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Angry and embarrassed… those are the words in the German press
about the riots and the “orgy of violence” that befell the streets of Hamburg
during the meeting of the G20.
The Daily Mail reports from Germany:
Germans
expressed anger on Sunday over violence that hit a G20 world leaders' summit in
Hamburg, raising awkward questions for Chancellor Angela Merkel less than three
months before an election.
About
20,000 police struggled to contain several hundred anti-capitalist militants
who torched cars, looted shops and hurled Molotov cocktails and stones during
the July 7-8 summit. Tens of thousands more people demonstrated peacefully.
Overall,
476 officers suffered injuries ranging from cuts and firework burns to eye
damage from laser pointers. Police said on Sunday they had arrested 186 people
and took 225 into custody.
Let’s add ineptitude to the mix. If 20,000 police officers
were having trouble containing hundreds of militants… they did not exactly
cover themselves with glory.
The German press was seriously critical of the Merkel
government:
German
newspapers devoted far more space to pictures of police firing water cannon onto
hooded anarchists and other protestors than they did to Merkel's diplomatic
balancing act with fellow leaders of major world economies.
"Embarrassment
for Germany" was Tagesspiegel's description.
"The
pictures of helpless police who could not secure state order and protection of
property are a political catastrophe," columnist Gerd Nowakowski wrote in
the paper.
Top-selling
Bild am Sonntag splashed pictures of masked anarchists and politicians on its
front page with the headline "Criminals and Losers". Inside, a
political scientist described the scenes as an 'orgy of violence'.
Polls showed that the German people felt their country’s
reputation had been damaged. Merkel herself was held responsible for the
mayhem. Apparently, her effort to show off Germany’s tradition of peaceful
protest backfired:
Nevertheless,
an Emnid poll showed that a majority of Germans, 59 percent, believed the riots
damage the image of their country - even though violence has affected a number
of international meetings around the world over the years.
Merkel
was forced to defend her choice of Hamburg, saying other cities, like London,
had hosted similar meetings. Hamburg, a seaport which is Germany's second
biggest city, has a strong radical leftist tradition. It was also home to an al
Qaeda cell that carried out the 9/11 attacks on U.S. targets in 2001.
Merkel
had wanted to demonstrate to G20 partners, including Putin and Turkish
President Tayyip Erdogan, her commitment to freedom of speech and rejected the
notion that some cities were out of bounds as summit venues.
The
strategy has backfired, said some commentators.
"I
can barely breathe with anger because Chancellor Merkel and Hamburg mayor
(Olaf) Scholz trivialise the brutal riots as 'not acceptable'," wrote a
commentator in Bild am Sonntag.
The German nation has lost a measure of its prestige.
Chancellor Merkel wanted to present herself as the new leader of the Western
alliance. While she did cobble together some agreements on unimportant matters,
she was not present at the most important meetings of the summit. She is now identified mostly with rioting she could not control, not with diplomacy.
12 comments:
"[...] Chancellor Merkel and Hamburg mayor (Olaf) Scholz trivialise the brutal riots..."
As noted here yesterday, it's a pity the "activists" did not wreck, burn, and loot even more of Hamburg. Proglodyte politicians must be pushed beyond thee Tipping Point of Triviality to perceive the social wreckage left in their wake.
Bill Ayers, Buraq Obama's domestic terror confidant, famously wished he had "done more". So do I. Perhaps he would now be marinating in Federal Prison instead of teaching "Education" on the taxpayer dime.
Well, Germany has a lot of face to lose, but it wasn't "lost" so much as it was "thrown away". I suspect Ms. Merkel will be tossed out at the next election.
I am struck by how these elites trivialize the violence their citizens face. It's as though rioting is an acceptable way to vent civil frustrations. It's a natural outgrowth of the relativist therapy culture that believes there's some sentient reason for why people do what they do, and that if we just talk, talk and talk some more about our feelings that all our problems and issues will be reconciled. And that's just silly, childish thinking. How might children police other children's tantrums? Likely the way Merkel and Schulz handled the anarchists. After all, everyone is special and everyone's feelings are quality valid. We must listen and accommodate. That's what counts for solid "leadership." Meanwhile, today shopkeepers are picking up what's left of their businesses.
I'll say it again...
To quote the movie, Zulu: "Rear rank, Fire! Reload!"
"Rear Rank, Fire! Reload!" "Rear Rank, Fire! Reload!" "Rear Rank, Fire! Reload!" ...
Blahgga the Hutt
IAC: "elites trivialize the violence"
Slightly rephrasing another Prog (ie, Buraq the Lightworker), the merchants and citizens can absorb another riot.
Daily Mail: About 20,000 police struggled to contain several hundred anti-capitalist militants who torched cars, looted shops and hurled Molotov cocktails and stones during the July 7-8 summit. Tens of thousands more people demonstrated peacefully.
It does seem strange that 20,000 police can't control merely several hundred militant rioter. Are the peaceful demonstrators protecting the rioters, or are the rioters just using the thousands for cover?
If the anatchists don't like Western civilization and authority structures, wait until they get a load of the Islamist worldview! Because there is no greater example of totalitarian supremacy over everyday life than living under the Shariah. Think the anarchists will riot then?
Ignatius Acton Chesterton OCD said... If the anarchists don't like Western civilization and authority structures, wait until they get a load of the Islamist worldview!
I presume you're imagining the year 2072 when 52% of Germans are Muslims and Sharia law is declared by Sunni Cleric Muhammad Ali, after he's elected the final Chancellor of Germany?
If anything riots as free speech looks like the ultimate rebellion against totalitarian rule, and perhaps slightly worse than an average soccer championship postgame. Human in mobs really are some sort of thoughtless animals when you think about it.
Anyway, we're agreed the police black storm trooper anti-riot gear is so far only encouraging the black bloc anarchists.
AO,
If the police have instructions or an unspoken understanding to in essence "look the other way" then you can have 1,000,000 police and it won't do you much good. No one wants the days of the Gestapo or the Cossacks to return, but if you won't protect your own citizens and their property from lawlessness, then there is no law or social contract and you are headed right in the direction of the abyss.
What the black clad anarchists don't or won't understand is that in their efforts to "smash the state" there will not dawn a brighter more just day in which they are the arbiters of all. No the vacuum will be filled with a group who is more organized and more ruthless, in Germany that is the Islamicists. Germany is the key and the most vulnerable entity of Europe, they fall the EU and all that it entails is gone.
That is what today's elites seem quite comfortable with: lawlessness. I assert this is because they are insulated from the impact/effects of the lawlessness. That's how you get this "populist" revolt.
J: "they [Germany] fall the EU and all that it entails is gone."
And what a glorious day that would be. The cucumber curvature regulators in Brussels, living the high life on the backs of Greek and Italian shopkeepers, welders, and auto mechanics, might actually end up doing something more productive than passing paper around.
TW,
"And what a glorious day that would be. The cucumber curvature regulators in Brussels, living the high life on the backs of Greek and Italian shopkeepers, welders, and auto mechanics, might actually end up doing something more productive than passing paper around."
I agree. There will be unforeseen ramifications that will have to be dealt with. But it's well worth the try.
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