I sat last night and watched an episode of MEX on the regional state-run network of HR (our Hessen network). MEX is a show that picks up economic and business related stories. One of the short three-minute pieces from last night was over illegal bar-b-q efforts at Hessen city parks.
For those who haven't been around Hessen.....we have a lot of city parks.
We also have a pretty hardcore rule about NO bar-b-q's unless it's in a designated area. So, it's safe to say.....there just aren't many people out bar-b-q'ing.....unless they are doing it in an illegal fashion.
So, the cops got called out.....several families of an immigrant type in a city park. Two cops show up at first and tell the dozen-odd folks to put out the fires. No response....defensive in nature.
Those two cops then have to call two back-up units....so there's now six cops in this park (one is a supervisor) and there's some names taken down and forceful language about putting the fires out.
Most Germans don't want any confrontations with cops.....you pick this up after a while. The less you have to deal with the cops....the better off you are. It's a logical thing.
In this case, this crowd simply weren't going to listen to the cops and just pretend that they weren't ordered to cease the bar-b-q. Signs up? Oh yeah. There's never a lack of these signs to let people know about this.
This is one of the odd differences between the Germans and their new "guests".....in the old homeland....cops were regarded as losers. Here, it's a matter of law and respect. If the Germans made up a law.....99.99-percent of all Germans obey that law, no matter how stupid it is.
The episode demonstrated the reasoning behind adding more cops because you have to show up in force to make people take notice and obey the law.....something that wasn't required twenty years ago.
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