Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Sticker shock: right-wing stickers in riot police bus, left-wing adhesive in police sedan

German magazine website Spiegel online reports neonazi stickers were found in a bus of the Bavarian riot police.

No journalist would write about a bunch of confiscated stickers sitting in a police vehicle, so what are we looking at?

The stickers were affixed to a box of equipment. They are available on a known right-wing website, and it seems none were illegal. The authorities have started an internal investigation, and there may be a reprimand or two, as in the case of a left-wing sticker in a police sedan last year.

In 2013, a left-wing sticker was found on the dash of a police car in northern Germany.

The last big survey looking into extremism in German police forces dates back two decades to 1996, and according to this article in German weekly Die Zeit the authorities are not interested in a new one.

The same article says that a 2003 study of police union members found some 19% hold right-wing beliefs.

Since nobody really knows, the image of one sedan next to one bus might actually be a fairly accurate illustration of the numerical relation of left-leaning versus right-leaning officers in Germany.

No comments:

Post a Comment