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Mass sexual assaults in Cologne on New Years Eve

999 replies

Cellardoor1 · 04/01/2016 22:20

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

OP posts:
Waterwitch1 · 06/01/2016 18:21

In the United Kingdom, several news outlets have followed Breitbart’s coverage, including the Daily Mail which acknowledged Breitbart for breaking the story. Most remarkable is the coverage by the state-owned BBC. Despite the media giant even having their own offices in Cologne, their report published this afternoon sticks to the facts as published by Cologne local media days ago — and fails to mention migrants until the 18th paragraph.

Ubik1 · 06/01/2016 18:28

Have a look st breitbart and let me know what you think

TheCountessofFitzdotterel · 06/01/2016 18:29

I don't think it's saying that at all.

batshitlady · 06/01/2016 18:31

It's hard to believe there's a worse city than Paris for sexual harassment.

Last time I was there, two Arab guys stopped their scooter, the one on the back got off, took out his dick and waved it at a friend whilst a friend and I sat outside a cafe. The other one laughed. When the waiter came out from inside they spat at us a rode off. My friend said 'don't get too upset it happens all the time'. I have to say London, where I've lived my whole life and I'm 50, never, not once have I had such an experience.

fourmummy · 06/01/2016 18:41

Fascinating thread. The German response is interesting ( 'interesting' in a detached, theoretical sense. No offence intended to anyone :)). The police metaphorical or actual shoulder shrug and the Mayor's response are not dissimilar to the kinds of responses to rape reported in Susan Brownmiller's 'Against Our Will' book - but that was 1970s (America). We ('We' being western nations) have made enormous progress since then with respect to our responses to rape victims, not uniformly of course, but nevertheless a great deal relative to the '70s. So why this odd response now? It is suggestive of an acceptance of these actions, a resignation toward something that can't be controlled or otherwise changed. 'This is here to stay' type of thing, hence the shift back toward the victim, which we all know is unequivocally wrong and unacceptable, but, which is the only thing that can be modified.

Ubik1 · 06/01/2016 18:56

What's important to understand though is not that immigrant men behave in these ways because they don't understand the cultures in which they have found themselves: they behave in those ways precisely because they do. Those men in Cologne and elsewhere in Germany, assuming they really were all "foreign", have understood perfectly well that they find themselves in a country where alcohol and pubic revelry equal a free-for-all on women's bodies, which in any case can be legally bought in mega-brothels all across the country. There were extra police officers deployed in the city on NYE (a female police officer was hreself reportedly assaulted). There were just as many German men getting off those trains as women. Where were they? Why did their presence not make it seem unsafe or at least impolitic to behave in ways that every adult, regardless of country of origin, knows perfectly well is illegal and indecent?

My understanding of her argument is that it's the permissive culture in Germany which has permitted or encouraged these men to sexually assault women and children walking through a station on NYE?

Is that what she means?

It's odd because I've seen the queues for some very popular brothels in the Middle East. The men do not live like monks.

But is she saying they were provoked by the German environment/ culture?

Pinkchampchoccies · 06/01/2016 19:00

"I don't think anyone has linked this specifically and negatively towards the wider question of immigration"

I think that this is because immigration feels unstoppable now.

Interesting idea about ME banks bailing out the West..

"so why this odd response now? It is suggestive of an acceptance of these actions, a resignation toward something that can't be controlled or otherwise changed. 'This is here to stay' type of thing, hence the shift back toward the victim, which we all know is unequivocally wrong and unacceptable, but, which is the only thing that can be modified."

Yes I think you are onto something.

Pinkchampchoccies · 06/01/2016 19:07

"My understanding of her argument is that it's the permissive culture in Germany which has permitted or encouraged these men to sexually assault women and children walking through a station on NYE?"

This is why I brought up the topic of Porn much earlier in the thread. How does easy to access, free, hardcore internet porn regularily portraying women in a demeaning fashion affect men who are raised to treat women as inferior? Not very well I imagine.

I agree that the UK has a long way to go until equality between the sexes is achieved, Sweden fair a whole deal better.

IWantSantasNewToyInMyStocking · 06/01/2016 19:08

I don't think that's what she means, I think she is saying we're busy blaming immigrants and ignoring the fact that assault and abuse of some happens regularly among 'their own' and none does anything to stop it.

IWantSantasNewToyInMyStocking · 06/01/2016 19:09

Women not some.

Theydontknowweknowtheyknow · 06/01/2016 19:10

What's important to understand though is not that immigrant men behave in these ways because they don't understand the cultures in which they have found themselves: they behave in those ways precisely because they do

I would say that according to their social conditioning european women are considered fair game. Part of the madonna whore complex where if you're not covered you're not worthy. If you've had sex once with someone then you're up for having sex with anyone. And that if you're western rape isn't such a big deal because it's not so shameful.

These are the ideas that we have to fight against which is exhausting because I thought we'd already done so with our own societies.

onthephone100 · 06/01/2016 19:16

I would like to say right now that I have never be groped or cat called at in Germany.

KERALA1 · 06/01/2016 19:17

Do we really have to fight these battles all over again?

Theydontknowweknowtheyknow · 06/01/2016 19:22

How does easy to access, free, hardcore internet porn regularily portraying women in a demeaning fashion affect men who are raised to treat women as inferior?

This is a very good point. I used to work in Turkey and was regularly given the excuse that the reason for so much harassmentof foreign women on the buses was down to porn from Europe and the Hollywood movies where all the female protagonists took their clothes off and had sex on the first date.

I felt as if my own culture had sold me down the river. I'd always hated porn and movie depictions of women yet here I was being judged according to parts of my culture that I didn't even agree with, that didn't even represent me.

onthephone100 · 06/01/2016 19:29

I don't think Germany DOES have a permissive culture at all!!

I'm always amused by the huge differente between German and uk attitudes to nudity and sex. Nudity is absolutely normal here, no eyebrows raised, strip off in the swimming pool shower or the sauna, legs akimbo, absolutely fine.

However the German friends I have are horrified at the Brit permissive attitude to sex. Going on a night out and bringing someone back for sex is almost unheard of in my free and easy uni educated middle class friendship group. They would think you had something emotionally wrong with you if you regularly have one night stands.

In Britain casual sex good, nudity bad.

Exact opposite in Germany

BarbarianMum · 06/01/2016 19:30

IME men in Turkey were perfectly happy to sexually harass Turkish women too, if they dared transgress the "rules" of suitable feminine behaviour. Porn may play a part but dressing differently, going to a bar or cafe alone, talking to a man in the street (even if just to ask for directions) were all invitations to abuse.

Lauren15 · 06/01/2016 19:32

This behaviour has nothing to do with the differences in how Western women dress. I used to live in the middle east and I found from talking to many women over the years that men would sexually harass women of all shapes, sizes, ages, veiled and non - veiled. It's a game for them. Of course a woman who dressed in tight or revealing clothes was far more likely but no woman was immune. There are lots of lovely decent men in the middle east but there are also an awful lot of creeps who are sexual predators who see all women as fair game. Middle Eastern societies have no problem with this behaviour but it can't be tolerated in Europe.

Werksallhourz · 06/01/2016 19:36

I believe this incident was a premeditated provocative attack, intended to intimidate and threaten German females in public space.

It takes organisation to get hundreds of men gathered in one place. It takes some element of prior agreement between those men to act in this manner.

There is a great danger, in my view, with seeing this as a cultural or religious issue because it plays into mistaken prejudices about Middle Eastern and Muslim culture -- and results in an explanatory narrative that is false and, strangely, provides an excuse for behaviour that is quite obviously something else entirely.

I remember Syria before the war. It was very much like Lebanon in many ways. The idea that you were risking sexual assault by stepping out onto the street without wearing a headscarf and without a male companion was ludicrous. Crikey, I've accidentally walked through Hezbollah neighbourhoods in Beirut wearing a short sundress and received nothing but kindly smiles from old ladies. But I doubt many of these perpetrators were Syrian anyway.

It needs to be stated firmly that genuine refugees and genuine economic migrants who wish to build a life in a new country do not behave like this. Did any of the souls that came to Britain on the Empire Windrush engage in a mass sexual assault of English women? No. Did any of the Ugandan Asians that came to Britain in the 70s behave like this? No. Did any of the first generation Pakistani Muslim migrants to Britain commit mass sexual assault in one night? No.

This was an attack against European values and European women. And the circumstances that allowed it to occur have been entirely facilitated by idiotic politicians and media commentators who are either naive to the extent of being buffoons or are pursuing an agenda that can only end in war.

They've lied about migration statistics again and again. Hardly any of this summer's migrants were Syrians, and the overwhelming majority of the migrants were young men. Women and children were few and far between.

We've had to sit quiet about the problems with weakening borders for years, watching while criminal gangs trafficked young women for sexual slavery across Europe. I worked in a Southern European country where it was known Eastern European women had been trafficked and imprisoned in brothels in the town by criminal gangs. One even jumped out of a window and killed herself. All of it was created by poor border control within the EU and poor border control between the EU and third party states.

And what did the authorities do about it? Fuck all. It was a back-handers, and a nod and a wink. The only institutions to do anything to support and give a voice to these women was the fucking church.

I have just had enough. I am now angry enough to start kicking off. What is the point of lofty abstract goals like "equality", "tolerance", "diversity" and "freedom of movement" when you can't even get on a fucking train before midnight without running a gauntlet of potential rapists?

Incidentally, the mayor of Cologne is the woman who was recently stabbed by a German national, with no previous record, that was angry about immigration policy.

I tell you: this shit is going to blow soon. And when it does, all hell is going to break loose.

Destinysdaughter · 06/01/2016 19:39

Watched the BBC and C4 news tonight. This is such a massive story, why is it not being reported on mainstream media? ( apologies of it was and I've just missed it!)

Werksallhourz · 06/01/2016 19:44

And now it comes out that some women were with boyfriends who tried to protect them, and one woman has serious burns after a firecracker was stuffed into her hoodie.

I am fucking furious.

VertigoNun · 06/01/2016 19:44

I tell you: this shit is going to blow soon. And when it does, all hell is going to break loose. I think you are right, Women are being thrown under the bus.

BuildMoreHouses · 06/01/2016 19:44

It was on last night's BBC news.

VertigoNun · 06/01/2016 19:50

I don't understand why the press are not linking the closed German train stations on NYE due to terror threats hasn't been linked to an organised group terrorising Women?