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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:
GarlicCake · 05/01/2016 13:49

Nobody's suggesting they don't know it's wrong. Even the most patriarchal cultures have laws against rape & sexual assault, convoluted though they are.

It is, I feel, a matter of 'entitlement'. That so-called liberated women are literally offering themselves to all comers (I've often encountered this belief, in other places, quite clearly expressed) and thus nobody will bother much if men take what they fancy. Which would, as we know, be true in their countries of origin.

The message we need them to get is that everyone's bodily integrity MUST be respected and that we DO punish assaults on women.

... it might be a tad problematic as, in general, we don't much. Somebody's going to have to draw some uncomfortable lines.

Bluebell66 · 05/01/2016 13:49

Well said Toffee

Pinkchampchoccies · 05/01/2016 13:52

What I'm trying to say is that integration courses could not effectively tackle this misogynist culture if boys who have gone to school in Germany display these attitudes. They couldn't have been abiding Muslims though as many were reportedly drunk.

It's easy to theorise and speculate but the women who were caught up in this must have felt utterly terrorised and I feel very sorry for them. Is this a different form of terrorism?

Motherinlawsdung · 05/01/2016 13:52

It's not an immigrant problem. It's a problem of patriarchal 1500 year old belief systems.

velourvoyageur · 05/01/2016 13:52

I think anyone without Euro nationality and who is convicted of this kind of assault should be expelled from the country.
If European but not of that country they should also be sent back.
No tolerance.
Except it's not easy to catch the bastards.

onthephone100 · 05/01/2016 13:53

I haven't seen anything in the German press suggesting they were either refugees or illegal immigrants. I'd rather they weren't referred to as such until that fact is proven.

velourvoyageur · 05/01/2016 13:54

I was raped in Paris by a man of North African descent who had a perfect French accent. It is not necessarily an immigration problem, no.
The police have been brilliant and are still on the case a year and a half later, but no luck.

onthephone100 · 05/01/2016 13:55

You can't expel a European citizen from a European country, so let's not go bandying about silly half baked ideas.

OTheHugeManatee · 05/01/2016 13:55

Expect lots more stories like this percolating out of Germany in the next year or so. I think that country is less than ten years from race-related civil war.

velourvoyageur · 05/01/2016 13:56

Onthe it is a silly half baked idea but I would still like it to happen
after all let's not pretend the EU's all healthy and solid

onthephone100 · 05/01/2016 13:57

Shit Manatee don't say things like that Sad

velourvoyageur · 05/01/2016 13:57

And it is possible to create new legislation, EU laws aren't set in stone.

hefzi · 05/01/2016 13:57

Surfer any time anyone calls to limit immigration, they are always derided as racist. As an island, we will always need a certain amount of immigration - but as an island, also, we cannot sustain uncontrolled immigration with our current levels of services and taxation.

I am very happy to have immigrants - but those who subscribe broadly to our way of life and goals: there was a recent thing on BBC 3 where a young British Asian man was talking about growing up in a home in London where Britain was seen as an enemy, and the 'umma was seen as more important than anything else. We should be able to talk about these things in a mature and sensible way, without the kneejerk cries of "racism": it's really sub-optimal, for example, to have parallel legal systems, whether that's for Islamic or Jewish family law, where in both cases, the more extreme interpretations will send a woman back to her violent husband if he speaks up in favour of preserving the home above divorce. We need to be having these discussions openly, and at the same time, the kneejerk liberals should not use the accusation of racism to shut down legitimate and open debate.

Extremism, whether leftist or rightist, is deeply distasteful and unacceptable, and we need to be able to speak openly to challenge all form of intolerance, not just the ones that don't conform to our liberal interpretations.

onthephone100 · 05/01/2016 13:58

Well I hope they are otherwise you'll be kicking me out of my home for an unpaid parking fine 15 years down the line...

onthephone100 · 05/01/2016 13:59

Well said hefzi

Theodopolus · 05/01/2016 14:00

This article www.express.co.uk/news/world/631531/Police-Germany-Hunt-1000-Arab-North-African-Gang-Cologne-Sex-Attack-Assault gives a pretty graphic account of what the assaults consisted of. Horrific.

Bad bastards.

BitOutOfPractice · 05/01/2016 14:04

Dear god they must have been terrified. And I have to say - where the fucking hell were the police?

BitOutOfPractice · 05/01/2016 14:05

I mean a group of 1000 men carrying out this scale of assualt and crime doesn't just appear out of thin fucking air. This atkes time to organise. God I am raging. What the actual fuck has got to happen before crimes against women are taken seriously?

Pinkchampchoccies · 05/01/2016 14:07

What i don't understand is how, if Germany was on major terror alert on 31.12., sufficient police could not be deployed quickly to handle this problem. How would they handled a different type of (terror) attack? I ask again, is this not a type of terror attack?

polentapies · 05/01/2016 14:08

This video shows the scene at the square - 2nd clip down. Can't see any sexual assaults but the situation is totally out of control, aiming fireworks into the Cathedral and at people etc

BitOutOfPractice · 05/01/2016 14:09

It seems like they sort of surrounded the women and the crowd acted like a shield. It really does sound horrifying

Pinkchampchoccies · 05/01/2016 14:09

Thanks for the link Theo. Quoting from the article, one victim states:

*I was groped everywhere. It was a nightmare. Although we shouted and beat them, the guys did not stop. I was desperate and think I was touched around 100 times in the 200 meters.

“Fortunately I wore a jacket and trousers. A skirt would probably have been torn away from me.*

Pinkchampchoccies · 05/01/2016 14:10

Sorry bold fail.

I was groped everywhere. It was a nightmare. Although we shouted and beat them, the guys did not stop. I was desperate and think I was touched around 100 times in the 200 meters. Fortunately I wore a jacket and trousers. A skirt would probably have been torn away from me.

Bloody, bloody hell Angry.

BitOutOfPractice · 05/01/2016 14:12

pole I don't know what it's like in Germany on NYE but in my experience of Holland it is perfectly normal for people to be randomly letting fireworks off in the steet / at each other / along the ground on NYE. It is terrifying. Maybe it is the norm there too. Nobody except me with my British Blue Peter firework code sensibilities bats an eyelid in Holland

What that clip does show is a very large crowd completely blocking the exit from the station and that there seems to be very few / no police

onthephone100 · 05/01/2016 14:16

Normal in Germany. Lots and lots of fireworks, no laws on who can buy them and where you can let them off.

Although obviously throwing them into a crowd isn't normal....

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