Assaults in Cologne and other European cities part V

[hiddenhome2]

Thread V

Really interesting article. I think I need to read it a few times to absorb all of it, but it takes a fascinating angle

www.newstatesman.com/world/europe/2016/01/slavoj-zizek-cologne-attacks

fakenamefornow

That is genius. Get thee to Dragon's den

Thanks and much appreciated BeccaMumsnet

My MP (David Mackintosh) has replied to my letter very promptly which is good of him. He agrees that the penalty for sexual assault should be imprisonment and agreeing with the impact of such assaults. However he manages to avoid in any way replying to or referencing 98% of my email, avoids mentioning women or women's rights at all never mind any commitment he feels towards protecting them, or in any way mentioning immigration or the identified number of refugees involved in the assaults. I shall draw my own conclusions.

Sadly you'd think I'd just commented on the UK conviction rates for assault.

fake thats an excellent idea. those they go back to will also know they have been involved and may shop them in

I stick to mainstream news and saw reference to disappointing quality cctv.

From Thangam Debbonaire's bog, linked above:
However, it is also unhelpful to pretend that cultural influences have no impact on the perpetration, tolerance and justification of violence against women. We shouldn’t overlook the fact that for many people arriving in the EU over the last decades, equality for women, protection from violence and choice about behaviour are severely restricted. Failing to notice or, even worse, tolerating inequality and violence in the name of cultural acceptance (as has happened so often in the pursuit of multicultural understanding) risks failing to protect and help women, including those from newly-arrived communities.
Bang on.

All in all, a very good post.

I'd also like to see definite evidence of the wiping of the CCTV. At the moment it's just a vague rumour.

Rumble is your MP labour?

Yes Labour's Media shaddow, has gone against the Guardian.

Something is clearly wrong with student unions in so many of our unis.

These are the young adults who went through school under New Labour when the curriculum was firmly adapted to be 'on message' with teachers told exactly what children were to be taught about what was ok to think and say and what wasn't. One of the reasons I left teaching was my discomfort with being forced to teach and reinforce what were political messages rather than promoting thought, discussion, alternative views possible. As has been said on thread, 'illiberal liberals'.

Can anyone link to a source of information on CCTV deletion?

I suppose underwear that attempted to fry would be rapists might be illegal in Europe ?

If not, I think 3 Indian engineers might suddenly see interest surge and new European markets opening.

Necessity being the mother of invention and all that jazz, perhaps we'll see in 2017 with the Mini Electric Chair In Your Gusset topping the lists of "best gadgets of 2016 !"

Polenta am I to understand you're preparing the petition ?

Haven't been on here all day as have been at work (still am).

Let's get signing asap! :)

Bee he's Conservative. He will 'pass on my concerns' but has not answered any requests to ask questions or to give me information on govt intentions to protect women's rights or to consider education or screening as a part of accepting people into the country.

Thank you deeply for keeping these threads going and creating some action out of these events. I can only read and catch up in snippets on my phone. There are so many thought provoking links on these 5 threads, it would be great if someone was able to put them all together in one place and summarise what anyone else in my position (reading in snippets/short of time) could do to add my name and effort to any action. I know someone up thread mentioned doing that. Sorry if I have missed it being done.

Those photos from Afghanistan are extremely poignant. I think those photos could do with being seen by many more who might otherwise prefer to bury their heads in the sand.

I see some people are becoming despondent, understandably. I've been at work all day. I spoke to some colleagues over lunch and whilst most were aware of the attacks no-one seemed to be too concerned and were particularly reluctant to see the problem as anything to do with immigration , however after a bit of a heated debate some have asked me to forward links, particularly those with stats. They're a fussy bunch and are very particular about scrutinising sources. So whilst it may appear some of us have lost interest I am quietly working away in my spare time collating a file of credible links and articles that I will be emailing to all and sundry. It's going to take a while to trawl all the threads though so if anyone wants to repost anything particularly relevant it would be a great help.
To the poster who mentioned pepper spray the following link is interesting www.ukpreppersguide.co.uk/legal-pepper-spray-for-self-defence/.
Meanwhile I read in the times today that over 500,000 people signed the petition to discuss banning Donald Trump from the UK and the government are going to spend 3 hours discussing this on Monday. Surely if they can spend 3 hours discussing one man's hateful views they can bloody well discuss the hateful views of thousands of men they are inviting into our society?

There are a couple of interesting articles in this weeks Grazia covering these issues. Sarah Ditum one in there about Cologne and Polly Dunbar has one in the same issue about the British women living in marital captivity because of the book Choosing Sharia? by Machteld Zee.

Machteld says she witnessed a court system heavily weighted against women and failing to protect them from domestic violence.

Sorry that reads wrong Polly Dunbar wrote the article to highlight Machteld Zees book. This is what i meant.

Hidden: "Being religious should be seen as being a mental illness and there should be treatment in the form of deprogramming for people. Anyone who refuses to be deprogrammed should be sectioned and detained in solitary confinement until they come to their senses"

I do not agree. The practice of any religion should be private; it is afterall a spiritual matter. However, when it crosses the lines into one gender dominating another in the vilest of ways, it becomes something else. Making up rules that go aginst commonsense and punishing those who transgress with whipping or death is a fascist cult.

Thagam Debbonaire's bog, I wrote upthread.
I meant blog

FFS.

Just reading the comments on that last Guardian article. NONE of them agree with the apologist columnist. ALL of them would agree with this thread.

We need to get this petition going.

To copy a paste a comment from the Graun: (not sure if allowed to but what the heck):

^"Refugees who fail to play the part of grateful recipients of western help"

I think sexual assault goes a little further than just not being grateful don't you?

I'm the most hand-wringing, tree-hugging liberal you can find but you've lost me over this.
You've downplayed the suffering of the victims (it's over 500 not 40 attacks), silenced their voices and the only thing you've cared about is the potential backlash towards migrants.
We're not stupid. We know not all migrants are predatory attackers and we know that migrants need our help. But it is not illiberal or racist to worry about preserving fundamental human rights that we have fought long and hard for.
If there's a backlash against refugees (which I sincerely hope there isn't) then you are partly to blame for it because in suppressing any intelligent debate on the matter you've left the reaction up to right wing fascists.

More than that you've thrown women under the bus.^

Frankfurter: "They arrive in Germany with no proper ID and can therefore change "indentity" whenever they want and just turn up somewhere else doing the same things and just get away with it.

They change identity not just to attack women, but to go from country to country registering for housing. In England we have migrants who managed to establish themselves early on (using false names) for benefits and council accommodation in two different countries, thanks to the EuroStar. One place they live in, the other they "rent" out to an illegal who resembles the original applicant. Who's going to check anyway, the systems are swamped.

That new statesman article is very interesting polenta, I've added it to my list.

I just asked the Guardian if it could justify leaving the article up saying 40 assaults. My paltry subscription hangs in the balance folks!

I am mostly lurking here at the moment but am slowly shaking myself out of the feeling it was pointless, depression and torpor that resulted from reading Emilys posts

I can't help with the petition as I am really busy with work and voluntary work at the moment but am happy to proofread anything (another pedant!) and will happily share and sign

I suppose an email to the German ambassador asking if they can vouch for it being safe for women in/visiting Germany despite all the recent lack of action on attacks against women and indeed the destruction of evidence whose only aim could be the protection of the attackers (if this can be verified). Are women equally covered under the law?

Could women now be assured that if they were attacked, it would be taken seriously considering that a mass attack on over 700 women by over a 1000 men was regarded as uneventful as the report that had to be pulled stated? Would they agree that it was basically uneventful for the police force and carte blanche for the attacking mob because it was not stopped as the authorities decided not to bother responding.

So much has been covered up, I guess we would be truly shocked if we knew the full extent of state obstruction in members of the attacking mob being brought to justice. Not responding, destruction of evidence, not apprehending people on the night and just letting them disappear into the ether.

If any other group of people were attacked, the police would have been out in force and kettling and tasering the perpetrators. Never mind such a cover up. The perpetrators would probably have ban on movement too, like the football hooligans.

That quote from the Guardian sounds like a sneaking 'good on them' in a kind of way towards the perpetrators. So, maybe it is evidence that many people are very comfortable with the way the state really aided and abetted them not being prosecuted for attacking women. Always read it online, anyway.