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Friday 8 January 2016

Don’t Menshn Köln Sex Assaults

The vista of the magnificent cathedral, and the curved overall roof of the adjacent central station, in the German city of Köln is instantly recognisable. What is not known is that the area nearby is notorious for low-level theft and other forms of criminality. And on New Year’s Eve, it seems there was far more serious criminal behaviour as gangs of men assaulted and robbed several women during end of year celebrations.
(c) Doc Hackenbush 2014

As the BBC has reported, “Witnesses and police said that the men involved were of Arab or North African appearance … Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere agreed there should not be any general suspicion towards refugees at least ‘at this stage of the investigation’ … ‘But if North Africans were the perpetrators, for which there is some indication, there should not be a taboo and people should not gloss over it’”.
So the ethnicity of the alleged assailants is indicated, but not known. Their religious affiliation has not been alleged, far less ascertained. But such details were mere details to (thankfully) former Tory MP Louise Mensch, who instantly knew more than everyone else about the incidents, kicking off by telling the Köln mayor to resign, and swiping at Labour stalwart Ken Livingstone from her glass house, just because she could.
Someone suggested the attacks showed the West was finished. Ms Mensch knew better: “Europe maybe the west no”. Er, Germany is part of the West, and Köln was, before reunification, in the part called West Germany. Then, as a warm-up, she kicked the BBC: “Cologne sex attacks on women  'not as bad as online comments against their rapists' BBC News”. This drew a mild protest from Giles Dilnot.
 At no stage do I think you're suggesting this … but that wording looks like WE are saying that. It IS an extraordinary quote” he cautioned. But Ms Mensch was not for discussing the matter, she knew Who Done It. “Dear German Interior minister, and bbc trying to play down his comments, women won't stand for this” she ranted, accompanying her Tweet with a photo of a man spitting aggressively at a young woman.
 Spitting had not been alleged in the Köln attacks. But on she ploughed: “I want to be clear that it is an act of coordinated sexual violence and racial/religious hatred by a sect”. No racial or religious group has been positively identified, and her supporting photo was taken last year, and in a different country. “This is from Sweden. It happened last year but is indicative” she trilled. Wrong: what the photo shows has not been alleged.
Nor has spitting even been mentioned in the context of the Köln attacks. But she still knew better than everyone else: “If the colour of the skin were reversed the BBC would have no difficulty in recognizing a racist attack. That is what this was. End”. See, it’s the BBC’s fault again. And Greater Manchester Police: “they are attacks by one sect that perverts one faith against unbelievers. Police refusal to accept that got 1000s raped in Rochdale”.

That would be why the Rochdale assaults led to so many convictions, then. There is much we do not know about the Köln attacks. There is also acute sensitivity regarding numbers of refugees, as well as innate suspicion of other ethnic groups (Musa Okwonga’s take on the attacks, and that suspicion, is a must read). What we do not need is Louise Mensch going in with both feet and using the incidents to blame her pet targets.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Where Untermensch is concerned, what can you expect from a pig but a grunt?

It's a safe bet she'll never summon the courage to have a go at the NRA Nazis or ownership of the Congress by bankers and arms manufacturers.

Hackenbush got that warning exactly right.

Anonymous said...

“If the colour of the skin were reversed the BBC would have no difficulty in recognizing a racist attack.”

Mensch also forgets to mention that had the colour of skin been reversed then to people like her the gropers would have have been mere 'bad apples' rather than representatives of their ethnicity whose behaviour as individuals 'proves' what all men of that ethnicity think and how they behave.

rob said...

" It happened last year but is indicative"

Someone managed to take a quote out of context from a Piers Morgan autobiography and accused same of phonehacking without any other evidence and only under parliamentary privilege. Later would not retract outside parliamnent.

It happened some years ago but some would say that unbacked up accusations written from afar are indicative of Ms Mensch's work (fantasy stories still count as work?). So, according to Ms Mensch's theory, anything she writes may be discounted as such. QED.

Anonymous said...

Why wouldn't she go against NRA?

Come to think of it, we never see anything anti USA in Murdoch's rags or from his pals.

He and his just stir the shite in the UK.

Sometimes you don't need to focus on what these kind say.

It is what they don't say that raises alarms.

They need somewhere to live when things get rough.

Malcolm Redfellow said...

There's dross (not just Mensch, but la Hopkins comes equally to mind — specially in this context) and there's Henriette Reker, Oberbürgermeister der Stadt Köln.

Despite the misrepresntation about her "arms-length" clip, she comes across as a straight-talking, realistic and feisty lady. See Der Spiegel interview .

Anonymous said...

Please keep up Mensch-Watch, indeed might it be turned it into a Twitter feed? Seriously this is a public service. Maybe you could crowd-fund a Mensch-facts on Kickstarter. People could pay you rate the honesty of what she has to say a bit like Politifact and except the scale would likely range from bollocks to complete utter bullshit.

A Kelly said...

I'm certainly not condoning the Koln attacks but they are nothing new. I have worked for many years at Trafalgar Square on New Year's Eve with the emergency services. The goings on there has to be seen to believed: The only time I have seen anything reported in the media was many years ago when two women died in the same incident. There are always deaths but in separate incidents. I think there is an ulterior motive with all this media frenzy.

SteveB said...

It's odd how Mensch (any many others) can have such firm opinions ABOUT what went on when the german authorities are far from clear exactly what did go on. Which is presumably one reason why the police chief has been suspended. Original reports (in Germany, obviously HM Media was days behind) were a mob of 1000 North Africans conducting mass sex assaults. That quickly became 30 and the crimes became various acts of violence including bag snatching. It's now "about 30, over half of whom are of North African appearance" or in other words around a third aren't!

Which begs the question, what exactly is "north african appearance"? Especially in the grotty underpasses of Cologne main station and cathedral square at night. In that level of darkness how would you tell the difference between north african, andalusian, greek or mexican?

It takes me back to a robbery in the west midlands a few years ago in which various witnesses described the offenders as having Polish accents, one also supplied a car registration. When the car was stopped it was indeed the wanted men - all of whom were CORNISH! And the moral of this tale is - before you take a witness statement seriously find out who you are dealing with and what their IQ is!!