The Koln Attack

What can basically be said of what happened in Koln on the evening of the 31st of December is that roughly a thousand gentlemen had arrived and congregated around the main train station of the city.  For a couple of hours, they sexually assaulted, groped, and it's been spoken on regional news sources that at least one rape allegation is on the books. The thousand men?  Apparently mostly all foreigners.....or identified so far as that. The thousand include both African men and Middle-Eastern men (so blaming Muslims is not a logical stance).

It's been five days and there's crisis management teams meeting within the city council and the police department.  What the cops will say publicly.....is that they've never seen anything like this.

Public-run network news?  They noted the behavior in a very limited fashion, barely mentioning that they were foreigners (I eventually figured this out from BBC reporting.....not from German state-run news).  The hint though from ARD/ZDF was that one should not jump to conclusions.

The bigger issue?  There's been at least two news sources reporting this as "planned".  The cops have done some analysis and looked at social media.....coming to the conclusion that it was not a spur-of-the-moment thing and comments were going back and forth.

This worries the cops and the city because it's only a matter of weeks before carnival season arrives.....with hundreds of thousand of local folks transiting the train station and in the public forum.....and if this were repeated....it'd mean a drastic change to public safety in Koln.

The BBC reports that the local cops are now surveying the idea of calling in for reinforcements from other regions of Germany during this build-up period to Fasching season.  The other suggestion is high-end cameras to be put into place for video-capture (to help in court episodes later).

If you were looking for a stupid trigger for Pegida recruiting (the right-wing anti-foreigner group of Germany).....this event probably will be a prime reason for further build-up.

The factor in this is that most of these individual who were picked up.....had immigration papers, and this behavior demonstrated will end up being noted and the guy probably will be denied further status, and probably will be sent back to their home country.  If your intention was to get yourself into a better situation....a safe place.....a better life....your behavior there in the train station just dissolved all your hopes and beliefs.

For the journalists who've bulked up on anti-foreigner groups and said they were illogical and wrong....well, they've probably built themselves a personalized point of denial.  They can't talk about Koln without saying the word foreigner.

Bottom line?  Fasching in Koln would normally be a fun period and without any harmful chaos.  I'd say that changed on the evening of the 31st.