Up until now, in Germany....you could get all hyped-up and burn a national flag, and not get into trouble.
Well....things are about to change. This got brought up this morning via N-TV news (commercial German news).
There's been fits of anger over Turkey, the Kurds, and Israel in the past couple of years, with protests going on, and flags being burned. Basically, it's inciting a bunch of folks, and the Germans want the flag burning stopped.
So this law is being drafted up. The Federal Minister of Justice Christine Lambrecht made a statement over the draft. She says the bill will come up to the Bundestag before 1 January 2020.
It'll basically say that the burning of any 'state emblem' will be a criminal act. The prison time being discussed? Up to two years, with some type of fine (unknown on amount).
Likely to be challenged in court? Absolutely.
The cops? I'm guessing they are shaking their heads because it'll just mean a tough situation where they view a flag being burned....stage an arrest....then face off a thousand angry protest folks in attempting to grab one single Kurd, Turk, or German out for a jail episode.
Typically, up until the last decade....the only flags that ever got burned on German streets were American flags. Oddly, they did nothing in that period. So now? This whole Turk and anti-Turk business has churned up public reaction in Germany. So the law will cover all flags in this situation.
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