Police Raid Apartments over Right Wing Social Media by Chris
Tomlinson, 4/7/16, Breitbart
Police in Berlin have raided ten apartments because
residents may have posted “anti-migrant” views online.
Berlin
Police completed a large scale raid on internet users Wednesday. The officers
ransacked ten separate apartments in the German capital in the suburbs of
Spandau, Tempelhof, Marzahn, Hellersdorf and Pankow.
The
force confiscated mobile phones, narcotics and weapons. Nine suspects were
arrested, aged 22-58, and are accused of posting messages critical of migrants,
migrant helpers and some anti-semitic slogans on social networks like Facebook,
WhatsApp, and Twitter, reports Berliner Morgenpost.
The
Berlin police have told media that they already knew of the suspects and said
that many of them have what they consider a “right-extremist” background.
Police spokesman Stefan Redlich said that while many of the men shared
anti-migrant views, “the men do not know each other according to previous
findings,” and there was no evidence of any planned conspiracy to commit crime
among them.
In
some of the homes searched police were forced to admit they hadn’t found
anything at all, but Redlich justified the raids saying they were maybe,
“people who just once expressed their hate-opinion.”
One
of the raids in particular was prompted by a Facebook comment to an article
regarding an Afghani migrant who was shot dead at the Bulgarian
border. The incident took place in October and according to Bulgarian officials
it was an accident as a bullet was meant to be a warning shot but ricochet and
hit him.
The
post responded to the article saying that it was unfortunate too few migrants
met with a similar fate, as it might scare the rest of them from coming.
Police
announced that the raids show Germans that they are not as safe online as they
might think. They say that anyone who says something xenophobic, spreads hate
toward migrants, or shares what they consider to be xenophobic music, may be
next on the list of apartments to be raided in the future.
58
police were involved in the raids and some illegal items were found in a few of
the apartments. Police found one revolver handgun, though it was not mentioned
if it had any ammunition or whether or not is was deactivated. They also found
an air soft gun, which requires a license to own in Germany and a stun gun that
appeared to be camouflaged as a flashlight.
Spokesmen
Redlich also mentioned that they had found several unconstitutional symbols but
did not divulge specifics. Banned symbols in Germany include Nazi era symbols
like the swastika and various Nordic runes used by the Nazis during the era.
Berlin
has seen a rapid increase in prosecutions for speech on the internet. In 2014
there were 196 investigations into anti-migrant and xenophobic posts, while
2015 saw 289 cases. In the last six months there have been three raids prior to
this one, but so far this has been the largest in scale. Investigators have set
up a special task force who work with the organization Network Against Nazis
(NAN), headed by ex-stasi agent
Anetta Kahani, to monitor internet postings across Germany.
Google
and Facebook have been criticized for helping the German government crack-down
on speech that is critical of
migrants and of the policies of German chancellor Angela Merkel. The policy led
to the deletion of the Facebook account of a young girl who spoke out
about the migrant crisis and how she no longer felt safe walking the streets of
her town.
Redlich
says that the team is constantly searching YouTube, Twitter, WhatsApp and
especially Facebook where most cases are pursued because users are forced
to use their real names. He said the message of the raids is clear, “the
internet is not above the law.”
The
raids come just days after British police issued an apparently menacing tweet,
warning them not to get into trouble on-line. As reported by Breitbart London, the Greater
Glasgow Police offered internet users this helpful advice: “Think before you
post or you may receive a visit from us this weekend. Use the internet safely.
#thinkbeforeyoupost”.
Comments
European
government policy makers need to reverse course quickly and begin to work for
their voters rather than working for the UN.
Every idea the UN has imposed has resulted in disaster for these
countries and their citizens. These
voters need to get smart and demand that their governments quit the UN to stop
this abuse and return to sovereign governments controlled by the voters. The US
government needs to do the same.
Norb Leahy,
Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader
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