Mass sexual assault in Cologne, including rape cases

[cosmicalstorm]

Mass rape & molestation similar to the Tahrir square incidents occurred in Cologne on new years eve. Most (all ?) of the assailants were migrants from Africa and the Arab world. The womens rights movements in Europe will have a lot of work ahead of them.

The New York Times
Europe
Cologne Police Chief Condemns Sex Assaults on New Year's Eve

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESSJAN. 4, 2016, 1:34 P.M. E.S.T.

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BERLIN — German police has described a series of sexual assaults against women in Cologne on New Year's Eve as "a completely new dimension of crime."

Officers received numerous complaints from women who said they had been assaulted around Cologne's main train station next to the western German city's famous cathedral on the night from Thursday to Friday.

Cologne police chief Wolfgang Albers says witnesses described the assaults as coming from a group of up to 1,000 men whose appearance indicated they were of "Arab or North African origin."

Some 60 criminal complaints have so far been filed, including one allegation of rape.

German news agency dpa quoted Albers telling reporters on Monday that it was "an intolerable situation that such crimes are committed in the middle of the city."
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2016/01 ... aults.html

German city holds crisis meeting after New Year sex assaults
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By Associated Press January 5 at 6:07 AM

BERLIN — City officials and police in Cologne are holding a crisis meeting following a series of sex assaults in the western German city on New Year’s Eve.

Mayor Henriette Reker called Tuesday’s meeting to discuss the police response to the assaults that occurred around Cologne’s main train station, next to the city’s famous cathedral, during the night.

Police say dozens of women have reported being sexually assaulted and robbed. At least 60 criminal complaints have been filed, including one allegation of rape.

German Justice Minister Heiko Maas called for the perpetrators to be held to account, saying the attacks were “cowardly and vile.”

Green Party lawmaker Claudia Roth warned against blaming refugees for the assaults, which police say witnesses described as being committed by men of “Arab or North African origin.”

Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/eu ... story.html

Video of the incident:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4F7MVGtT9VA

[Thanas]

A) The video you posted showed nothing but celebratory crowds.

B) From the 1000 peacefully celebrating people apparently 40 or 50 were inebriated and started harassing people. So it was not some raging mob as you are wont to describe. Total number of incidents is apparently somewhere around 90-120.

C) The authorities are handling it.

D)

Mass rape & molestation similar to the Tahrir square incidents occurred in Cologne on new years eve

Yeah, go fuck yourself. Mass rape? Nope.

[LaCroix]

I think the title is misleading. There was "only" one rape - not a mass rape. The rest was basically whatever happens when a lot of very drunk young men assemble and get stupid. The police is investigating, and there have already been arrests.

[Zaune]

In the town where I grew up, we used to call that "Friday night".

[Iroscato]

You're a dishonest little shit in severe need of bannination from this board.

[cosmicalstorm]

The BBC have some more details, I know Germany has had frequent riots around new years eve but mass rape & groping like this is new, as they make very clear from German police in the first posts.

This isn't some small scale incident that can be ignored, this is going to get real repercussions.

This is not the last time these young men will turn up on the news doing nice things that are accepted in the worlds most patriarchal societies where they grew up, our near future will be filmed with drones in UHD so this question of they are/were will be settled.

By the way, note this quote,

What is particularly disturbing is that the attacks appear to have been organised. Around 1,000 young men arrived in large groups, seemingly with the specific intention of carrying out attacks on women.

Germany shocked by Cologne New Year gang assaults on women
BBC World News - Europe
55 minutes ago
From the section Europe

Image copyright AFP
Image caption Cologne officials say the systematic assaults on women are a new type of crime

The mayor of Cologne has summoned police for crisis talks after about 80 women reported sexual assaults and muggings by men on New Year's Eve.

The scale of the attacks on women at the city's central railway station has shocked Germany. About 1,000 drunk and aggressive young men were involved.

City police chief Wolfgang Albers called it "a completely new dimension of crime". The men were of Arab or North African appearance, he said.

Women were also targeted in Hamburg.

But the Cologne assaults - near the city's iconic cathedral - were the most serious, German media report. At least one woman was raped, and many were groped.

Most of the crimes reported to police were robberies. A volunteer policewoman was among those sexually molested.
Germany's New Year shock - by Damien McGuinness, BBC News Berlin
Image copyright EPA
Image caption The attacks took place close to Cologne Cathedral as fireworks exploded celebrating the new year

The pretty Christmas market and medieval setting may look idyllic, but at Christmas and New Year the area around Cologne Cathedral is a notorious danger zone when it comes to pickpockets and theft.

Now the sexual harassment, and in one case rape, of dozens of women has shocked Germany.

What is particularly disturbing is that the attacks appear to have been organised. Around 1,000 young men arrived in large groups, seemingly with the specific intention of carrying out attacks on women.

Police in Hamburg are now reporting similar incidents on New Year's Eve in the party area of St Pauli. One politician says this is just the tip of the iceberg.

And there are real concerns about what will happen in February when the drunken street-parties of carnival season kick off.

Cologne will stage carnival events on 4-10 February, with hundreds of thousands of revellers expected in the streets, as on New Year's Eve.

The city police chief said "the assailants' behaviour is a real concern for me, also because of the carnival".

Police were deployed outside the central station because of the crowds on New Year's Eve, but failed to spot the many attacks on women, according to reports. There are also fears that a number of women did not report assaults.
'Monstrous' assaults

Cologne Mayor Henriette Reker said the attacks were "monstrous". "We cannot allow this to become a lawless area," she said, insisting that visitors could not come to the city fearing attack.

And German Justice Minister Heiko Maas tweeted that "we won't tolerate these abhorrent assaults on women - all those responsible must be brought to justice".

But he also warned against simply linking the crimes to the issue of migrants and refugees.
Image copyright Reuters
Image caption A sign outside Cologne's central station warns about pickpockets

Germany saw a record influx of migrants in 2015, which provoked an intense debate on immigration and marches by the anti-Islam Pegida movement.

Mr Maas said "the law does not discriminate regarding a person's origin or passport... all are equal before the law".

Cologne news website Koelner Stadt-Anzeiger says the suspects were already known to police because of frequent pickpocketing in and around Cologne central station.

Police are trying to find out whether the men who targeted women on Thursday night, surrounding, molesting and robbing them, organised their assaults through social media.

They are also studying mobile phone and CCTV surveillance videos.
Wider problem

In Hamburg several women told police that gangs of men had molested and robbed them on New Year's Eve on the Reeperbahn - a street known for its boisterous night life.

Some similar attacks were reported in Stuttgart.

A policeman who was outside Cologne station during the New Year's Eve trouble told the city's Express news website that he had detained eight suspects. "They were all asylum seekers, carrying copies of their residence certificates," he said.

However, there was no official confirmation that asylum seekers had been involved in the violence. Commentators in Germany were quick to urge people not to jump to conclusions.

German n-tv news says Cologne police are considering calling in reinforcements from other parts of Germany and installing extra surveillance cameras, with telescopic lenses.

Cologne's mayor, Henriette Reker, was stabbed in the neck in October, while campaigning a day before the mayoral elections. The suspected attacker, a German national, was angry about Germany's immigration policy, officials said.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35231046

[BabelHuber]

B) From the 1000 peacefully celebrating people apparently 40 or 50 were inebriated and started harassing people. So it was not some raging mob as you are wont to describe. Total number of incidents is apparently somewhere around 90-120.

From what I have read so far, this currently is unknown:

- We don't know how many people were involved in these crimes
- We don't know how many people in the crowd didn't take part, but laughed and found this funny
- We don't know how many people in the crowd actually helped the victims

But we certainly know that the police didn't have the situation under control. Also, we know that in February there will be lots of people in the streets celebrating in Cologne because of the carnival.

I hope that the police will have the situation under control, then. But I wouldn't bet money on this, I actually live in Cologne and I don't think that the police is very competent here. But I also hope that this incident is a wakeup-call and that things get better.

[Broomstick]

The BBC have some more details, I know Germany has had frequent riots around new years eve but mass rape & groping like this is new, as they make very clear from German police in the first posts.

Speaking as someone who has been a woman in western society for a half century, "mass groping" in crowds IS NOTHING NEW.

Women get groped ALL THE GODDAMNED TIME. In crowds. On public streets. On buses. On trains. In elevators. In a line. In bars. In stores. At work. If you are a woman who goes out in public you WILL be groped at some point, no maybe about it.

The only reason you're getting your panties in a twist now is because it's some damn dirty foreigners groping "your" women instead of folks that look and sound like you do.

Until you start bitching about white men and Christian men doing the exact same goddamned thing you're full of shit.

[BabelHuber]

Speaking as someone who has been a woman in western society for a half century, "mass groping" in crowds IS NOTHING NEW

From what I have read, a female victim stated that she was sorrunded by some young men who touched her at her brests and even stuck their fingers into her vagina and into her ass.

Her clothes were damaged and her money and her phone was stolen. Another woman stated she was raped in public.

I don't know where you are living, but I have never ever seen this happening, not even in the most crowded places.

I am no racist and I don't claim that all or most immigrants behave this way, but it is a fact that some did. And I do not think that this occurs regularily here, this is an escalation which cannot be tolerated.

[Broomstick]

Speaking as someone who has been a woman in western society for a half century, "mass groping" in crowds IS NOTHING NEW

From what I have read, a female victim stated that she was sorrunded by some young men who touched her at her brests and even stuck their fingers into her vagina and into her ass.

Riding on the El in Chicago, which I did for the better part of 25 years on a near-daily basis, I've had men - of any skin tone, religion, or anything else you care to name - grab my breast and ass, and attempt to get their hands in my clothes. Ditto for the bus lines. The only reason this didn't happen to me on the Paris Metro was because in Paris I was always traveling in a group - other members of the tour group I was did have that problem when they attempted to travel along (and when they complained the answer was "what did you expect, a young woman traveling alone in a foreign country?" Granted, that was about 35 years ago, I HOPE things have changed though I doubt it).

Her clothes were damaged and her money and her phone was stolen. Another woman stated she was raped in public.

In the mid-1980's there was a serial rapist in Chicago who was raping women on the train platforms in the Loop, which is pretty damn public. They finally caught him, but an amazing number of people walked by and claimed they saw and heard nothing, or just assumed it was two people making out in public.

I don't know where you are living, but I have never ever seen this happening, not even in the most crowded places.

Are you a man? Then you're not qualified to speak on the topic.

I have not only SEEN but EXPERIENCED being groped in public. The people doing it are NOT typically doing it in a flashy manner and if the victim calls them on it they loudly deny any such thing and claim she's "hysterical" or "over-sensitive".

Really, a man saying this doesn't happen is rather like a white person claiming that because THEY have never seen racial discrimination it doesn't exist.

Do you deny pick-pockets exist? If not, why do you think, if it's possible to filch possessions out of pockets and purses it's somehow impossible to snatch a grope in a similar manner?

I am no racist and I don't claim that all or most immigrants behave this way, but it is a fact that some did. And I do not think that this occurs regularily here, this is an escalation which cannot be tolerated.

When you start prosecuting your own who do this then I'll believe you're serious about the issue.

For the record, I have lived in Missouri, West Virgina, Michigan, Illinois, and Indiana. Groping occurred in all locations. In one of my early posts here (and the first one where ya'll realized I was, in fact, female) I refuted an assertion that European cities were somehow safe enough for a young woman to walk about unescorted at night - that was NOT my direct experience in Brussels, Paris, Borges, or Clermont-Ferrand.

You've got European men (and some American) hyperventilating about the "sudden" threat to womankind when a lot of them have been guilty of the exact same thing up to the present. It's hypocrisy, racism, and bullshit to the extent it's claimed one group does it and another does not. It's not even that you're ignoring it, you're completely unaware of it. And when someone with ACTUAL EXPERIENCE tells you it really does happen YOU DENY IT EXISTS.

Yes, I'm angry. What the FUCK do I have to do to convince ignorant young men that YES, THIS REALLY DOES HAPPEN TO WOMEN EVERYWHERE. Seriously, I tell you it has happened to me and you claim it didn't? Tell me, if someone tells you they've been mugged you tell them no, they're mistaken? If someone gets punched in the face do you tell them no, you weren't, something else must have happened to you?

What gives you the goddamned right to DENY REALITY?

It's like people who get hysterical about the 20% of female military members who are raped when the civilian rape rate is even higher! It's not a "military" problem, it's not a "foreigner" problem, it's a problem endemic to all society. Don't just get upset at one category of sexual abuse and ignore the rest.

[General Zod]

I see women being harassed all the time in public. I might not see the gropings happen but most of my women friends complain about it and I don't have any reason to doubt their word. If you're not seeing it happen then chances are you're part of the problem because you probably don't consider it harassment.

[LaCroix]

As I said - groping will happen all the time, especially when lot's of drunk men are present - I am pretty sure that you would have the same amounts of charges pressed at every disco each weekend if the women would bother to report all of them.

[BabelHuber]

I fucked up, explanation below. ~Thanas

[Thanas]

The police have come out and said that it seems that the vast majority of cases were actually a variant of a well known tactic -you grope a women, women gets outraged and focuses on you, then an accomplice steals her wallet without you noticing.

That being said, trying to turn this into a mass rape event as in Tahir square is pretty telling in itself.

And to top it off, obviously I hope the people get caught and deported.

[ArmorPierce]

You must not get out much if you think that women don't get groped significantly in western countries at any party or celebratory event involving alcohol. I actually don't know any woman who isn't regularly groped or have a guy grind on them at a party or party type event.

[Thanas]

So I accidentally hit edit instead of quote on BabelHuber's text. My apologies.

Here is what I wrote:

Yes, I am a man. But I've never met any woman who complained about such things happening here, in Cologne And I have also never seen this happening anywhere I went.

Several of my female friends are from cologne. Trust me, groping happens there. Just go into any club where alcohol is involved.

[Ralin]

You're a dishonest little shit in severe need of bannination from this board.

Seriously. He has a very well established track record on this. Plenty of people have been banned for racism well short of saying that several hundred Afro-Arab Muslim foreigners had just performed a public rape orgy in the middle of major city.

[BabelHuber]

So I accidentally hit edit instead of quote on BabelHuber's text. My apologies.

Shit happens - and also admin rights can be a curse

Several of my female friends are from cologne. Trust me, groping happens there. Just go into any club where alcohol is involved.

Yes, "groping" in the sense that some drunken idiot touched the ass or brests of a woman I have seen here, too. But I never ever have seen a woman being finger-penetrated by a crowd, with clothes broken and money and phone stolen.

I think this is quite some difference.

Double post deleted - SCRawl

[General Zod]

So I accidentally hit edit instead of quote on BabelHuber's text. My apologies.

Shit happens - and also admin rights can be a curse

Several of my female friends are from cologne. Trust me, groping happens there. Just go into any club where alcohol is involved.

Yes, "groping" in the sense that some drunken idiot touched the ass or brests of a woman I have seen here, too. But I never ever have seen a woman being finger-penetrated by a crowd, with clothes broken and money and phone stolen.

I think this is quite some difference.

So . . . what you're saying is you don't see it so it doesn't happen?

[Purple]

Several of my female friends are from cologne. Trust me, groping happens there. Just go into any club where alcohol is involved.

That's the thing though. I do not think anyone can seriously contest the notion that it can happen in a crowded place full of drunk people. You can't after all expect drunk people to be civilized.But Broom basically said that it happens everywhere at all times even in complete public and with no alcohol involved. And that is a notion very alien to a lot of us. I my self also do not know a single female who complained of something like this happening to her outside of a drunken party context.

[BabelHuber]

So . . . what you're saying is you don't see it so it doesn't happen?

Of course not. But I'd be shocked if this wouldn't be something unusual.

[Elheru Aran]

Several of my female friends are from cologne. Trust me, groping happens there. Just go into any club where alcohol is involved.

That's the thing though. I do not think anyone can seriously contest the notion that it can happen in a crowded place full of drunk people. You can't after all expect drunk people to be civilized.But Broom basically said that it happens everywhere at all times even in complete public and with no alcohol involved. And that is a notion very alien to a lot of us. I my self also do not know a single female who complained of something like this happening to her outside of a drunken party context.

What's your point? "If they didn't want it to happen to them they shouldn't go there"? Yeah... no. It shouldn't happen, period, drunk or no.

[amigocabal]

Several of my female friends are from cologne. Trust me, groping happens there. Just go into any club where alcohol is involved.

That's the thing though. I do not think anyone can seriously contest the notion that it can happen in a crowded place full of drunk people. You can't after all expect drunk people to be civilized.But Broom basically said that it happens everywhere at all times even in complete public and with no alcohol involved. And that is a notion very alien to a lot of us. I my self also do not know a single female who complained of something like this happening to her outside of a drunken party context.

What's your point? "If they didn't want it to happen to them they shouldn't go there"? Yeah... no. It shouldn't happen, period, drunk or no.

One of the reasons it is prevalent is that it is easy to get away with,. especially with large, dense crowds such as those in New Years' Eve.

[Simon_Jester]

Several of my female friends are from cologne. Trust me, groping happens there. Just go into any club where alcohol is involved.

That's the thing though. I do not think anyone can seriously contest the notion that it can happen in a crowded place full of drunk people. You can't after all expect drunk people to be civilized.But Broom basically said that it happens everywhere at all times even in complete public and with no alcohol involved. And that is a notion very alien to a lot of us.

And yet, this is an objective reality that has happened not only to her, but to massive numbers of other women, repeatedly, in many different cities, spread throughout the developed world.

This is not Broomstick claiming that flying saucers are real or something. This is Broomstick specifically telling you about a thing which has already happened.

By ignoring it, you're not somehow being logical, you're being arrogant and dimwitted. So arrogant that you are literally replying to "this thing happened many times in many places over a period of decades" with "that's impossible, that would never happen!"

I my self also do not know a single female who complained of something like this happening to her outside of a drunken party context.

How many female friends do you actually have, and how likely are they to complain to you if they are assaulted in this way?

If you behave in real life the same way you and several other males are behaving in this thread, no woman in their right mind would even bother telling you about something like this. Because there's a good chance you'd start looking for rationalizations or explanations like "oh, he was probably drunk" or "why were you alone?" or "it must have been an accident, nobody actually does things like that."

What woman would want to seek out an argument like that? Whatever shred of good regard they have for you would be destroyed. They would have to have an argument that would be at best annoying and at worst traumatic for them. It would be a waste of their time in every way to even mention to you that they'd had an experience like this. Especially if you are so sexist that you will literally ignore and contradict a woman who is right there telling you that this happens, despite having no way of knowing for yourself.

Women, like men, tend to talk about their bad experiences with people they trust. Not with strangers or untrustworthy people. And you can't trust someone who will explicitly deny the basic reality of what happened to you.

So basically, yeah. Women don't give accurate reports on the amount of sexual harassment they face in day-to-day life to a condescending sexist loony with a poor understanding of human nature. News at eleven.

One of the reasons it is prevalent is that it is easy to get away with,. especially with large, dense crowds such as those in New Years' Eve.

And one of the reasons there are large dense crowds there in the first place is because many people want to be there. It is an unreasonable burden to expect half the population to stay home precisely because it's a place so many people want to go.

As it is, most women know perfectly well that they risk being assaulted by going out in public. That doesn't mean they approve of it, or somehow lose the right to be upset if it happens, or that we as a society shouldn't pay attention to the fact that it happens.

[Purple]

What's your point? "If they didn't want it to happen to them they shouldn't go there"? Yeah... no. It shouldn't happen, period, drunk or no.

My point is that it is a reasonable thing to have one set of expectations from situations that involve alcohol, drugs or anything else that in excessive quantities of turn human beings into animals being consumed in excessive quantities and those that don't. So whilst a thing might be objectively bad in both situations it is only surprising and shocking in one. One car crash is equally regrettable as another. But you will be far less surprised by the one where the driver at the wheel is drunk.

And yet, this is an objective reality that has happened not only to her, but to massive numbers of other women, repeatedly, in many different cities, spread throughout the developed world.

And I am not saying it didn't. What I am saying is that we need to approach this conversation with logic and sanity. It is perfectly reasonable to assume that different cities will in different points in time have different rates of anything. So whilst it is stupid to dismiss what Broom spoke from her experience it is equally stupid to dismiss my self or BabelHuber or anyone else when we say that from our experiences in conversations with women they genuinely do not mention this as being a problem that exists. The world is in fact big. And given that we live in different places and meet different people our experiences can in fact both be correct without contradicting each other. So it is supremely stupid to sit here shouting at each other whose experiences are right or wrong.

If you really want this conversation to go anywhere get out the statistics and facts instead.