So the authorities in Germany have moved to the next curious episode over the Chemnitz murder. Yesterday, the arrest warrant information (the actual copy) came out, and the authorities went 'nuts' because this is private and the public can't see or know of the info on the arrest warrant (German law forbids it).
What ARD (public German TV, Channel One) says today is that the authorities have now gone back to Bremen (opposite end of German, and away from Chemnitz).
The target of this arrest warrant investigation? Well.....a Bremen politician (described as a 'right-wing populist').
Local prosecutor in Bremen have authorized a search warrant and they checked out the guy's house.
This guy.....Jan Timke....is now suspected as the one who put the arrest warrant on Facebook.
Cops took his cell phone, a tablet and computer. Then they went to Facebook and had them yank the copy of the arrest warrant.
Who is Timke? All that they can say is that he's a German federal cop and a member of some right-wing association called "Citizens in anger".
What kind of trouble is this guy in? Well....the law says he could get one-year in prison for divulging the arrest warrant. It'll be at least three months before this case comes up in court and one can only speculate that the judge is going to be fairly tough about this....maybe the guy gets the full-year in jail.
Are arrest warrants generally (in the US for example) public information? Generally....no. If you ask the cops if there is an arrest warrant out for such-and-such.....they can answer yes or no. But letting you gaze at the document itself? No....it doesn't usually happen.
Here's the problem I see coming out of this. There's a heck of a lot of people in Germany, in various positions....who are frustrated and going to non-standard political parties. And you have to continually think about consequences, and how things will work in the future.....as more people just suggest the system is 'broke' and you opt for illegal or immoral solutions to remedy what you perceive is broke.
This is likely not the last arrest warrant that will go public, and public sentiment (for this Timke guy for example) might go and support the guy.
Did the public need the copy of the arrest warrant? No. The cops would have had to go and admit they arrested the two guys accused of the death of this German guy, and it would be a public statement (not a document).
All this does is dig a deeper hole for public sentiment to be anti-government or be critical of leadership.
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