A Little Short Story

Last week, over in Göttingen (Lower Saxony).....the cops got a call.

'Johan' spoke to the cops and noted he was the manager of an asylum center in the local town.  'Johan' had this Liberian guy....20 years old....who had apparently threatened suicide. 

Now, we don't know if the Liberian was serious, or just making a frustration type statement.  We don't know if he mentally ill, or just plain old-fashioned home-sick.  These are facts left out of the story.

Cops have a set pattern or reaction.  It's in a checklist. Basically, it says that you will react to each threat of suicide.  They will call an ambulance, and then the cops show up to ensure the person is 'retrieved'.  But because this is a asylum center, there's an extra feature to this situation....you need to come in force....meaning more than one police car (two cops).

So you can imagine what occurs here.

The cops show up....with the ambulance, and  a fair number of additional cops to retrieve this Liberian.  The locals at the asylum center?  They go nuts, and launch into an attack on the cops....to prevent the suicidal guy from being taken.  The suicidal guy?  Well....he was refusing to cooperate and go.  Maybe he was fearful that they'd just return him to Liberia or they'd cancel the visa application.

In the end, the guy was taken to a local mental facility for evaluation.  Cops are investigating the attack but I doubt if anyone gets arrested.

All this does....is trigger locals to evaluate migration in a different way, and assume that things are not fine.  Well....the other thing that it might accomplish is that when you are seeking asylum and standing in a center in a depressed mode.....you won't dare suggest that you are suicidal (even if you are suicidal).