The Cuff Story

This new public discussion over the agreed plan of the CDU/SPD for the electronic ankle-cuffs?  Well, it's a hot topic and folks are asking questions.....mostly because they've never seen it's use much.

I noted in this morning's German news....from ARD....that the German government currently admits that across the entire nation (82-million)....there are only 88 people wearing the court-mandated GPS-cuffs.

Yeah....just 88.

In fact, there's only one single monitoring post in all of Germany....oddly in Bad Vilbel....a town just north of Frankfurt, mostly noted for having a decent Christmas market and having been a wellness location in the 1800s.

The history of German usage?  This started in 2011 with a change in the criminal code (§ 68b para. 1 p. 1 no. 12).

Only courts can order the procedure.  The court can establish two methods.  It can list out the number of places you CAN visit, or the number of places where you CANNOT visit.  You could release a guy from prison early, but then mandate that he can't visit bars, pubs, etc.  You could release a guy from some mental hospital, but then establish he can only travel around in his village.

All of this puts the heavy weight upon the guy to cooperate, or you go back to jail or the mental hospital that you left.  If you fail to comprehend the deal....it's a pretty simple form to fill out and the court sends you back.

Previously, the usages came under the crimes of violence or sexual assault.....so this does open up a new window if it goes to radical guys.

The majority of the 88 being exercised right now?  Well....for sexual assaults.  And the majority of 88 do come from Bavaria (31 of 88), the rest spread around the remaining 15 states.

The two new crime areas to be added to the code?  State-threatening violence and terror financing.  My guess is that if you hinted in any sort of way a threat or possible threat....they'd bring you down to the court....read the order, and cuff you . If you showed any behavior toward the cash side of the terror business....same deal.

What will happen?  My guess is that within sixty days....at least twenty individuals will be brought in as 'test-cases'.  These individuals will attempt to use another court to block the GPS cuffs, and find that most judges aren't cooperative.  Most of the twenty will start wearing the cuffs and find the rules bothersome. Some idiot Mullah will come up to suggest it is a conspiracy against Muslims and try to provoke outrage....then discover that he's now dragged down to a court and ordered to wear a GPS cuff as well.

It's simply a guess, but by the end of 2017, I'd take a guess that 1,000 individuals will be wearing the cuffs.  Some will be cooperative.....some less so.  The people with problems will find themselves dragged into court and given jail-time to ensure their cooperation.

In the end, this is behavior modification.  Since these folks weren't willing to work on their behavior....the German government will help them.