New Year’s Eve in Cologne: Who Knew What, and When?

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A committee of inquiry is investigating the events of New Year’s Eve in the square adjacent to the main train station in Cologne. It has now been sitting for more than three months, but has not yet completed its investigations, nor reached any conclusions.

Nevertheless, at least two things have become clear:

1.   Government officials in Cologne and North Rhine-Westphalia were well aware of what happened at the Hauptbahnhof shortly after all the rapes and molestations occurred; and
2.   The police in the square between the cathedral and the station were severely understaffed, despite having requested additional forces.
 

The following two videos sum up the events surrounding Silvester Night in Cologne. They appeared on German TV just prior to the testimony before the committee by the interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, Ralf Jäger.

Many thanks to Egri Nök for the translations, and to Vlad Tepes for subtitling both of these videos.

First, the Westpol news report:

The second video is a clip of the previously unreleased Silvester Night footage from the Hauptbahnhof in Cologne:

Transcript video #1:

00:05   It is May, almost summer, but what happened in the New Year’s Eve night in Cologne is still not clarified.
00:11   A never ending nightmare for the victims. Good evening, welcome to Westpol.
00:15   This week there was a first trial against a defendant, who is accused of sexual abuse.
00:21   But the man was acquitted, due to insufficient evidence, and
00:24   because the victim could not unambiguously identify him.
00:27   It was dark and it was tumultuous that night.
00:30   We of Westpol have exclusive video material which shows
00:34   just how dramatic the situation in front of the main train station in Cologne really was.
00:38   And how chaotic the police operation was.
00:44   … that you must not touch me! Don’t touch me!
00:49   Hundreds of assaults, pyrotechnics, fights. New Year’s Eve around the train station square.
00:54   The situation escalates, but the Director of Operations does not call for backup.
00:59   State power, outnumbered.
01:04   “F**k the police!” (in bad German)
01:09   Video material filmed by the police, passed on to Westpol.
01:14   The action force at their limits.
01:17   Police roadblocks breached repeatedly.
01:20   What is the situation now?
01:23   What the — !
01:26   What did the Director of Operations say? — That we cannot hold this with two people.
01:33   Who bears responsibility? The Interior Minister blames the Cologne police.
01:38   But why did the country not approve more manpower? Why was evidence about groups of offenders ignored?
01:44   Who knew what, and when?
01:47   The dimensions were honestly only obvious on January 4, and then we acted very consequentially.
01:51   It is important to me right now, to make clear: nothing is being covered up, nothing swept under the rug;
01:57   it will be clarified, the Interior Minister will see to that.
02:01   Clarification. The committee of inquiry about the New Year’s Eve night has been sitting for three months now.
02:06   About half of the witnesses have been heard, mainly police officers.
02:10   Tomorrow, the first politician will be called to the witness stand: Interior Minister Jäger.
02:16   The opposition accuses him of acting too late.
02:20   Everyone involved — the Governor, the Interior Minister,
02:24   and other high-ranking representatives of this country,
02:28   have said time and again: the true dimension of the events was not visible.
02:32   But on January 1, at 2:36 PM, it was accounted: eleven assaults on women,
02:37   including a rape by a group of 40-50 men.
02:42   So the question is: How many assaults do you need for the Interior Minister of the country to react?
02:47   More and more structural problems become evident.
02:52   The province of North Rhine-Westphalia has got a certain function of supervision.
02:56   We will ask the Interior Minister about that.
02:59   There were already hints at North African groups of offenders in the beginning of December,
03:03   as these internal documents show.
03:06   But still, the province declined the city of Cologne the full hundred [officers].
03:11   Angry objections are to no avail.
03:15   “It goes on everywhere, Duisburg, Gelsenkirchen, only in Cologne it’s always a problem —”
03:20   an officer from Cologne writes ahead of the events to a subordinate agency of the Ministry.
03:26   Bernd Liedtke has been working for the NRW police for more than forty years,
03:30   recently, as the Marshal in Hagen.
03:33   In his opinion, the allocation of forces is a constant problem.
03:38   I have experienced that asking for external forces was in many cases always difficult.
03:45   You always have to justify: why do I even need a hundred?
03:50   This led to forces not being allocated fully in the expected numbers.
03:57   A constant negotiation. You should not have to negotiate these things.
04:02   “Leave, you all leave.” — “The square is being evacuated. Leave!”
04:08   A consequential shortage of personnel. Around 11:30 the police evacuate the square,
04:12   as there are concerns that grave injuries, even deaths might occur.
04:17   But one train station door is not secured. Only minutes later, the square fills with people again.
04:25   The more than one thousand complaints filed show that most of the sexual assaults
04:30   took place during and after the evacuation.
04:34   The public only learns of the true dimension much later.
04:37   As late as January 4, claims Minister Jäger, he spoke to the Governor about New Year’s Eve.
04:43   The opposition has doubts and asks for more documents, also phone records.
04:48   When the records are incomplete, it raises questions.
04:53   When the communication cannot be reconstructed.
04:57   I am not insinuating there was an intentional concealment.
05:01   But the committee must be able to reconstruct it, and find their own view of the events.
05:06   The question remains: Why should I conceal anything that allegedly was communicated.
05:13   I cannot disclose anything that did not exist. Umm… I think that will become clear. And we will
05:17   thoroughly consider how we will inform the public about details.
05:22   Necessary evidence, or political games?
05:26   You need a good reason to hold documents back, says the expert in constitutional law Ulrich Battis.
05:32   This would be much more difficult these days than in the past.
05:35   We live in a time when the culture of administration in Germany has fundamentally changed.
05:42   In Germany, the term “official secrecy” is always applied.
05:46   And only in exceptional cases might the citizens or the press be informed,
05:52   For special reasons. This has completely changed.
05:57   And when two systems that are so different from each other clash in a legal order,
06:02   then there will be certain tensions, and the government will have to get used to that.
06:10   New Year’s Eve night in Cologne. Flawed mission planning, too few forces,
06:15   a divisive handling of the crisis by the Interior Minister, who quickly knew who to blame: the Cologne police.
06:23   He has deeply disappointed me in Cologne.
06:28   His behaviour was defamatory for the police.
06:32   The police, the police officers that I know said to me, “We do not want this man anymore.”
06:39   … that you must not touch me! Don’t touch me!
06:44   The government promised an explanation to the victims.
06:47   Tomorrow, at 10 am, the Interior Minister will have a chance to do that,
06:51   as witness number 31 for the committee of inquiry “Silvester Night”.
06:57   Of course we asked Interior Minister Ralf Jäger for an interview, but his office declined,
07:01   referring to his testimony tomorrow at the committee of inquiry.
 

Transcript video #2:

00:02   Oh my God!
00:04   (Police Officer:) Emergency situation here at the train station.
00:20   … that you must not touch me! You must not touch me!
00:24   You were just touching me Go away!
00:38   (Police Officer:) What is the situation now? What the — !
00:44   What did the Director of Operations say? – That we cannot hold this with two people.
 

7 thoughts on “New Year’s Eve in Cologne: Who Knew What, and When?”

    • Like Rotherham, still nothing happening to those establishment criminals, it is more important to monitor Facebook etc.

  3. First 5 minutes of the investigation to clarify this was a jihadist attack to rape kafir woman as required by the quran from every Muslim. Next 3 month’s of the investigation to answer the question how to avoid actually saying this.

  4. I’m afraid this is just the beginning of civil chaos whenever the police are outnumbered….it’ll be a standard news story like “Taxes to Increase.”

    You cannot invite wolverines to a picnic.

    • But people insist on trying to make “pets” of the feral and unlovable because they’re so “cute”…

  5. Did you notice the faces were blurred out from the videos? The perpetrators are being protected from even the remotest chances of being recognized by the public or by the police patrols.

    This is characteristic of third-world bureaucracies: to get tied up in so many formal rules and requirements that there is virtually no chance for any type of efficacious action. The rioters must be protected from public recognition, because their rights would be violated by being publicly shown to be rioters.

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