Posted tagged ‘German police’

Germany: Berlin’s Police Problem

January 12, 2018

Germany: Berlin’s Police Problem, Gatestone InstituteStefan Frank, January 12, 2018

According to reports, frequent, habitual and sometimes criminal misconduct by Berlin’s police cadets, especially those with a migrant background, is rampant in the Berlin-Spandau police academy.

Recently, an Arab intern, working at a Berlin police precinct, copied confidential data from investigations into a Lebanese organized-crime clan, and sent it to unidentified recipients.

Pior to Anis Amri’s jihadist attack on the Berlin Christmas market, where he murdered 12 people, Berlin’s police had allowed Amri to move around freely, even though they had numerous chances to detain him on charges of terrorism or a range of other serious crimes. Other government agencies requested that the Berlin police put Amri under permanent surveillance and inform them of his whereabouts, but were left unanswered

One year after the Berlin Christmas market massacre, Germans need to be concerned about the state of their police forces, as well as the politicians who are supposed to be overseeing law enforcement.

Berlin’s local government has come under fire after reports of frequent, habitual and sometimes criminal misconduct by Berlin’s police cadets. According to the reports, such misconduct, especially by those with a migrant background, is rampant in the Berlin-Spandau police academy.

The scandal was revealed when a private WhatsApp voicemail was leaked to the public. The author, a paramedic who had given classes in the academy, complained:

“Today I held a class at the police academy. I’ve never experienced anything like it. The classroom looked like a pigsty. Half of the class [are] Arabs and Turks, rude as hell. Dumb. Could not express themselves. I was about to expel two or three of them because they disturbed the class or were actually sleeping. German colleagues related that some of them had threatened to beat them. … [Some students] speak virtually no German. I am shocked, and afraid of them. The teachers … believe that when they expel them, they will destroy the cars on the street. … These are not our colleagues, this is the enemy among us. I have never before felt such hatred expressed in the classrooms. … They throw punches during class — you cannot imagine that.”

The paramedic sent the voicemail to several people, one of whom brought it to the attention of Berlin’s Chief of Police, Klaus Kandt.

The first reaction came from police spokesman Thomas Neuendorf, who acknowledged that there were “frequently problems” at the police academy; he also admitted that some of the cadets committed crimes — but “they are immediately expelled.” Neuendorf then attacked the paramedic by saying that “the tone and the form” of his criticism had been “inappropriate”. Moreover, Neuendorf said, the paramedic should have reported these things only to his superior.

At the same time, it emerged that Berlin’s police commanders and the Senate had been aware of problems with cadets “of migrant background” long before this exposé.

The newspaper Die Welt quoted from the leaked minutes of a high-level police meeting, according to which the staff of the police academy complained about problems that “developed in the course of hiring officers with a migrant background (currently 30%).” Some of them could not swim, even though this was a requirement for employment. Many police candidates had a “lack of professional ethics”. Some candidates showed “condescending behavior toward female employees, whom they treat like cleaning women.”

“Feeling of fear” in the police academy

According to the newspaper’s investigations, there is a “feeling of fear” inside Berlin’s police academy. One police commander told Die Welt: “There were teachers who wanted to meet with representatives of the political parties to discuss the grievances. But pressure was put on him [to refrain from doing so].”

Marcel Luthe, a spokesman for the opposition Free Democrats Party (FDP) confirmed that “the police union had arranged a talk between us and the teaching staff. It was cancelled.” Luthe said he was not aware of any instance in which the Berlin’s Chief of Police had done “anything else than deny the problem”.

Shortly after the publication of the voicemail and the internal report, all claims were corroborated by a senior official of Berlin’s Landeskriminalamt (LKA, State Office of Criminal Investigation). He sent an open letter to the Chief of Police; local newspapers also received copies of the letter. Although the author chose to stay anonymous, sources from within the LKA confirmed the letter’s authenticity, according to the weekly magazine Focus. The sources also confirmed that “at least one person involved in organized crime is currently undergoing the police training”.

The whistleblower defended his decision not to reveal his identity:

“When instructors address the public anonymously, it is only because a dialogue with the senior leadership does not take place. Incidents are watered down, downplayed, belittled, or covered up with a cloak of silence.”

He also spoke of conflicts between different ethnic groups within the police. “It is only a question of time until someone fires the first shot at a colleague,” he said.

Finally, the LKA official warned about the danger of criminal clans infiltrating the police and administration: “This has already begun”.

That admission triggered attacks by journalists and politicians, who said that the official’s claim was not backed up by evidence. But at the same time, a case surfaced which lent credibility to the allegation: It was revealed that a 20-year-old Arab student of public administration, who had worked as an intern at a police precinct in Berlin-Schöneberg, had used her access to the police computers copy data from investigations into a Lebanese organized-crime clan. She sent the confidential data through WhatsApp to unidentified recipients.

Political whitewashing

On December 6th — only a few weeks after the allegations were raised — Berlin’s Chief of Police presented an 83-page “special report” addressing the paramedic’s criticism. Surprisingly, the report does not contain any first-hand testimony. Instead, it offers a “summary of descriptions and perceptions from the cadets’ point of view”. The statements are not even attributed to individuals but to groups of cadets:

  • “Persons present in the class conceded that they found it difficult to focus because there were too few breaks and a lack of oxygen in the class room.”
  • “The cadets concerned cannot understand how the author of the voice message could think that the classroom was dirty. After the class, the pupils put all tables and chairs back to their original places. They were not alerted to possible defects.”
  • “Persons present in the class feel that they are being ostracized and treated in a xenophobic manner, especially as the author of the voice message mentions certain persons with a migrant background.”

The cadets, according to the report, denied that there were any cases of serious misconduct and went on the offensive. They attacked instructors for their alleged lack of interest and their refusal to take questions. The report does not quote a single instructor or other member of staff. It then addresses “isolated cases” of misconduct:

  • A police cadet who had dealt with stolen cameras had been expelled. Since he filed an objection, the verdict is pending and reviewed by the administration court.
  • Two police cadets had sold drugs in the police academy. After the incident had been investigated by the LKA, it was decided that their behavior constituted “no crime”.
  • A police cadet had acted in a pornographic movie. “Considering the circumstances (a single appearance with no obvious reference to the Berlin police department), and the positive achievements and ability to reason shown by the candidate, the head of the authority agreed to appoint him to the status of a probationary official.”
  • A police cadet is on trial for serious financial fraud. A search of his house and office has corroborated the charges. “It is intended to start the process to expel him.”

The report identifies “the police’s tradition as an extremely hierarchical system” as one of the core problems. “It is detrimental to a constructive culture of criticism.” The authors then go on to praise the police command for large problem-solving bureaucracy, featuring, among others:

  • The Conflict Committee (“Its goal is to find sustainable solutions for existing conflicts”)
  • The Diversity Office (“Its goal is to create an atmosphere of openness and bring to bear diversity”)
  • Social Contact Persons (for “work-related conflicts, mobbing, sexual conflicts and problems arising from a same-gender lifestyle”)
  • Contact Persons for Intercultural Questions (offering “counsel in intercultural questions and act as contact to the Conflict Commission”)

Did Berlin’s police aid and abet jihadi terrorist Anis Amri?

Even before the new scandals emerged, Berlin’s police department had endured a rough year. It was criticized for failing to arrest the Tunisian ISIS jihadist Anis Amri prior to his truck attack on the Berlin Christmas market on December 19, 2016. Twelve people were murdered and 55 injured in the massacre. Berlin’s police had allowed Amri to move around freely, even though they had numerous chances to detain him on charges of terrorism or a range of other serious crimes. Other government agencies requested that the Berlin police put Amri under permanent surveillance and inform them of his whereabouts, but were left unanswered.

In February 2016 — ten months before Amri attacked — investigators in Berlin had even warned Amri that he was under surveillance. A few months later, the surveillance was stopped, for undisclosed reasons. New investigations revealedthat “at least” two LKA officers forged documents in the wake of the terror attack to cover up what had been known about Amri’s criminal activities. Berlin police had known that Amri was a “commercial-scale drug dealer”. This information was part of a file dating from November 1, 2016. In January 2017, however, that file was changed: the document suddenly stated that Amri “might deal with drugs on a miniscule scale”. The officers in question are now charged with obstruction of justice.

The big picture is troubling. “Wherever you look,” said FDP spokesman Luthe, “whether it is terrorism, the 15% increase in crime since 2011, the lowest percentage of cases solved, areas with open drug dealing, or now the police academy — the Police Chief fails miserably.”

(Photo by Carsten Koall/Getty Images)

In light of the Anis Amri scandal, no one should be surprised if the disclosures of malfeasance in Berlin’s police academy and criminal moles copying secret police data are just the tip of an iceberg. In Berlin’s state parliament, the FDP and the anti-immigration party Alternative for Germany have called for a committee of inquiry, but have failed to reach the threshold of 25% of MPs needed to establish it. The Christian Democrats (CDU) are hesitating, while Berlin’s ruling coalition of Social Democrats (SPD), former Communists (Linke) and Green party are against any further investigations. Torsten Akmann (SPD), Berlin’s Secretary of the Interior, says: “That would be like shooting sparrows with a cannon.”

One year after the Berlin Christmas market massacre, Germans need to be concerned about the state of their police forces, as well as the politicians who are supposed to be overseeing law enforcement.

Stefan Frank is a journalist and author based in Germany.

Palestinian Migrant Who Attacked Hamburg Shoppers Wanted to Kill Christians

November 12, 2017

Palestinian Migrant Who Attacked Hamburg Shoppers Wanted to Kill Christians, BreitbartChris Tomlinson, November 12, 2017

MARKUS SCHOLZ/AFP/Getty Images

German federal prosecutors now believe that Hamburg supermarket attacker Ahmad A. was motivated by religious hatred to kill German Christians, but have refused to charge him with terrorism.

The 26-year-old failed Palestinian asylum seeker will be charged with the murder of a 50-year-old man and six more counts of attempted murder. Prosecutors say that he was upset about the treatment of Muslims, claimed they were being oppressed around the world, and decided to take action against any Christians he could, find Die Welt reports.

The Hamburg supermarket attack occurred in late July and initially many believed it to be an act of terror after witnesses reported hearing a man shouting “Allahu Akbar!”

Prosecutors say that the Palestinian was particularly aggrieved by the growing tensions between Israelis and Palestinians on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

“He found the access restrictions to the Al-Aqsa mosque unfair and unbearable,” the prosecutor’s office said, adding: “Therefore, German citizens of the Christian faith should die as an atonement.”

While they believe the attack was religiously motived, prosecutors say they have found no evidence that Ahmad A. had any links to terror organisations like the Islamic State terror group.

Germany Could Have Deported Hamburg Supermarket Attacker in 2015
http://www.breitbart.com/london/2017/08/03/germany-deported-hamburg-supermarket-attacker-2015/ 

New reports show the German government attempted to deport Islamist and failed asylum seeker Ahmad A., who stabbed a person to death last week, but were unable because authorities missed a key deadline by one day.

Intelligence officials say that the Palestinian did, however, show signs of radicalisation, and was known to the domestic security services as an Islamist. He was also known to be “mentally unstable.”

The trial for Ahmad A. is set to begin in January according to the court press office in Hamburg.

The attack is not the first which has not been classified as terrorism by German authorities despite being carried out by a known Islamist.

Last year three Muslim teenagers attempted to bomb a Sikh temple in Essen, but despite their revealed links to Islamic State they were not charged with terrorism.

Prosecutors have seen a four-fold increase in terrorism cases over the last year and a report by the Heritage Foundation think tank found that over half of the plots were being planned by asylum seekers.

Germany: Police Powerless Against Middle Eastern Crime Gangs

June 18, 2017

Germany: Police Powerless Against Middle Eastern Crime Gangs, Gatestone InstituteSoeren Kern, June 18, 2017

Observers have surmised that the real reason for the judge’s leniency was that he feared his family might be subjected to retribution from the clan.

“In their concept of masculinity, only power and force matter; if someone is humane and civil, this is considered a weakness. In clan structures, in tribal culture everywhere in the world, ethics are confined to the clan itself. Everything outside the clan is enemy territory.” — Ralph Ghadban, Lebanese-German political scientist and leading expert on Middle Eastern clans in Germany.

“The state promotes organized crime with taxpayer money.” — Tom Schreiber, a member of the Berlin House of Deputies.

A court in Hanover has handed suspended sentences to six members of a Kurdish clan who seriously wounded two dozen police officers during a violent rampage in Hameln. The court’s ruling was greeted with anger and derision by police who said it is yet another example of the laxity of Germany’s politically correct judicial system.

The case goes back to January 2014, when a 26-year-old clan member, arrested for robbery, tried to escape from the magistrate’s office by jumping out of a seventh-floor courtroom window. The suspect was taken to the hospital, where he died. Members of his clan subsequently ransacked the hospital, as well as the court, and attacked police with rocks and other projectiles; 24 police officers and six paramedics were injured.

The judge said he was lenient because the defendants witnessed the death of the 26-year-old and were traumatized. The judge also revealed that he had reached a deal with the clan, which among other effects prevented police from testifying in court.

Dietmar Schilff, chairman of the GdP police union in Lower Saxony, said that the ruling had left many police officers shaking their heads in disbelief: “All police forces expect protection and support from the state.” He added:

“If we want to protect those who ensure public security, it must be clear that anyone who attacks police officers attacks the state — and has to fear appropriate consequences. It does not matter from which milieu the perpetrators come.”

Observers have surmised that the real reason for the judge’s leniency was that he feared his family might be subjected to retribution from the clan.

Middle Eastern crime syndicates have established themselves across Germany, where they engage in racketeering, extortion, money laundering, pimping and trafficking in humans, weapons and drugs.

The syndicates, which are run by large clans with origins in Lebanon, Turkey, Syria, among other places, operate with virtual impunity because German judges and prosecutors are unable or unwilling to stop them.

The clans — some of which migrated to Germany during Lebanon’s 1975-1990 civil war and have grown to thousands of members — now control large swathes of German cities and towns — areas that are effectively lawless and which German police increasingly fear to approach.

Ralph Ghadban, a Lebanese-German political scientist and a leading expert on Middle Eastern clans in Germany, said that the Hanover ruling was a massive failure of the German judicial system. He added that the only way for Germany to achieve control over the clans is to destroy them:

“In their concept of masculinity, only power and force matter; if someone is humane and civil, this is considered a weakness. In clan structures, in tribal culture everywhere in the world, ethics are confined to the clan itself. Everything outside the clan is enemy territory.”

In an interview with Focus, Ghadban elaborated:

“I have been following this trend for years. The clans now feel so strong that they are attacking the authority of the state and the police. They have nothing but contempt for the judiciary…. The main problem in dealing with clans: state institutions give no resistance. This makes the families more and more aggressive — they simply have no respect for the authorities….

“The state must destroy the clan structures. Strong and well-trained police officers must be respected on the street. It is a poor example if clan members are allowed seriously to injure 24 policemen and six others without having to fear real consequences. In addition, lawyers and judges must be trained. The courts are issuing feeble judgments based on a false understanding of multiculturalism and the fear of the stigma of being branded as racist….

“The clans adhere to a religious group, a kind of sect with an Islamic orientation. The Islamic understanding of their spiritual leader, Sheikh al-Habashi, who died a few years ago, justifies violence against unbelievers. He taught that there is only the house of ​​war [Dar al-Harb], which justifies plundering unbelievers and possessing their wives….”

In Berlin, a dozen or more Lebanese clans dominate organized crime in the German capital, according to Die Welt. They effectively control the districts of Charlottenburg, Kreuzberg, Moabit, Neukölln and Wedding. The clans are committed to counterfeiting, dealing in drugs, robbing banks and burglarizing department stores. Experts estimate that around 9,000 people in Berlin are members of clans.

The clans reject the authority of the German state. Instead, they run a “parallel justice system” in which disputes are resolved among themselves with mediators from other crime families. A classified police report leaked to Bild described how the clans use cash payments and threats of violence to influence witnesses whenever German police or prosecutors get involved.

(Photo by Carsten Koall/Getty Images)

The clans are now canvassing refugee shelters in search of young and physically strong men to join their ranks. State Prosecutor Sjors Kamstra explained:

“The refugees come here with no money. They are shown how inexpensive money can be obtained very quickly. Poverty makes this seductive. Many of them cannot speak German and are naturally vulnerable when they are addressed by someone in their native language. For the clans, the refugees are welcome newcomers, because they are new here and are not known to the police.”

The clans have also entered the refugee business by buying real estate and renting those properties to asylum seekers at exorbitant prices. Focus magazine reported that they are laundering dirty money while at the same time getting paid by the German state to house migrants.

Focus reporters visited a dilapidated apartment in Berlin in which five Syrian refugees were accommodated in 20 square meters (215 square feet). On the regular rental market the apartment would barely have yielded €300 ($335) a month in rent, but the clan collects around €3,700 ($4,125) per month from the German state, which pays landlords to house migrants. “Business with the refugees is now more profitable than drug trafficking,” said Heinz Buschkowsky, a former mayor of Neukölln.

The Berlin Criminal Police Office (Landeskriminalamt) confirmed that “proceeds from criminal offenses, including organized crime, were invested in real estate by the persons concerned or by third parties.” Tom Schreiber, a member of the Berlin House of Deputies, said the clans have exposed the moral bankruptcy of the German government: “The state promotes organized crime with taxpayer money.”

“Berlin is lost,” said Michael Kuhr, a well-known Berlin-based security consultant. “These clan structures have established themselves in all areas of organized crime. We will never go back to how things were 20 years ago. In addition, these people are highly dangerous and have lost all respect for the power of the state.”

In Duisburg, a leaked police report revealed that in the Marxloh district, the streets are effectively controlled by Lebanese clans that reject the authority of German police. They have taken over entire streets to carry out illegal business activity. New migrants from Bulgaria and Romania are contributing to the problems. Marxloh’s streets serve as invisible boundaries between ethnic groups, according to Die Welt. Residents speak of “the Kurdish road” or “the Romanian road.”

Police say they are alarmed by the aggressiveness and brutality of the clans, which are said to view crime as leisure activity. If police dare to intervene, hundreds of clan members are mobilized to confront the police. A local woman interviewed by Deutschlandfunk radio said she was afraid for her safety: “After dark I would not stand here because there are a lot of conflicts between foreigners, especially between Lebanese and Turks.”

A 17-page report prepared for the state parliament in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) revealed that Lebanese clans in Duisburg divide up neighborhoods in order to pursue criminal activities. These clans do not recognize the authority of the police. Their members are males between the ages of 15 and 25 and “nearly 100%” of them are known to police.

The report also described the situation in Duisburg’s Laar district, where two large Lebanese families call the shots: “The streets are actually regarded as a separate territory. Outsiders are physically assaulted, robbed and harassed. Experience shows that the Lebanese clans can mobilize several hundred people in a very short period of time by means of a telephone call.”

Peter Biesenbach of the Christian Democrats (CDU) said: “If this is not a no-go area, then I do not know what is.” He has called for an official inquiry to determine the true scope of the criminal clans in NRW.

NRW Interior Minister Ralf Jäger rejected that request because such a study would be politically incorrect:

“Further data collection is not legally permissible. Both internally and externally, any classification that could be used to depreciate human beings must be avoided. In this respect, the use of the term ‘family clan’ (Familienclan) is forbidden from the police point of view.”

In nearby Gelsenkirchen, Kurdish and Lebanese clans are vying for control of city streets, some of which have become zones that are off-limits to German authorities. In one incident, police were patrolling an area in the southern part of the city when they were suddenly surrounded and physically assaulted by more than 60 members of a clan.

In another incident, two police officers stopped a driver after he ran a red light. The driver stepped out of the car and ran away. When police caught up with him, they were confronted by more than 50 clan members. A 15-year-old attacked a policeman from behind and strangled him to the point of unconsciousness.

Senior members of the Gelsenkirchen police department subsequently held a secret meeting with representatives of three Arab clans in order to “cultivate social peace between Germans and Lebanese.” A leaked police report revealed that the clans told Police Chief Ralf Feldmann that “the police cannot win a war with the Lebanese because we outnumber them.” The clan members added: “This applies to all of Gelsenkirchen, if we so choose.”

When Feldman countered that he would dispatch police reinforcements to disrupt their activities, the clan members laughed in his face and said: “The government does not have enough money to deploy the numbers of police necessary to confront the Lebanese.” The police report concluded that German authorities should not harbor any illusions about the actual balance of power: “The police would be defeated.”

Another leaked police report revealed that the clans are the “executive body of an existing parallel legal system to self-adjudicate matters between large Kurdish and Lebanese families in the western Ruhr area.” These clans “despise the police and German courts” and “settle their matters on their own terms.”

The Frankfurter Neue Presse reported that Kurdish, Lebanese and Romanian clans have divided up the Gelsenkirchen districts of Bismarck, Rotthausen and Ückendorf, including around the central station, and have “claimed individual streets for themselves.”

Arnold Plickert, the head of the police union in North Rhine-Westphalia, warned: “Several rival rocker groups, as well as Lebanese, Turkish, Romanian and Bulgarian clans, are fighting for supremacy of the streets. They make their own rules; the police have nothing more to say.”

In Düsseldorf, two members of a clan brutally assaulted a 49-year-old woman who witnessed a car accident in the Flingern district. Her mistake, apparently, was to corroborate the “wrong” version of what she saw. The Rheinische Post called on the German government to fight the clans:

“The threat remains, in particular wherever large families, mostly immigrants, place the supposed need for the protection of their loved ones above all else. The readiness for violence is great, the inhibition threshold is low. The punishment of existing laws hardly deters anyone.”

In Naumburg, police confiscated the driver’s license of Ahmed A., a 21-year-old member of a Syrian clan, during a traffic stop. Almost immediately, police were surrounded by a mob of other clan members. The police retreated. The mob then marched to the police station, which they proceeded to ransack.

Ahmed A., a serial offender whose asylum application was rejected but who remains in Germany, said: “Lock me up. I have nothing to lose. I am going to put a bullet in the head of every single police officer. I will make your life feel like hell. Then I’ll just be a cop killer.” He also warned the police officer who seized his license: “I will destroy his life. I know exactly where he lives.” He then explained what he would do to the officer’s wife and daughter. Ahmed A. was allowed to walk free; police said there were insufficient grounds for his arrest.

Naumburg police have defended their weak response as being due to a lack of personnel, but regional parliamentarian Daniel Sturm pointed to the big picture: “We are talking about resistance to the power of the state.” The Interior Minister of Saxony-Anhalt, Holger Stahlknecht, said that it appeared as though the Syrian clan had established a “parallel society” in Naumburg. A local newspaper noted that the police’s failure to act “sounds like the capitulation of the state of law (Rechtsstaat).”

In Mülheim, around 80 members of two rival clans got into a mass brawl following a dispute between two teenagers. When police arrived, they were attacked with bottles and stones. More than 100 police backed up by helicopters were deployed to restore order. Five people were taken into custody but then released.

In Munich, police arrested 20 female members of a Croatian clan believed to be responsible for up to 20% of all the burglaries committed in Germany. Investigators believe that the clan has at least 500 members throughout Germany.

In Bremen, police effectively surrendered to clans from Kurdistan and the Balkans because of the need to conserve limited personnel resources for the fight against spiraling street crime by migrant youths.

Rainer Wendt, head of the German Police Union (DPolG), criticized city officials for their lack of resolve. “Bremen has capitulated to extremely dangerous clans. The state’s monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force [Gewaltmonopol des Staates] is now becoming the law of the jungle. Security continues to go down the drain.”

Germany: Migrant Crime Spiked in 2016

May 2, 2017

Germany: Migrant Crime Spiked in 2016, Gatestone InstituteSoeren Kern, May 2, 2017

None of this seems to be having an impact on the German elections set for September 24, 2017. Polls show that if the election for German chancellor were held today, Angela Merkel, who is largely responsible for the migration crisis, would be re-elected with 37% of the vote. Martin Schulz, the Social Democrat candidate who has pledged to increase migration to Germany even further, would win 29% of the vote and the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany would win 8%. For now, German voters appear to believe that the alternatives to Merkel are all worse.

*****************************

Although non-Germans make up approximately 10% of the overall German population, they accounted for 30.5% of all crime suspects in the country in 2016.

Nearly 250,000 migrants entered the country illegally in 2016, up 61.4% from 154,188 in 2015. More than 225,000 migrants were found living in the country illegally (Unerlaubter Aufenthalt) in 2016.

The Berlin Senate launched an inquiry into why migrants disproportionally appear as criminals in the city-state compared to Germans.

An official annual report about crime in Germany has revealed a rapidly deteriorating security situation in the country marked by a dramatic increase in violent crime, including murder, rape and sexual assault.

The report also shows a direct link between the growing lawlessness in Germany and Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to allow in more than one million mostly male migrants from Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

The report — Police Crime Statistics 2016 (Polizeiliche Kriminalstatistik, PKS) — was compiled by the Federal Criminal Police Office (Bundeskriminalamt, BKA) and presented by Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière in Berlin on April 24.

The number of non-German crime suspects (nichtdeutsche Tatverdächtige) legally residing in Germany jumped to 616,230 in 2016, up from 555,820 in 2015 — an increase of 11% — according to the report. Although non-Germans make up approximately 10% of the overall German population, they accounted for 30.5% of all crime suspects in the country in 2016, up from 27.6% in 2015.

In this year’s report, the BKA created a separate subcategory called “migrants” (Zuwanderer) which encompasses a combination of refugees, pending asylum seekers, failed asylum seekers and illegal immigrants.

According to the BKA, the number of migrant crime suspects (tatverdächtiger Zuwanderer) in Germany in 2016 jumped to 174,438 from 114,238 in 2015 — up 52.7%. Although “migrants” made up less than 2% of the German population in 2016, they accounted for 8.6% of all crime suspects in the country — up from 5.7% in 2015.

In terms of non-German crime suspects residing legally in Germany, Turks were the primary offenders in 2016, with 69,918 suspects, followed by Romanians, Poles, Syrians, Serbs, Italians, Afghans, Bulgarians, Iraqis, Albanians, Kosovars, Moroccans, Iranians and Algerians.

In terms of migrant crime suspects, Syrians were the primary offenders, followed by Afghans, Iraqis, Albanians, Algerians, Moroccans, Serbs, Iranians, Kosovars and Somalis.

Police in Bremen, Germany frisk a North African youth who is suspected of theft. (Image source: ZDF video screenshot)

The report’s other findings include:

  • Violent crime surged in Germany in 2016. These include a 14.3% increase in murder and manslaughter, a 12.7% increase in rape and sexual assault and a 9.9% increase in aggravated assault. The BKA also recorded a 14.8% increase in weapons offenses and a 7.1% increase in drug offenses.
  • Non-German crime suspects committed 2,512 rapes and sexual assaults in Germany in 2016 — an average of seven a day. Syrians were the primary offenders, followed by Afghans, Iraqis, Pakistanis, Iranians, Algerians, Moroccans, Eritreans, Nigerians and Albanians. German authorities have repeatedly been accused of underreporting the true scale of the migrant rape problem for political reasons. For example, up to 90% of the sex crimes committed in Germany in 2014 do not appear in the official statistics, according to André Schulz, the head of the Association of Criminal Police (Bund Deutscher Kriminalbeamter, BDK).
  • Non-German crime suspects committed 11,525 robberies in Germany in 2016 — an average of 32 a day. Moroccans were the primary offenders, followed by Algerians, Syrians, Georgians, Tunisians, Albanians, Afghans, Serbs, Iraqis and Iranians.
  • Non-German crime suspects committed 56,252 aggravated assaults in 2016 — an average of 154 a day. Syrians were the primary offenders, followed by Afghans, Iraqis, Iranians, Moroccans, Algerians, Somalis, Albanians, Eritreans and Pakistanis.
  • Bavaria was the German state most affected by non-German criminality, followed by North Rhine-Westphalia, Baden-Württemberg, Hesse, Berlin, Lower Saxony, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saxony, Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Saxony-Anhalt, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Saarland, Bremen and Thüringen.
  • Berlin was the German city most affected by non-German criminality, followed by Munich, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Hanover, Stuttgart, Dortmund, Bremen, Leipzig, Nürnberg, Essen, Duisburg, Mannheim, Karlsruhe, Dresden, Freiburg im Breisgau, Chemnitz, Aachen, Bielefeld, Wuppertal, Augsburg, Bonn, Bochum, Gelsenkirchen, Wiesbaden, Münster, Kiel, Halle, Krefeld, Braunschweig, Mainz, Lübeck, Mönchengladbach, Erfurt, Oberhausen, Magdeburg and Rostock.
  • The BKA also recorded 487,711 violations of German immigration laws (ausländerrechtliche Verstöße), up 21.1% from 402,741 violations in 2015. Nearly 250,000 migrants entered the country illegally in 2016, up 61.4% from 154,188 in 2015. More than 225,000 migrants were found living in the country illegally (Unerlaubter Aufenthalt) in 2016.

The new data contradicts claims made by the BKA in December 2016 — just four months before the current report — that migrant criminality was actually decreasing.

During a press conference in Berlin on April 24, Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière admitted:

“The proportion of foreign suspects, and migrants in particular, is higher than the average for the general population. This cannot be sugarcoated. There is an overall rise in disrespect, violence and hate. Those who commit serious offenses here forfeit their right to stay here.”

Separately, officials in Bavaria revealed that the number of crimes committed by asylum seekers and refugees there increased by 58% in 2016. They accounted for 9.6% of all crimes committed in the state, up from 3.2% in 2015 and 1.8% in 2012. Syrians were the primary offenders, followed by Afghans, Iraqis and Nigerians.

“The increase in crime in Bavaria in 2016 is mainly due to foreign suspects, especially immigrants,” said Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann.

At the same time, officials in Baden-Württemberg noted a 95.5% increase in the number of physical assaults involving at least one migrant in 2016.

Meanwhile, the Berlin Senate launched an inquiry into why migrants disproportionally appear as criminals in the city-state compared to Germans. In 2016, 40% of all crime suspects in the German capital were non-Germans.

None of this seems to be having an impact on the German elections set for September 24, 2017. Polls show that if the election for German chancellor were held today, Angela Merkel, who is largely responsible for the migration crisis, would be re-elected with 37% of the vote. Martin Schulz, the Social Democrat candidate who has pledged to increase migration to Germany even further, would win 29% of the vote and the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany would win 8%. For now, German voters appear to believe that the alternatives to Merkel are all worse.

Cologne Police Attacked for ‘Racial Profiling’ During New Year’s Eve Security Operation

January 2, 2017

Cologne Police Attacked for ‘Racial Profiling’ During New Year’s Eve Security Operation, Breitbart, Oliver JJ Lane, January 2, 2017

Hailed a success by its organisers for reducing the number of violent crimes committed on New Year’s Eve from over 1,000 last year to less than a dozen, Cologne police are now being criticised for using “racial” methods.

Left-wing activists, including members of the local Green party, have criticised the police for focusing their security efforts too clearly at the same groups which were identified as the main perpetrators of the 2016 attacks. The comments came after Cologne police controlled thousands of so-called ‘Nafris’ — North Africans — as they attempted to enter the city centre ring of steel.

Germany’s Deutsche Welle reports the remarks of Green party chairman Simone Peter who noted that while the measures had worked, he doubted the legality of the police’s actions. He said: “It raises the question of proportionality and legality when around 1,000 people were checked and partially detained based on their appearance alone.”

Meanwhile left-wing politician Christopher Lauer, active at times with the Social Democrats and Pirate Protest Party, said of the terms used by Cologne police that it was “sweeping prejudice against an entire group of people based on their appearance”.

“I regard this term as highly dehumanizing.”

Despite the ill feeling over the approach, Cologne’s local Express newspaper reports the arrest of a 38-year-old Syrian on New Year’s Eve as police believed “urgent” action was necessary following intelligence he was planning a terror attack that evening. The migrant had previously been arrested for terror-financing offences.

germancopsCOLOGNE, GERMANY – DECEMBER 31: Police hold a group of men in front of Hauptbahnhof main railway station / Maja Hitij / Getty Images

Cologne police gave regular updates through the night and local newspapers carried updates from the force reporting the number of Nafris who had been stopped, searched, and turned away. Upon arriving, hundreds of potential migrant troublemakers and even individuals known to have been involved in the 2016 attacks were immediately turned around and escorted to trains out of the centre.

In all, 1,200 Nafris were controlled by Cologne police. In addition, the force recorded two sexual assaults, six thefts, and 29 individuals were arrested. One train coming into the city which police learnt had 300 North Africans on-board was stopped and turned back just before it reached the centre.

This contrasts with the 2016 celebrations when over 500 women were recorded as victims of sexual assault and 28 were raped. Including other crimes such as thefts and assaults, there were some 1,300 victims.

Cologne’s police chief was forced to retire early after the policing failure, which saw less than 100 officers on patrol for the whole city. Now defending the force from having policed the event too thoroughly instead, chief Jürgen Mathies said that while they had deliberately targeted Nafris for searches and identity checks, of the hundreds met in this way “there was a clear threat of criminal activity present”.

He said “We had groups of people who were comparably aggressive” to those that police encountered last year.

The police chief also emphasised the fact that police hadn’t only performed security checks on North Africans, but had investigated other groups as well. The city’s mayor called the measures “necessary”.

The force also defended the ‘Nafri’ term, which was admitted to be an internal policing term. An internal document describing Nafris revealed in the German press briefs police officers that they come from Egypt, Algeria, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia, are generally between 15 and 25-years-old, and are violent.

The document states: “The clientele behaves very aggressively against intervening police officers and city colleagues… Armaments (folding knives) are regularly carried.”

German Streets Descend into Lawlessness

October 31, 2016

German Streets Descend into Lawlessness, Gatestone Institute, Soeren Kern, October 31, 2016

During the first six months of 2016, migrants committed 142,500 crimes, according to the Federal Criminal Police Office. This is equivalent to 780 crimes committed by migrants every day, an increase of nearly 40% over 2015. The data includes only those crimes in which a suspect has been caught.

Thousands of migrants who entered the country as “asylum seekers” or “refugees” have gone missing. They are, presumably, economic migrants who entered Germany on false pretenses. Many are thought to be engaging in robbery and criminal violence.

Local police in many parts of the country admit that they are stretched to the limit and are unable to maintain law and order.

“Drug trafficking takes place right before our eyes. If we intervene, we are threatened, spat on, insulted. Sometimes someone whips out a knife. They are always the same people. They are ruthless, fearless and have no problems with robbing even the elderly.” — Private security guard.

According to Freddi Lohse of the German Police Union in Hamburg, many migrant offenders view the leniency of the German justice system as a green light to continue delinquent behavior. “They are used to tougher consequences in their home countries,” he said. “They have no respect for us.”

“It cannot be that offenders continue to fill the police files, hurt us physically, insult us, whatever, and there are no consequences. Many cases are closed or offenders are released on probation or whatever. Yes, what is happening in the courts today is a joke.” — Tania Kambouri, German police officer.

 

The rape of a ten-year-old girl in Leipzig, the largest city in Saxony, has drawn renewed attention to the spiraling levels of violent crime perpetrated by migrants in cities and towns across Germany — and the lengths to which German officials and the media go to censor information about the perpetrators of those crimes.

The girl was riding her bicycle to school at seven o’clock in the morning on October 27 when a man ambushed her, threw her to the ground and raped her. The suspect is described as being in his mid-thirties with short brown hair and a stubble beard.

Leipzig police have explicitly refused to say whether the suspect is a migrant, but have implicitly admitted that he is. They published a facial composite of the suspect with the politically correct warning:

“This image is to be published only in print media in the greater Leipzig area. Publishing this image on the internet, including on social media such as Facebook, is not covered by the court’s manhunt order (Beschluss zur Öffentlichkeitsfahndung) and is therefore prohibited.”

The effort to censor information about the rape, in which German officials show themselves to be more concerned about protecting the identity of the rapist than the welfare of the victim or other girls he might attack, is almost unprecedented in Germany.

To its credit, the Berlin-based newspaper, Bild, responded: “BILD is ignoring this request. We want to ensure that the suspect is arrested as quickly as possible.” Indeed, Bild has been one of the only newspapers in Germany even to publish not only the image but also report the story of this rape.

Violent crime — including rapes, sexual and physical assaults, stabbings, home invasions, robberies, burglaries and drug trafficking — has skyrocketed in Germany since Chancellor Angela Merkel welcomed into the country more than one million mostly male migrants from Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Few, if any, of the migrants were vetted before being allowed to enter Germany.

Migrants committed 208,344 crimes in 2015, according to a confidential police report leaked to Bild. This figure represents an 80% increase since 2014 and is equivalent to 570 crimes committed by migrants every day, or 23 crimes each hour, in 2015 alone.

The actual number of migrant crimes is far higher, however: the report, produced by the Federal Criminal Police Office (Bundeskriminalamt, BKA), includes only crimes that have been solved (aufgeklärten Straftaten). According to police statistics, on average only around half of all crimes committed in Germany in any given year are solved (Aufklärungsquote). This implies that the actual number of crimes committed by migrants in Germany in 2015 may have exceeded 400,000.

During the first six months of 2016, migrants committed 142,500 crimes, according to a BKA report released on September 6. This is equivalent to 780 crimes committed by migrants every day, or 32.5 crimes each hour, an increase of nearly 40% over 2015. Again, the 2016 data includes only those crimes in which a migrant suspect has been caught. Crimes similar to the rape in Leipzig would not appear in the statistics because the suspects remain at large.

Migrant crime statistics for all of 2016, when they become available, are likely to show a significant increase over the 2015 numbers. One reason for this is that thousands of migrants who entered the country as “asylum seekers” or “refugees” have gone missing. They are, presumably, economic migrants who entered Germany on false pretenses. Many are thought to be engaging in robbery and criminal violence to sustain themselves.

Most of the crimes committed by migrants are being downplayed by German authorities, apparently to avoid fueling anti-immigration sentiments. For example, the BKA report states that most of the migrant crimes involve fare evasion — using public transportation without a ticket. As for other crimes, almost invariably they are said to be isolated incidents (Einzelfälle), not part of a nationwide problem.

Gatestone Institute has reviewed hundreds of reports of migrant crime in local police reports and local or regional newspapers. The evidence points to a nationwide surge in migrant crime: cities and towns in all 16 of Germany’s federal states are affected. In fact, local police in many parts of the country admit that they are stretched to the limit and are unable to maintain law and order.

The growing sense of lawlessness is substantiated by an October 24 YouGov poll which found that 68% of Germans believe that security in the country has deteriorated during the past several years. Nearly 70% of respondents said they fear for their lives and property in German train stations and subways, while 63% feel unsafe at large public events.

2008German police are shown deployed to break up a mass brawl between migrants (Image source: SAT1 video screenshot)

In Hamburg, statistics show that migrants committed nearly half of the 38,000 crimes reported in Hamburg during the first six months of 2016, although migrants make up only a fraction of the city’s 1.7 million inhabitants. Police say that many of the crimes were committed by “migrant gangs” (ausländischen Banden).

City police say they are helpless to confront a spike in crimes committed by young North African migrants. Hamburg is now home to more than 1,800 so-called unaccompanied minor migrants (minderjährige unbegleitete Flüchtlinge, MUFL), most of whom live on the streets and apparently engage in all manner of criminal acts, including purse snatching.

More than 20,000 purses are snatched in Hamburg every year. Most of those are stolen by males between the ages of 20 and 30 who come from the Balkans or North Africa, according to Norman Großmann, the director of the federal police inspector’s office in Hamburg. In recent months, police have carried out operations (here and here) to confront the problem, but the actions have yielded few arrests.

Local media report that gangs of migrant youth have effectively taken over parts of the Jungfernstieg, one of the most prestigious boulevards in Hamburg. Many citizens are avoiding the area, which recently underwent a multi-million euro rehabilitation, because it has become too dangerous.

More than 50 people have been physically assaulted along the Jungfernstieg since the beginning of 2016, and police are being called in almost daily to respond to complaints of aggressive begging, public drunkenness, drug dealing and sexual assault. Restaurant owners are complaining about a spike in robbery and vandalism, and taxi drivers say they are avoiding the area, where Arabic and Farsi are commonplace.

The newspaper, Die Welt, reported that unaccompanied minor migrants at a refugee shelter in the Hammerbrook district are “working” at the Jungfernstieg. Stashes of mobile phones, laptops and other stolen goods were recently found hidden in their rooms. Police also arrested a 20-year-old Egyptian named Hassan who repeatedly attacked passersby with a knife. He was filmed groping a girl’s breasts and genitals. When she resisted, he punched her in the face.

Residents of the Alsterdorf district in Northern Hamburg have asked their mayor to do something about a group of 40 highly aggressive unaccompanied minor migrants who are terrorizing the neighborhood. Residents complain about burglaries, robberies and even extortion. A 65-year-old resident said she was attacked by a ten-year-old who was trying to break into a car. A 45-year-old business owner said he is afraid to confront the youths because they might smash his windows. A 75-year-old pensioner said he no longer dares to step outside of his house after dark.

Thomas Jungfer, the deputy director of the German Police Union (DPolG) in Hamburg, warns that the city does not have enough police officers to maintain law and order. He says that private security companies are needed to fill in the gaps. “Dissatisfaction among our colleagues is growing,” he said.

In nearby Bremen, police have effectively surrendered the fight against organized crime run by clans from the Balkans and Kurdistan because of the need to pour limited personnel resources into the fight against spiraling street crime by unaccompanied migrant youths.

Rainer Wendt, head of the German Police Union (DPolG) has criticized city officials for their lack of resolve. “Bremen has capitulated to extremely dangerous clans. The state’s monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force [Gewaltmonopol des Staates] is now becoming the law of the jungle. Security continues to go down the drain.”

In Berlin, criminal migrant clans “with strong group loyalties” are operating with impunity in the districts of Neukölln, Wedding, Moabit, Kreuzberg and Charlottenburg. The newsmagazine, Focus, reported that the Kottbusser Tor area in Kreuzberg, an area with many migrants, has become a “legal vacuum” because of a reduced police presence. The place has been overrunwith drug trafficking, crime and violence, and residents and shopkeepers report crimes every hour, every day on public streets. A shopkeeper said: “In the past, children could run around here freely. Also, no one paid attention to whether the bag or backpack are secure. Today all this is no longer possible.”

According to Focus, “During the day the area is full of heroin corpses, and at night pickpockets are on the go.” A private security guard said:

“Drug trafficking takes place right before our eyes. If we intervene, we are threatened, spat on, insulted. Sometimes someone whips out his knife. They are always the same people. They are ruthless, fearless and have no problems with robbing even the elderly.”

His colleague added: “Of course, we always call the police. The last time, however, they took two hours to get here.”

In the Rhine-Ruhr region, the largest metropolitan region in Germany, police statistics show that Algerians committed more than 13,000 crimes in 2015, more than twice as many as in 2014. Moroccans committed 14,700 crimes, and Tunisians more than 2,000 crimes.

In North Rhine-Westphalia, a report by the interior ministry revealed that Moroccans committed 6,208 crimes in 2015. Algerians committed 4,995 crimes and Tunisians 1,084. These are significant increases compared to previous years.

According to the NRW Interior Ministry, “Immigrants from North African are increasingly disproportionate as offenders — mainly in large cities. The suspects are most often single young men. Their criminal specialties are robbery and assault.”

In Düsseldorf, local politicians have been accused of ignoring the growing threat posed by violent gangs of migrants from Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. The city is home to a total of 2,244 criminal suspects from North Africa, the majority of them (1,256) from Morocco. On average, they commit an offense every 3.5 hours. A police inspector said: “The group as a whole is disrespectful and absolutely without shame.”

In Stuttgart, police are fighting a losing battle against migrant gangs from North Africa who are dedicated to pickpocketing. In the Rems-Murr district near Stuttgart, rival gangs of migrant youth from the Balkans are “stealing anything that is not nailed down.” Roma and Kosovar youth skip school to go on daily forays systematically to break into cars to steal cell phones and other valuables. They also enter doctor’s offices, residences for the elderly, kindergartens and schools to ransack handbags and jackets.

In Aalen, a 14-year-old Kosovar has a police file with more than 100 entries. A local newspaper reports: “All attempts by the police, judiciary and youth welfare office to instill in him a sense of right and wrong and to re-socialize him have so far failed. On Facebook he brags about his undertakings and his love for gangster rap.”

In Leipzig, the public transportation system has become a magnet for criminals. The number of reported cases of theft on public transport jumped 152% between 2012 and 2015. The number of physical and sexual assaults on public transportation are also up. Overall, the number of reported crimes in buses and trams jumped 111% between 2012 and 2015, and the number of reported crimes at bus stops during that period were up by 40%.

Leipzig police attribute the spike in crime to the rapid increase in the city’s population. They could not confirm the nationality of the perpetrators, however, because that would require a review of each of the crimes, a task that would “exceed the personnel-time capacity.”

In Dresden, migrants from Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia have effectively taken control over the iconic Wiener Platz, a large public square in front of the central train station. There they sell drugs and pickpocket passersby, often with impunity. Police raids on the square have become a game of “whack-a-mole,” with a never-ending number of migrants replacing those who have been arrested.

In Schwerin, roving bands of migrant youths armed with knives have made the city center increasingly dangerous day and night. City officials have drawn up an action plan to regain control of the streets. A centerpiece of the plan calls for the deployment of more social workers (Straßensozialarbeit) to promote integration.

In Bavaria, Sigrid Meierhofer, the mayor of the resort town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen complained that local police have responded to more migrant-related crimes during the past six weeks than in all of the previous 12 months combined. In a letter to the Bavarian government, she threatened to close a shelter in the town that houses 250 mostly male migrants from Africa if public safety and order cannot be restored. She has also warned female residents of the town to avoid being outside after dark.

In a bestselling book, Tania Kambouri, a German police officer, describes the deteriorating security situation in Germany due to migrants who she says have no respect for law and order. In an interview with Deutschlandfunk radio, she said:

“For weeks, months and years I have noticed that Muslims, mostly young men, do not have even a minimum level of respect for the police. When we are out patrolling the streets, we are verbally abused by young Muslims. There is the body language, and insults like ‘sh** cop’ when passing by. If we make a traffic stop, the aggression increases ever further, this is overwhelmingly the case with migrants.

“I wish these problems were recognized and clearly addressed. If necessary, laws need to be strengthened. It is also very important that the judiciary, that the judges issue effective rulings. It cannot be that offenders continue to fill the police files, hurt us physically, insult us, whatever, and there are no consequences. Many cases are closed or offenders are released on probation or whatever. Yes, what is happening in the courts today is a joke.

“The growing disrespect, the increasing violence against police…. We are losing control of the streets.”

According to Freddi Lohse, Vice Chairman of the DPolG German Police Union in Hamburg, many migrant offenders view the leniency of the German justice system as a green light to continue delinquent behavior. “They are used to tougher consequences in their home countries,” he said. “They have no respect for us.”

Germany: New Year’s Eve Muslim migrant sex attacks wiped from police records

October 23, 2016

Germany: New Year’s Eve Muslim migrant sex attacks wiped from police records, Jihad Watch,

Of the 500 attacks which were filed in detail with the police, only 17 appear in the Police Crime Statistics.

Also:

A police report from the German federal police (BKA) in July revealed that across Germany on New Year’s Eve in Cologne, Stuttgart, and other cities over 1,200 women were sexually assaulted.

Such police neglect would never be tolerated if the offenders were other than Muslims. This scrubbing of the records should be a source of outrage and protest, not only in Cologne and Germany in general, but throughout the Western world. European nations and other Western countries are well on their way to the massive cover-up of Muslim rape gang activity that happened in the UK, where up to a million young girls were sexually assaulted and/or raped by Muslim rape gangs, some of them with extreme violence. The usual phobias about being called racist or “Islamophobic” appears to take precedence over the safety and well-being of these girls.

Policemen look on as refugees from Syria demonstrate against violence near the Cologne main train station in Cologne, western Germany on January 16, 2016, where hundreds of women were groped and robbed in a throng of mostly Arab and North African men during New Year's festivities. German authorities said that nearly all the suspects in a rash of New Year's Eve violence against women in Cologne were "of foreign origin", as foreigners came under attack amid surging tensions. / AFP / PATRIK STOLLARZ (Photo credit should read PATRIK STOLLARZ/AFP/Getty Images)

Policemen look on as refugees from Syria demonstrate against violence near the Cologne main train station in Cologne, western Germany on January 16, 2016, where hundreds of women were groped and robbed in a throng of mostly Arab and North African men during New Year’s festivities.
German authorities said that nearly all the suspects in a rash of New Year’s Eve violence against women in Cologne were “of foreign origin”, as foreigners came under attack amid surging tensions. (PATRIK STOLLARZ/AFP/Getty Images)

“Outrage as Cologne New Year’s Eve Sex Attacks Wiped from Crime Record”, by Virginia Hale, Breitbart, October 22, 2016:

Events in Cologne on New Year’s Eve gained international attention as mobs of migrants robbed indiscriminately and launched group sex attacks on a scale previously unseen in Europe, but they failed to make any impact on police statistics.

Of the 500 attacks which were filed in detail with the police, only 17 appear in the Police Crime Statistics (PKS) — the best known and most often cited police statistics — and those that do appear are recorded for the months of April and June.

Christian Democratic Union (CDU) MP Ina Scharrenbach noticed the discrepancy between reports of the events of New Year’s Eve and the lack of any indication they occurred in official police data, and demanded to know where the other reports went.

The state’s Interior Minister, Ralf Jäger, told her that reports of crime are not recorded in the PKS until they are forwarded to the public prosecutor and explained that “this is not always the same as the month in which the crime was committed”.

In addition, the Social Democratic Party (SPD) minister said cases are only submitted to the prosecutor if they are particularly serious. “The vast majority of acts on New Year’s Eve in Cologne were criminal offenses like pickpocketing, and insults on a sexual basis,” he said.

Scharrenberg, the CDU faction’s spokesman in the parliamentary committee for the events of New Year’s Eve, said: “It takes my breath away that the offences of the night were apparently not serious enough to be detected.”

While group sex attacks have been brushed under the table in North Rhine-Westphalia, authorities in Brandenburg last month announced a new methodology was put in place to ensure that as many “right-wing crimes” as possible are recorded in police statistics.

Brandenburg Prime Minister Dietmar Woidke said the influx of migrants to Germany seen last year had brought about a surge of such crimes. He spoke to rbb24 about how the state has made changes to its recording system so that this will be reflected in the data………

A police report from the German federal police (BKA) in July revealed that across Germany on New Year’s Eve in Cologne, Stuttgart, and other cities over 1,200 women were sexually assaulted.