Mass sexual assaults in Cologne

[Wombaticus Rex]

Schwer zu sagen. From Die Welt:
http://m.welt.de/politik/deutschland/ar ... erber.html

Die Personenkontrollen ergaben, berichten Kölner Polizisten weiter: "Nur bei einer kleinen Minderheit handelte es sich um Nordafrikaner, beim Großteil der Kontrollierten um Syrer."

"Only a small minority were North Africans, the majority were Syrians."

All I know about Die Welt is that they published cartoons about Mohammed, too, so I'm curious if there's a running script there re: The Islams.

[MacCruiskeen]

Some quality reactionary rhetoric from the Left:

You mean: From the Interior Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, Ralf Jäger (SPD).

I wish you wouldn't throw that word "Left" around so carelessly.

[barracuda]

Here's some video of the so-called "chaos" at the site of the alleged attacks:





To be honest, it looks rather tame for New Years Eve, at least by San Francisco standards. It doesn't look like anything regular cops wouldn't be able to handle. I sure don't see 1000 swarthy refugees pulling a Lara Logan swarm on anyone. But of course, the incidents supposedly happened in a nearby alley.

Meanwhile, the sensational aspects of this episode in the news has obscured my ability to research incidents of rape or sexual assault occurring on NYE in other cities of the world. I mean, is a report of 100 sexual assaults unusual on NYE in New York or Chicago? Can't tell.

[Wombaticus Rex]

Some quality reactionary rhetoric from the Left:

You mean: From the Interior Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, Ralf Jäger (SPD).

I wish you wouldn't throw that word "Left" around so carelessly.

Well, illuminate me. You're saying "Socialist Democratic" party is a Right-Wing affair?

I double-checked myself and Wikipedia is also operating under the mistake they're politically left, so you've got a lot to clear up.

[American Dream]

I wonder where I might find "The Left", which may possibly include everyone from establishment politicians, murderous maoists, flaky anarchists, blood-thirsty terrorists, zombie marxists, annoying social justice liberals, and Google knows who else: Who are they?, where do they meet?, what is their agenda?, Is there therefore some sort of esoteric far right position which must be the better way?

[MacCruiskeen]

Here's some video of the so-called "chaos" at the site of the alleged attacks:





To be honest, it looks rather tame for New Years Eve, at least by San Francisco standards.

And by Glasgow standards, fwiw.

It doesn't look like anything regular cops wouldn't be able to handle. I sure don't see 1000 swarthy refugees pulling a Lara Logan swarm on anyone.

Nor do I. It is strange that there's been no film at all of any of these assaults.

But of course, the incidents supposedly happened in a nearby alley.

?? I think you might have wandered into the dark alley of a translation error there.

Meanwhile, the sensational aspects of this episode in the news has obscured my ability to research incidents of rape or sexual assault occurring on NYE in other cities of the world. I mean, is a report of 100 sexual assaults unusual on NYE in New York or Chicago? Can't tell.

I don't know. Most cities in Germany are pretty safe places for women, generally (that includes Berlin too, so women have always told me). But main railway stations late at night are never very nice places anywhere, and they're often frequented by petty crooks, desperate addicts, seedy drunks, and all kinds of "marginal" characters. Add New Year "exuberance", crowds of people determined to have A Good Time under the unlikeliest circumstances, with lots of optimistic sexually frustrated inebriated young men looking for young women who are willing or at least physically present, and you have a reliable recipe for a decidedly unstylish night out.

As things stand, something worse than the usual dismal lecherous boozefest does seem to have taken place in Cologne this year, and people like Jäger and Maas and especially police chief Albers have some very serious questions to answer. But there are all kinds of hidden agendas in practically all of the reporting on this "incident" (whatever it was, exactly), and we'd all do well not to rush to judgment, and especially not to presume that 1,000 creatures cursed with the gene for Arab Maleness all ganged up on the fair maidens of Cologne just cuz that's the kinda guys they are.

[MacCruiskeen]

I wonder where I might find "The Left", which may possibly include everyone from establishment politicians, murderous maoists, flaky anarchists, blood-thirsty terrorists, zombie marxists, annoying social justice liberals, and Google knows who else: Who are they?, where do they meet?, what is their agenda?, Is there therefore some sort of esoteric far right position which must be the better way?

Apparently "The Left" now includes Angela Merkel and probably David Cameron as well, if you're American and Right enough. The Overton Window has been dismounted and removed from the house entirely; it can now be found attached to a gallows about 200 metres down the road to the right. (If I could do Photoshop I would, instead I have to do the thousand words.)

Wer hat uns verraten?
Sozialdemokraten.

German Revolution of 1918–19

[barracuda]

But of course, the incidents supposedly happened in a nearby alley.

?? I think you might have wandered into the dark alley of a translation error there.

You may be right - this is the source of that "alley" statement:

Katja L. (28) erzählt

Katja L. (28) war mit zwei Freundinnen und einem Mann unterwegs. Es war 0.45 Uhr, als sich die Gruppe im Bahnhof traf. Das Ziel: der benachbarte Alte Wartesaal.

„Als wir aus der Bahnhofshalle kamen, waren wir sehr verwundert über die Gruppe, die uns da empfing“, erzählt die Kölnerin. Es handelte sich ausschließlich um junge ausländische Männer. Katja hakte sich bei einer Freundin ein, die andere junge Frau bei ihrem Freund.

„Wir liefen dann durch diese Männergruppe. Es tat sich eine Gasse auf, durch die wir liefen. Plötzlich spürte ich eine Hand an meinem Po, dann an meinen Brüsten, schließlich wurde ich überall begrapscht. Es war der Horror. Obwohl wir schrien und um uns schlugen, hörten die Typen nicht auf. Ich war verzweifelt und glaube, dass ich rund 100 Mal auf den knapp 200 Metern angefasst wurde.“

http://www.express.de/koeln/koeln-sexue ... f-23252186

[MacCruiskeen]

Not OT: Did anyone really think we would get away with letting the perpetrators of 9/11 get away with it? They planted that poison tree, and the clercs of "The West" have chosen to tend it and eat its fruit. You think that's gonna have no lasting consequences for the health of the body politic?

Prediction: We're going to see Muslims hanging off its branches soon, not just in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya, but also in The West. Cuz they're the Semites its now safe to hate.

[MacCruiskeen]

Es tat sich eine Gasse auf, durch die wir liefen.

Yeah, barracuda, she means "the crowd parted and we walked through".

Happy New Year, by the way. This will be a good one for coldblooded carnivores in murky environments.

[Wombaticus Rex]

So basically, once "the Left" achieves power, they cease to be "the Real" "the Left," innit?

That's exactly how punk bands work here in America, I can grok that. My bad.

I wonder where I might find "The Left", which may possibly include everyone from establishment politicians, murderous maoists, flaky anarchists, blood-thirsty terrorists, zombie marxists, annoying social justice liberals, and Google knows who else: Who are they?, where do they meet?, what is their agenda?, Is there therefore some sort of esoteric far right position which must be the better way?

Again, my bad for using broad-spectrum nouns. It's a bad habit.

Did you notice when you typed that how neatly it mirrors your approach to "the Right," though? I mean...eerie, bruh. Eerie.

[MacCruiskeen]

So basically, once "the Left" achieves power, they cease to be "the Real" "the Left," innit?

Nope. Basically the SPD is not "the Left" at all, any more than the Democratic Party is. That's why, when a party formed that actually called itself The Left (Die Linke), no one said, "Why are you bothering, we already have a Left party?" Because obviously we didn't.

But, y'know, things like universal health care, functioning trade unions, free or at least very cheap education, a reliable social safety net, all that jazz -- even the SPD cannot succeed in completely destroying those things, yet. I suppose in the Land of the Free (where literally everything has to cost money) this is enough for even them to count as Left.

That's how punk bands work here in America, I can grok that. My bad.

Don't be too hard on yourself, because that's how the NYT and CNN work too. In fact that's how your entire post-real culture now works. See my remark on the Overton Window.

[Nordic]

In those videos above, I barely see 1000 people, period. I also see a fair number of police, and countless cell phones shooting video.

So where are these hundreds of women and a thousand swarthy rapists?

This story has not sat well with me since I first heard about it because it's New Years fucking Eve and the first thing you WOULD see, if anything had actually happened, would be cell phone videos. All over the Internet especially Facebook.

That's just how it works now.

But no. We have anonymous stories, "sources" in the media only, and zero video of what are allegedly scores of public attacks.

The reality of all of this must be questioned.

[MacCruiskeen]

Nordic, there is no doubt that many women were frightened and sexually harrassed* by one-or-more groups of men on New Year's Eve in Cologne. You can find interviews in English with three or four of those women on the BBC.

BUT: It is -- to say the least -- not clear that 1,000 (or even 100 -- or even a dozen??) men were involved, or that they were all working in organised gangs, or that they were all refugees, or even that they were all Arabs. Much of the reporting has been confused and confusing. But this is not to say that "The reality of all of this must be questioned." Assaults took place. It sounds as though the atmosphere, at least in some parts of the Domplatz, was nasty and frightening for a while. As barracuda pointed out, though, it's not yet clear how much worse this was than an average NYE in Cologne or any other biggish city. My guess is that most of those young guys were just hanging around, same as everyone else**, and that a handful of perpetrators took advantage of the crowd and the darkness to molest any women unlucky enough to pass close by. Those women then, understandably, got the impression that an actual mob of men was after them.

*Physically assaulted, de facto. Groped, grabbed, felt (and also robbed, some of them). One woman has filed charges for rape.

**That's what all the films I've seen appear to show.

[MacCruiskeen]

I'm at a loss here... This is just weird & depressing. And what's especially weird is that here in Finland some Iraqis were apparently plotting to do something similar. Conspiracy to organize mass gropings? What the actual fuck?

Well, now the local authorities here have amended their initial statements and it appears no similar acts were planned here. The media jumps on every foreigner-related, threatening bit of news with an alarming excitement...

Still the events in Cologne were worrying.

How on earth did "the local authorities" make such "initial statements" in the first place? On what basis? Or did the media just invent the whole story?



This has been a fucking horrible year so far. I can't wait for it to end.