On Duisburg

As you may have read on other blogs, there has been some outrage over measures taken by police officers during an anti-war protest rallye in Duisburg last Sunday. Police officers broke into a flat which had Israeli flags prominently displayed on its windows and removed the flags after protesters had started throwing snowballs, stones and other objects at those windows.

Now, unless there would be danger in delay, German police may not access one’s dwelling without a warrant issued by a judge. Since the flat at that point was unoccupied and the actual offenders were those throwing items at the windows and possibly [I’ve only found one source so far that claims so] threatening to break into the house, it did not quite make sense that police officers would break into the flat and remove the flags – much to the delight of the protesters.

After BD had brought this incident to my attention, I placed an inquiry for a detailled statement on the issue to the ministry of the interior of Northrhine-Westphalia, which I yet have to receive a reply to. I kindly suggested that a detailled response, which would have been to be published on here, would help prevent the notion that Jewish life and a pro-Israel attitude were not safe or possible in Germany.

As I said, I yet have to receive a reply, but I’m slightly relieved to share that in the meantime representatives of the Protestant and Catholic churches in Duisburg have publicly declared they were “appalled and disgusted by this anti-Jewish demonstration that took place at the instigation of Milli Görüs”. Milli Görüs is an Islamic organisation that has been under surveillance by the department of constitution protection.

Also in the meantime: the police chief of Duisburg has apologized, the union of police officers has accused those responsible of failure, politicians have expressed their dismay and have made it a topic for the home affairs select committee, and most noteworthily, another Duisburg police officer has addressed his superiors in an open letter stating, “To me it simply is a scandal if the police of a democratic state under the rule of law gets instrumentalised for the [sake of the] interests of anti-Semitic Islamists by its leadership.”