The Federal Police Commissioner of Germany has expressed disapproval of police officers’ membership in the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
Good, rationality prevails a little at least
See, this is something that can’t happen in the USA (yet,) but is easy-peasy in the rest of the world.
Don’t give avowed authoritarians positions of power. Yes, their membership in a hate group can be used to limit their opportunities. You make a choice by joining a recognized hate group, you gotta own it.
……except in the USA, where hate groups are just fine and dandy for governmental spots. (Perhaps encouraged in some cases.)
Yet another thing the rest of the world gets right that we’re sorely behind on.
Honestly, it’s not as rosy as this makes it out to be. Germany and the rest of Europe have their own surge of right wing extremism to contend with. Some of it can be traced back to Russian and Chinese influence. But they wouldn’t have it so easy if there weren’t enough seeds already.
Police groups that have chats where they share their racist views. Clubs fighting to keep their sexist and racist “traditions” alive that are about a hundred years old. Our current government is conducting illegal border controls despite rulings deeming them illegal and ordering a stop.
A quarter of last election’s votes went to the extremists. Another quarter but slightly more to the not so extreme racists who now form the government together with a so called left wing party that failed biology when backbones were discussed.
Our media just ignores it all or amplifies everything the extremists are saying in an attempt to “show all sides”.
By now we have an official document by our constitution defence spelling out without a doubt that the extremists are not a democratic party but want to dismantle democracy. And our government refuses to open up the lawsuit to ban them because “we have to defeat them politically” when that has failed spectacularly over the last decade because bit by bit they copy their talking points.
This mechanism to ban extremists in Germany was explicitly implemented to fend of exactly what is happening right now. Because we know from our history that anti democratic parties can rise to power through democratic means. And we have to fight that every way we can before it is again too late.
Obviously nothing is perfect. But there are levels of not perfect.
Yeah, I just fear that our differences are not in levels but in time.
The US government is a hate group.
America largely believes the right to free expression and speech outweighs the risks brought on by those rights.
The problem is now we have a lot of fascists and we are going to lose those rights
Some of those that work forces
are…
… not the same that burn crosses this time!!!
Although this leaves ones that approve from a distance, potentially. That’s fine, secret ballots are important and the culture in the forces will be anti-AfD now.
Really, they need to ban AfD from competing. Does anybody have updates on the effort, now that it’s been prescribed an extremist organisation?
So what do they do with all the AFD sympathizers in the police?
I don’t have any experience with police in Europe but in North America you would give them a paid vacation till things blow over and perhaps shuffle them around to another dept and let them spoil another bunch.
The old Catholic Church play
Except in this case you probably wouldn’t even need to, because right wing views are somewhat of a prerequisite of the job.
Police in Europe are less fucked up than in the US but generally still suffer from all the same sorts of problems, they’re still pigs
deleted by creator
Is AfD banned yet?
The intelligent thing to do is to commission studies and reach out programs to understand WHY far right parties like AfD are surging in the polls. That way you can actually understand the concerns of the people who choose to support these parties, the reasons why they’re supporting far right parties over less extreme alternatives, and what deradicalization methods are actually effective.
The dumb thing to do is to make assumptions as to why these parties are growing in popularity, and double down on them eternally regardless of how invalid or wrong those assumptions are. It’s equally as stupid to try to use force and censorship to exclude these people from public life instead of addressing the underlying issues that led to this situation in the first place. It’s like the establishment is trying to give these movements validation, martyrs, and reasons to radicalize further.
deleted by creator
Alice Weidel is a citizen of switzerland, so not even from the EU.
A non-German becoming leader of Germany
Wait, I’ve seen this…
Watch their bank accounts very closely, Russian money is sure to pop up
AfD already has a track record of russian support/money and chinese spies.
If only that mattered.
It absolutely isn’t, but it’s good that he’s saying so anyway.
That’s a really good photo for the article
Of course, afd is probably way too moderate for large parts of the German police
Removed by mod
Tell me you don’t know shit about german police without telling me you don’t know shit about german police
I agree with the sentiment but can’t help myself imagining that the AFD now has proof that " The German deep state is against them" and other " democracy is not there anymore". I’m afraid these actions just gives them fuel and countries should resolve what causes those parties to gain momentum in the first place: fight against corporate criminal attitude, fight against smaller everyday offenses and promote how law abiding foreigners are the big majority and maybe go lighter on the publicity of other affirmative actions, but still do them of course.
Fascists don’t respect democracy or even other people’s rights, so it’s logical that democracies should not trust them in positions of power. It’s basically the paradox of tolerance: “if a society extends tolerance to those who are intolerant, it risks enabling the eventual dominance of intolerance; thereby undermining the very principle of tolerance.”
And if you want to see what happens when these kinda of people are left unchecked in the cause of retaining the “moral high ground”, just look at the USA. The USA democrats have been giving in for 40 years against increasingly perverse transgressions by republican actors, and now it’s a dumpster fire on the cusp of becoming a full blown dictatorship.
You can’t reason with fascists. The only thing they understand is violence. They don’t give a shit about facts, only about power, which they gain through violence.
Must be opposite day in Germany.
