The 745 Story

This came up via a German small newspaper group this week.....the Neue Ruhr Zeitung....over a information request by the FDP political party to the national government.  The request centered on Islamic extremists identified in Germany as a 'potential threat'. 

Right now, the German government says there are around 745 folks who fit into this profile.  From all of 2017.....ten of them were deported.  That's it.

There are several problems to this story.  If the extremist has no other citizenship....then he or she cannot be forced to leave.  If they do have a second citizenship.....then the issue of the original country comes up, and whether they will take the 'problem' back. No one says the number out of the 745 folks, but I would take a guess that more than half have no other citizenship to fall back upon.

As for the watch-status?  Well....the cops will simply say that the individual is monitored in some form, but rarely go beyond that description. 

To be honest, this is not something that Germans would put as a problem in their top one-hundred list of issues to worry about.  I know.....that sounds a bit crazy.  But we are talking about 745 folks.  If you went and asked the authorities just about nutcases who pose a threat in Germany.....you'd probably find them suggesting well over 3,000 Germans who ought to be locked up in an institution. So with priority tasking.....these 745 simply go onto a list and if they cross some imaginary line....then they get arrested, or detained.

But there is other part to the story if you think about this.  For the 745 folks of an extremist potential.....you generally have to be hyped up and charged-up for this type of behavior.  For the guys in the background.....trying to keep the 745 folks focused and hyped up to be thug-like in behavior....well, it's hard to maintain that degree of obsession. 

Day in and day out.....you'd have to go around and preach to these guys....hyping the agenda.  Maybe for a year, you might be able to keep folks in line and charged-up.  But as time goes by.....this type of behavior is not that easily maintained.  I have my doubts that the pro-thug behavior can be maintained long-term by this crowd.  Either they get convinced to cross the line, or they relax after a while.