A few days ago, as reported in the news feed, the city of Cologne upgraded the level of security at the entrances to the Cathedral (Dom) adjacent to the railway station. Mindful of the possibility (likelihood?) of “terror” attacks, the city decided that additional screening was required, with restrictions on packages and luggage, searches of backpacks, etc. It’s not quite up to airport level yet — I didn’t see any metal detectors, wanding, or naked scanners — but it’s more intrusive than it used to be, and there have been complaints from the public.
Below is a report from German television on the new measures in Cologne. Many thanks to Ava Lon for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling.
As Vlad points out in the video, the European Union has removed all national borders, so now it must establish border controls around each and every monument, school, church, public building, etc.:
For more on security screening at the Dom, see this article in The Local (hat tip Fjordman).
Transcript:
| 00:12 | Starting today, on March first, we have | |
| 00:16 | introduced a new tool in our security | |
| 00:20 | considerations for the cathedral, and today it | |
| 00:24 | comes into effect; first because — as you can see here — the security forces | |
| 00:28 | and the entrance guards are not only in the cathedral, but also in front of the cathedral, | |
| 00:32 | and make entrance inspections. It can range from an eye contact | |
| 00:36 | to bag inspection. | |
| 00:40 | At different times it will proceed in different ways, | |
| 00:44 | but the entrance check | |
| 00:48 | will always take place when the cathedral is open. | |
| 00:56 | And we’ll make sure than nobody is able to enter the cathedral | |
| 01:00 | with a large suitcase or with a large backpack. Like on a plane, | |
| 01:04 | hand luggage is permitted, but a large backpack | |
| 01:08 | or large item of luggage will have to be stored. Those are decisions that | |
| 01:12 | come into effect today, so people don’t have to worry | |
| 01:16 | when they enter the cathedral as tourists or as pilgrims. | |
| 01:32 | This is OK. Thank you very much. | |
| 01:36 | This? And the rest of it… — Wonderful! | |
| 01:40 | Yes, because here we are in a public area, and | |
| 01:44 | public areas should have a certain level of security. | |
| 01:48 | It was very pleasant, the way it was done. | |
| 01:53 | So it wasn’t an offence, but just a kind question, | |
| 01:57 | and then my personal private areas were | |
| 02:01 | thoroughly examined and it was very good. | |
| 02:05 | There, looking inside. Everything is fine. | |
| 02:09 | Wonderful! Thank you very much. A heavy bag. | |
| 02:13 | Now. —Thank you. —Wonderful. Fine. | |
| 02:17 | Yes. Wonderful! Yes. This is enough for me. | |
| 02:25 | Perfect. —But the colleague. —He knows her! —He knows her. | |
| 02:29 | Where we now first… | |
| 02:37 | Town of Cologne. Office of [Public] Order | |
| 02:45 | Police |
Semi-OT: Journalist still manages to register as three different people in three German cities. Even when they bother to take his finger prints the system fails to notice that he is already registered:
http://www.focus.de/politik/deutschland/fluechtlingskrise-so-einfach-ist-es-fuer-fluechtlinge-sich-mit-falscher-identitaet-anzumelden_id_6696274.html
I can’t stress enough how we the “eastern Europeans” envied the westerners things like “cities where you don’t have to lock anything”, or the fact that it is legal to go out without an ID card, because we would get fined if we only forgotten our “papers”…
Seems like the West is being brought down to the Eastern standards. Not that it wouldn’t cross my mind that the purpose of the refugee crisis really is to make people warm hearted towards totalitarian practices – like random people checking your luggage, for example.
The purpose of the refugee crisis is to dissolve the national and cultural identity of Europeans, and to eliminate any resistance to mega-government by identity groups. Open borders is a most effective way to dilute neighborhoods and enclave of culture.
The Obama administration pursued that precise objective by systematically moving welfare recipient, inner-city blacks into suburban neighborhoods which were safe and somewhat homogeneous, under the guise of diversity.
Out with the Muslims. simple
The cost of securing each monument or tourist attraction in addition to airports and seaports is going to be extremely expensive and reduce the tax dollars available for other things. I have often thought that part of the goal of terrorist attacks as well as supporting refugee families is to force Western countries into bankruptcy.
… and event.
You are right, draining the national budgets is a secondary objective of the ongoing invasion.
From whom are the Germans protecting themselves? Seriously. Is there a threat from Germans? Other Europeans? The Chinese? The Japanese? The Australians? Americans? Canadians? South Americans? Central Americans? Polynesian Islanders? Kiwis? Where does the list of potential threats end? Perhaps, the more salient question is, where does the list start?
The man in this interview seems rather happy that his freedom is being taken away. I feel sorry for him.