No-Go Discussion

The topic of No-Go areas came up today with my German wife.  An observation was made that before the 1990s....there simply wasn't a No-Go area in West Germany.  To this, I agree with.  I can remember walking through the heart of Frankfurt in 1978 at 10 PM, and not really fearing much of anything.  I felt that way in Munich and Hamburg in 1984, and forty-odd significant German cities that I visited in that period. 

After 1990, I recall going into Frankfurt on a weekend and being confront by various drug sales folks in front of the Bahnhof, and seeing a couple of heroin-enthusiasts laying there on the street.  In my mind, it was a matter of months before this area would be defined as a No-Go area.  Today?  I'd strongly mark on the map.....a kilometer by a kilometer area near the train station....that you'd best avoid at night. 

Across Europe?  I would take a guess that more than hundred areas easily exist, and it might be closer to 300 areas.

What makes a No-Go area?  It goes to three central features:

1.  A nature by the occupants of a neighborhood to disregard German law.  If the cops are called and try to establish authority....this group (typically always non-Germans), will try to use fear and intimidation to counter the authority.  The cop's reaction?  They call for back-up, and suddenly instead of two cops....you've got got ten to twenty cops. 

This instills frustration with the police....they can't do their job without massive effort, and there's the chance that a gun will be drawn, and someone might be dead. 

2.  Drug-theme.  Most all of the major cities in Germany have a drug sales zone, and the cops have very little that can be achieved.  You can put the blame on the prosecution folks and the judges....they aren't willing to really establish a line of obedience with the law. 

3.  Far-left or far-right political agendas.  There are various areas of Hamburg and Berlin, where the leftists act in some parallel society....at least within their neighborhood. 

Do politicians talk about this situation?  No. It's mostly discussed by the police and their union representatives.  Repairing this problem?  You'd have to start with the judges, and just lay down some Bundestag laws that they can't avoid putting people into jails for extended periods....to make an impression on folk.  But I don't see anything happening over the next decade....it'll just continue to grow.