Thursday, 18 August 2011
With apologies to Heinrich Heine.
Car Burnings are a 'Precursor to Terrorism'Source: Der Spiegel
By Florian Gathmann
The last three nights have seen an unprecedented wave of car torchings in Berlin, but police are not sure who to arrest. Politicians on the left and right warn the attacks could lead to more dangerous forms of protest. Meanwhile, the failure to stop them could sway September's mayoral election.
Erhart Körting, in charge of security matters in Berlin, isn't known as a careless man, but on Wednesday he uttered a sentence that may call his sanity into doubt. "I still park my car on the street in front of my house," he said.
The center-left Social Democrat obviously wanted to make a point -- that Berlin authorities won't be cowed by a rash of seemingly random car burnings in the German capital. But the numbers are alarming. After the senator for interior policy spoke on Wednesday night, nine cars were torched around Berlin. Thirty were damaged or destroyed by flames on Monday and Tuesday, about 15 per night, and authorities have made no arrests.
"We need hard deterrent measures," said Rainer Wendt, head of DPoIG, the country's second-largest police union, according to the mass-circulation Bild on Thursday morning. A security expert for the Social Democrats, Dieter Wiefelspütz, told the paper that automobile arsons were "a precursor to terrorism."
No one has been hurt so far, and no one has claimed responsibility. But burning upscale cars is a form of left-wing protest in some German cities, particularly Berlin and Hamburg. Authorities say 300 cars have been torched in Berlin since the start of 2011. The number of arsons over the last three days has been disproportionate, however, and authorities say the targets are not just luxury cars but also vans and delivery trucks.
Berlin's mayor, Klaus Wowereit, called the burnings "deranged vandalism" and said they amounted to "unacceptable crimes that must be prosecuted to the fullest extent."
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Berlin Election Approaches
They come at a very bad time for Wowereit's left-wing coalition of Social Democrats (SPD) and socialist Left Party members. Their campaign for a municipal election on September 18 has trundled along uneventfully, but the arsons may now threaten the incumbent government.
The two parties stand to gain nothing in a debate over burning cars: Wowereit's cabinet has failed to create a policy over the last few years against the crimes, which admittedly may be hard to prevent along the city's 5,400 kilometers (or 3,355 miles) of streets.
Investigators have also said in the meantime that the perpetrators may not be left-wing extremists alone. Because of the variety of targets, experts say, the arsons don't resemble an organized political protest -- they seem to be the work of random individual perpetrators.
Nevertheless, the latest car burnings have moved to districts such as Charlottenburg and Tiergarten. Until now, the most common settings for car arson had been the alternative eastern districts of Mitte, Prenzlauer Berg and Friedrichshain -- all of which have been undergoing steady gentrifiction in recent years.
The conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) -- Germany's main rival party to the SPD -- smells a campaign issue. The party is planning a new series of posters on security in Berlin, and on Thursday Wolfgang Bosbach, a Christian Democrat who heads a committee for interior security in the federal parliament, criticized Mayor Wowereit's performance.
"The terrorism of the Red Army Faction (or Baader-Meinhof gang, which bombed political targets in the 1970s) started with quote-unquote 'just' arson," he told broadcaster N24. "For this reason there is a danger that the violence could one day target people."
Labels:
Berlin,
far-left violence,
Germany
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2011
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- Shops Offering Prayer Rooms for Muslims Now
- Another Video of the Mallorca Riots
- Did Europe Grow Rich from Slavery and Imperialism?...
- United with Fascism
- Black Flight in Belgium
- Messages from Party Leaders About End of Ramadan (...
- 3 of the 5 Nigerians Arrested in the Mallorca Riot...
- Mosque Shooting in Denmark
- Number of Mosques in France has Doubled in 20 Year...
- The War on Comments
- Swedish Newspapers Crack Down on 'Racist' Comments...
- Alex Salmond Submits to Allah's Will in His End of...
- William Hague's End of Ramadan Message
- More on the Mallorca Riots
- Even Immigrant Football Players Hit By Marseilles ...
- Nigerians on the Rampage in Mallorca
- Rents Soar Even in Recession
- Political Establishment Tries to Marginalise Danis...
- Posters of Muslim Politicians Defaced in Denmark
- Poland Grants Amnesty to Illegals
- Enoch Powell
- Ground Zero Mosque Imam Calls for Sharia to be Inc...
- Anti-Islamification Event in Berlin
- Immigrant Vote May Be Decisive in Norwegian Electi...
- Mohammedan Attacks Austrian Parliament
- Two Christians Try and Win Some Converts in the So...
- Italy Calls Gaddafi's Use of Immigrants a 'Crime A...
- Paki Child Abuse - in Pakistan
- Negroes for Sale in Switzerland
- Victory for Islam
- Salt Mosque Update
- Immigrants Account for More than 1 in 8 of Britain...
- Muslim Biker Gangs Now
- Traditional Catholic Procession in France Now Requ...
- The Starkey Denouncers
- 102 Academics Denounce David Starkey as a Thought ...
- Emir of Dubai Wants to Build World's Third-Largest...
- Metropolitan Police Apply for Ban on EDL Tower Ham...
- Net Immigration Soars
- Bye Bye Mosque Creator Attacked
- Dutch Multicult NIMBYs
- There are More Kalashnikovs in Marseilles Than in ...
- Vigilante Patrols in Berlin
- The Arab-Israeli Death Toll in Perspective
- Turks Sacrifice Camel for Luck Before Football Mat...
- Winston Churchill's Views on Race
- Salt Mosque Protest Banned
- Massive Police Mobilisation for Notting Hill "Carn...
- German Teachers Complain of Violent Pupils
- Sweden's Jews, Muslims face web hate rise: study
- Music Parade Has to be Routed Around Muslim-Coloni...
- Exceptionally Shallow Article in the Guardian
- Italian Mayors Desperate for Immigrants
- In Brazil Now Too
- 1 Million Extra Immigrants in Spain Thanks to Cath...
- Whiteboy Day for Lindsay Johns
- Geert Wilders' Party Almost on Top
- The Cultural Enrichment of Britain
- Update on Salt
- The Word of Allah?
- Moroccans Collecting Spanish Benefits While Living...
- Blair Was a Koran Reader Long Ago
- Serbs Driven Out of Kosovo
- Jihadist Arrested in Spain Planned to Poison Water...
- Birmingham Rioters Fired at Police
- Tariq Jahan Was Involved With Hizb ut-Tahrir
- Conservative Councillor Suspended for Calling Riot...
- Muslim Businessman Offers to Pay All Burka Fines
- Re-Civilize Yourself
- The Guardian Admits the Media Have Presented An Un...
- Paki Version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionnaire?"
- Where They Have Burned Cars, They Will End Up Burn...
- The Death of France
- More Children Born in Nigeria Each Year than the W...
- Muslim Youths Attack Swedish Police With Molotov C...
- So-called Anti-fascists Incite Violence Against Co...
- Richard Landes
- Muslims Burn Paper in Malaysia Because it Publishe...
- Immigrant Riot in Malta
- Half of Somali Food Aid Stolen
- Shariah for Europe March in London today
- The Guardian Knows Why There Were no Riots in Scot...
- Call for Calm as 16-Year-Old Charged With Murder o...
- AT LAST! PEELERS TO INVESTIGATE THE ENEMY WITHIN
- Illegals in Paris Demand Legal Status + Free House...
- Anti-Islam Politician Attacked With Acid in German...
- From Somalia to Hampstead
- German Green MP Of Turkish Descent Beaten Up for O...
- 17-Year-Old Muslim Beaten Up By Own Family For Ref...
- Immigration Poll
- The Problem of Immigration is Solved
- Sick, Sicker, Sickest
- Lampedusa: 2000 More Invaders in Last 24 Hours
- Solution to Riots: More Negroes in Police + Work W...
- EU to Develop Common Qualifications in Mediterrane...
- Amid Rise of Multiculturalism, Dutch Confront Thei...
- Africanisation of London Gangs
- Stoning
- These are the Muslim 'Heroes'
- Left-Wing Advertising Poster for Berlin Elections
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