After thousands of women were attacked last year by Muslim colonists, the Cologne police decided to take some elementary precautions. And came under fire for it.
In a bid to prevent a repeat of last year's sex attacks, state police focused on men of North African descent on New Year's Eve. Police Chief Jürgen Mathies has faced criticism for praising the success of the practice.
Police in the German city of Cologne defended the use of racial profiling during New Year's Eve celebrations on Sunday. Speaking to the press, Police Chief Jürgen Mathies admitted that yes, officers had specifically targeted men who appeared to be of North African extraction to undergo police checks, but said that "for the vast majority, there was a clear threat of criminal activity present."
Standing by the practice of blatant racial profiling, Mathies said "we had groups of people who were comparably aggressive," to the men who had carried out the attacks last year. According to the police chief, after checking the identification of 650 people, 190 were ordered to leave the area, 92 were taken into custody and 27 were placed under arrest.
Christopher Lauer, a former politician with the protest Pirate party and the Social Democrats (SPD), seemed to sum up much of the social media reaction to the police's actions and the use of the term "Nafri." Speaking to German news agency DPA, he called the move "sweeping prejudice against an entire group of people based on their appearance."
And what would one call the Muslim colonist attacks on women except an example of "sweeping prejudice against an entire group of people based on their appearance?"
That profiling? It's just fighting against prejudice.