It seems police in Cologne, Germany, are embroiled in controversy over their use of a new acronym to describe unruly 'refugees' during that city's New Year celebrations.
Police in Cologne have had to defend themselves against stinging criticism for the second New Year in a row. This time for being too racially insensitive.
. . .
Particularly, a police tweet sent at 11.08pm noting that hundreds of "Nafris" - an abbreviation for North Africans - had been checked by officers, has caused consternation.
In total police handed out over 900 orders to young men, mainly North Africans, prohibiting them from entering the area around the cathedral.
Police say that many of the men were suspects in crimes committed last year and that telephone intercepts led them to believe they again had plans to commit crimes in the area.
But criticism of the term Nafri has been furious.
. . .
On Monday Cologne’s police chief admitted that his force should have never tweeted the term.
“I find it very unfortunate that the term was used in this situation,” Jürgen Mathies told broadcaster WDR. “I regret it immensely.”
But he went on to say that a form of profiling was necessary based on their experience the previous year.
“We had a clear idea of who we should be checking. It wasn’t gray-haired old men or blond young women.”
There's more at the link.
The problem is, the police use of the term 'Nafri' is probably mild compared to some of the epithets hurled at unwanted 'refugees' by ordinary Germans. The 'refugees' have indulged in criminal and unacceptable conduct in huge numbers, in many cities and towns across the nation. Ordinary Germans are fed up with it, and want something done about it. Many are taking matters into their own hands, leading to growing anti-'refugee' violence.
The use of labels such as 'Nafri' is nothing more or less than an expression of the "us-versus-them" attitude that's now prevalent in Germany. Its citizens are "us"; the so-called 'refugees' (in reality, most of them are economic migrants fraudulently claiming refugee status) are "them".
I think Tamara had it right when she pointed out, some years ago:
The EUtopians may seem all soft, docile, and toothless right now, but the recent immigrant welfare sponge class is playing with fire here. Euros have a proven zero-to-jackboots time lower than just about anybody on the planet. Get Gunter or Pierre all backed into a corner and feeling existentially threatened and you'll be wishing you hadn't, faster than you can say "Arbeit Macht Frei".
Word.
Peter
8 comments:
If they're so freaked about "nafri", I wonder how they'd react to something like Dennis Leary's sensitivity training video.
Perhaps they'd prefer "nigger."
Between the USCG and the USN, as well as working as an EMT and later as a nurse, I've learned that people who deal with other people as part of high risk and high stress occupations tend to have, uh, "creative" terms for any groups with whom they either deal a lot, those who vary from some statistical norm or who exhibit relatively unique identifying characteristics. Sometimes, those terms are creative, sometimes humorous and almost always relatively "earthy." Depending on circumstances, leadership might (or might not) actively encourage the use or non-use of the term. The problem with the terms, of course, is when they are used in a way that dehumanizes those to whom it is applied. So, it can be a real problem. It is a problem that I simply don't see going away. Dehumanizing people exposes them to an absolutely unacceptable risk of abuse or neglect from those who wield some degree of authority. A rigidly enforced blanket prohibition on such "profiling" exposes the various state actors (medical/legal/military) to an equally unacceptable risk. There are times it is absolutely essential to know those with whom you are dealing. Pretending otherwise will get people killed
It's always handy to have a quick and easy term for something you have to deal with a lot, and probably doubly so in a descriptive language like German where a linguistically correct term might run to 20-30 letters. Banning convenient truncations like Nafri for Nordafrikanisher has as it's next logical step, the banning of Germany's most famous truncation, Nazi to substitute for National Socialist German Workers Party.
Of course this might have the unintended benefit of putting to rest the notion that the Nazi's were some kind of right wing organization.
Sounds like "Retired Mustang" got a 100% on his diversity exam.
Steve
"“I find it very unfortunate that the term was used in this situation,” Jürgen Mathies told broadcaster WDR. “I regret it immensely.”"
"We should refer to them by the proper term; Sand lice"
"Oh, You don't like that? How about Camel abusers?"
The clueless leftists, always way more revved up about what something is called than what it actually is................
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