Cologne: Up to 1,000 men of Arab and North African origin sexually assault women

[palandio]

At least 60 women have filed complaints over robbery, sexual harassment, sexual assault and other crimes. At least one woman has described actions that would qualify as rape.

Investigations will be complicated, but I hope that they will be at least partially successful and that at least some of the criminals will face serious punishment. Exemption from punishment would have a very detrimental effect on the public climate and this would affect many innocent Arabs and asylum seekers in a negative way.

There have been reports in the past that Cologne has an organized scene of young Moroccans that regularly rob people at night-clubs, discotheques etc. Time for the authorities to crack it down once and for good.

[palandio]

The "Antänzer" gangs of Cologne that many media suspect to be involved into recent events, fit exactly into the picture drawn by Tender:

They have arrived from the Maghreb (mostly Morocco) some years ago, in most cases their asylum request has been denied by the authorities and now they have no legal status in Germany. But even if they are convicted of crimes like theft, robbery or assault, they cannot be deported, because they are sans papiers, i.e. they have no valid documents. In fact Germany is deporting a very low number of people altogether.

I'm not so sure about the "teaching them what consent is" thing. These people have been living in Germany for some years. They are using sexual harassment to distract the victims from the theft of wallets and cell phones and sometimes they go further, but it's always a way of humiliating their victims and of exerting power. They know exactly what they're doing and they have learnt that they won't be punished.

[palandio]

I have to admit that probably I was wrong when I suspected the Moroccan thieves.

If these reports are true (and likely they are) this is a complete disaster for our immigration politics (resp. the lack thereof). And noone will be able to keep these informations from the public, although many good-minded politicians and journalists would try, if it was possible.