it!

This enrages me. Why are women always at the bottom of the heap? Racism now rightly utterly unacceptable but misogyny that's just fine.

I visited Cairo in my early twenties with a female friend. It was hellish we ended up confined to our hotel room due to constant sexual abuse and harassment. Breaks my heart to see this spreading to Europe. Have two little girls.

We are PEOPLE. We will not put up with this. Am joining that equality party thing today.

That said I can well see the rise of the Far Right in Europe. The increasing attacks on Jewish people - especially in France.

I am Jewish by birth and I have worked in and around the Middle East and N. Africa. I know how women are treated in that region. I know the overt racism in those countries too. I know white women are seen as 'easy' and also a 'prize to be taken' by the men in those countries.

Things are not black and white. People need to start thinking where this is leading.

I am loving the complete and utter radio silence on all the feminist Facebook pages.

Nothing on Cologne at all.

Gee, I wonder why.

Never mind. No doubt they'll have some nice articles for us to read instead, on "10 Ways You Didn't Know Pencil Sharpeners Were Cissexist," and "How To Pick Your Nose Without Committing Racial Microaggressions" and things like that.

beta presumably you have a mobile phone. How long does it take to text a time and location? That's all the organisation something like this takes. See 'flash mobs' on youtube. How do you think they happened?

I remember going to Cairo and being told by the tour guides as a matter of fact to cover up and not make eye contact with men, as there was a real risk of harassment. It was common knowledge that nothing would be done and basically it vwas a way of life. We don't want this happening here.

"People need to start thinking where this is leading."

This is where civil society needs to put shit loads of pressure on politicians.

It's not about "flash mobs" - and anyone who's been to cologne central station over the last year or so could tell you that. They're there day in, day out.

Grace - who are 'they'?

BetaDad - we are blaming immigrants because ....... how can I put this simply.... because it was immigrants who did it!!!!!!!! Based on all victim and witness statements!
Should we blame the Chinese? Or the Americans? Or the Arab and N. African men who were actually involved?

I suspect a lot of the genuine Syrian refugees especially the older/ married men would not be mass harrassing women.

I agree with this.

I also think it deserves re-iterating that these perpetrators were deliberately targeting German women on NYE for two reasons:

1. They believe, as non-Muslim Westerners, the women are sluts and, being out in public, are 'asking for it'
2. They are sending a clear message that public spaces are not for women and women should stay at home

Theodopulus - I prefer to say gangs of men robbing and sexually assaulting women who were drawn from a variety of established minority groups in the poor quarters of Cologne some of whom were already known to police as being involved in street crime, drug dealing and prostitution..

That is a lot more complex to deal with than saying 'asylum seekers from N. Africa/ME'.

"What will be lost sight of here is that a mob of MEN sexually assaulted women. The focus seems to be on their ethnicity which is not the important issue."

Look, if it was a bunch of overwhelmingly white men picking on a crowd of overwhelmingly Asian women, we'd be talking about the ethnicity issue, right?

Think about the last time you saw a feminist discussion on disgusting old white men crawling around the Philippines and Thailand to have sex with very young girls. Such discussion invariablyas indeed it shoulddiscusses the ethnic dimension, ie the fact that many white men fetishize East Asian women and turn them into sex objects, denying their human rights.

So why can't we talk about the ethnicity issue in this case?