Gates of Vienna News Feed 4/30/2020

France and Italy entered a coronavirus recession during the first quarter of this year, and Spain has experienced a record decline in GDP. Meanwhile, the governor of Florida will allow the reopening of some businesses beginning next Monday. Also, a woman in Ontario was issued a $880 ticket for standing too long in a park with her dog and her baby.

In other news, 50 Chechen migrants stormed an asylum center in France to attack their African rivals.

To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.

Thanks to Fjordman, Reader from Chicago, SS, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. I check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

Continue reading

I Wanna Hold Your Hand Grenade

A young “British” man named Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary was arrested last week in Spain on terrorism charges. Mr. Bary had been in Syria for several years fighting jihad in the way of Allah before taking up residence in Almeria. He had been one of a crew of lads whom the British police had sardonically nicknamed “The Beatles”.

Many thanks to FouseSquawk for translating this article from El Pais:

The Dubious Intentions of a Self-Sufficient Jihadist

April 23, 2020

Abdel Bary, arrested in Almeria, was part of a group of British combatants nicknamed “The Beatles”

[Photo caption: At left, Abdel Bary. At the right, a photo of the ISIS group he belonged to]

What gave away Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary, 29-year-old British rapper and one of the most wanted jihadists in Europe, was his ears. The agents of the General Commissariat of Information, of the National Police, observed him up close during the five days he was staying in Spain before being arrested in an apartment in Almeria, early Monday morning: “The shape of his ears was one of the aspects that allowed us to identify him,” the agents reported. He had been staying, together with two other men, in a tourist apartment near Puerta Purchena Square, in the center of the Almerian capital. Since he was forty kilos heavier and wearing a mask in conformance with the confinement imposed by the Corona virus crisis, the agents had to dig deep to ensure it was him. This Wednesday, he was sent to prison together with two other persons with whom he was found, by the judge of Central Court number 3 (National Court) Maria Tardon, accused of “being part of a terrorist organization” in a cause that remains a secret.

Three months ago the agents running the investigation became aware of the possible arrival of Abdel Bary. “We didn’t know where he might try to enter, but the information indicated that he might try at any time.” It is about one of the “somewhat more than 100” Islamist terrorists that the police follow in order to avoid their return to Europe. Since the decline of the Islamic State (ISIS) and the death of its leader and the creator of the caliphate, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, in October 2019, “the returnees” are one of the principle threats for the Western societies.

Abdel Bary is the son of an Egyptian, Adel Abdel Bari, jailed in the US for participating in the massacres at the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, with more than 200 deaths, and he answered the call of the Islamic State in 2013. He left his budding career as a rapper and his expensive house in a neighborhood in East London, where he had moved with his mother and two brothers from Egypt when he was a child, to fight with ISIS in Syria. “For two years, he was very active as a member of the Beatles (police nickname for a group of five British combatants), but in 2015 we lost track of him in Turkey,” an agent stated.

He combined a shameless exhibitionism with photos, videos and proclamations in social networks, with a great tendency to submerse himself in the dark Internet. “The next that was known of him was that he returned to enter Syria in December 2019. He was located there after many thought that he had died in the bombardments,” related an investigator. “Afterwards, Almeria,” he concluded.

Sources from the so-called Operation Altepa confirmed that he arrived there using the illegal immigration routes from Algeria, where he presumably spent time preparing his trip. He made the crossing allegedly accompanied by the two Algerian citizens who were sharing the apartment with him. One answers to the family name of Ceddiki, is 22, and is the “getter”. The latter had a false European passport and was the one charged with renting the tourist apartment for a month. He is a specialist in credit card fraud, and with connections in North Africa was responsible for the logistics, say the investigators.

The other detained man is as yet unidentified. The agents have sent his fingerprints to be checked in international police data banks and are awaiting the results, though they suspect that “he could be another returnee since recently, he was in Turkey,” they note.

None of them offered even minimum resistance when arrested, nor showed the slightest surprise: “Total coldness,” the agents described. And the three demonstrated absolute secrecy concerning suspected jihadist activities, both before the police and before the judge. None of them said anything, according to police sources.

Continue reading

Mandatory Euthanasia for Elderly Coronavirus Victims in Sweden

Last week I posted Vlad’s interview with a Swedish doctor named Jon Tallinger, who drew a lot of attention in Sweden when he blew the whistle on the health service’s policies towards elderly coronavirus victims. Instead of giving them oxygen treatment — which might actually enable them to survive the infection — nursing homes are required to administer morphine, which inhibits their breathing even further, and are forbidden to send coronavirus patients to the hospital.

This is, for all practical purposes, a program of deliberate euthanasia.

As a follow-up, in the video below Dr. Tallinger interviews a nursing-home nurse named Latifa Löfvenberg, who has personally witnessed the treatment of elderly coronavirus patients. Ms. Löfvenberg has courageously agreed to speak publicly about what she has seen, and is willing to testify in a court of law if necessary.

Many thanks to Vlad Tepes for uploading this video:

The News From Spain

The videos below provide two small snapshots of the cultural enrichment of Spain.

The first is a clip that was put together by the populist anti-immigration party Vox. It compares and contrasts the treatment of Muslims and Christians under the Wuhan Coronavirus restrictions. The former were allowed the pray on the street without enforcement of social distancing. Meanwhile, a mass being celebrated in Granada Cathedral was raided by the police.

Many thanks to Pampasnasturtium for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

In the second video, Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska talks about his determination to deport 600 illegal Tunisian immigrants who managed to get into Melilla, a Spanish enclave in North Africa.

Many thanks to FouseSquawk for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

Video transcript #1:

Continue reading

Gates of Vienna News Feed 4/29/2020

The Brazilian government is drawing up plans to reopen the country’s economy. Meanwhile, the owner of a tattoo parlor in North Carolina was arrested by police for reopening his business in violation of the coronavirus restrictions. Also, according to a recent poll, the majority of Canadians think a coronavirus vaccine should be made mandatory when it is released.

In other news, when three French “youths” were arrested while carrying large amounts of drugs, they told police they were simply stocking up for Ramadan.

To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.

Thanks to Fjordman, Reader from Chicago, SS, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. I check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

Continue reading

ISIS Vehicular Jihad in Colombes

In an astonishing turn of events, it has emerged that the mischievous “French” youth who rammed police officers with his BMW is a avowed mujahid for the Islamic State. I never would have suspected it!

Many thanks to FouseSquawk for translating this article from Le Figaro:

Colombes attack: The preferred terrorist track

Youssef T., who tried to murder two police officers in Colombes on Monday, had sworn allegiance to the Islamic State.

by Christophe Cornevin
April 28, 2020

After several hours of evaluation, the national prosecutor’s anti-terrorism office has decided to take over in the attack that targeted two police officers Monday afternoon at Colombes (Haut-de-Seine) in the name of the Islamic State.

Tuesday afternoon the specialized magistrates opened an investigation into counts of attempted murder of persons charged with public authority in relation to a terrorist enterprise and criminal terrorist association. Once again, this case features an Islamist who flew under the radar before taking action. Age 29 and of French nationality, Youssef T. has spent his first night under guard at 36 Rue de Bastion, the headquarters of the Paris Judicial Police, to be interrogated by the criminal brigade in charge, with the General Directorate of Internal Security (DGSI) to shed light on the attack and the motivations of the perpetrator. The course of events seems both crystal clear and chilling.

Allegiance to the Islamic State

Shortly before 5:30pm Youssef T. was driving a black BMW through the streets of Colombes. Obviously agitated after having viewed some videos on the situation in the Gaza Strip, the man, who is described by relatives as “pro-Palestinian”, had placed a knife in the glove compartment of his vehicle. Slipped into the sun visor was a letter described as “very clear” by an informed source, swearing allegiance to the Islamic State. In particular, the writer explains that he has thrown himself “head-on in the battle to impose sharia on the entire Earth”.

In front of the police, this native of Luneville (Moselle) also expressed the will to die as a “martyr” killing the police officers, as advocated for years by the propaganda of the terrorist organization. At the level of the stadium,Yves-du-Manoir, he put his plan into execution: Launched into high speed, his car rammed two motorcycle traffic policemen (DOPC) who were in the process of conducting a check.

Caught in a vice against a municipal police vehicle that had come to ensure the rules of confinement, one of the officers, hit on his wrist and lower limbs, was hospitalized with absolute urgency. Out of commission, he is now in stable condition after undergoing surgery during the night. His colleague, more lightly injured, suffered a fracture of two fibulae. A third officer, assigned to the Colombes municipal police, meanwhile was released from the hospital. Youssef T., protected by an airbag, was taken into custody without giving resistance. In spite of his knife, his overwhelming written allegiance and references made to Daesh (ISIS), police and magistrates initially were perplexed for hours, as the course of the “cop-killer” is very confusing.

Acts of violence

A warehouseman drifting between odd jobs and periods of unemployment, Youssef T. certainly displayed behavioral problems, amassing a medical file which will be gone over at length by the national anti-terrorist prosecutor. Tuesday morning a psychiatric examination was conducted and concluded that there was no absence or alteration of judgment on the part of the defendant. Unknown to the anti-terrorist services, Youssef T. doesn’t appear in the File of Reports for the Prevention of Radicalization of Terrorist Character (FSPRT), and was never classified as S. His file only mentions two acts of violence for which he received a penalty of community service in 2010. Anxious to define the contours of the suspect, the police, accompanied by a bomb squad and dogs, conducted a search of his residence on the fourth floor of an apartment building in the small town of Audra, situated to the north of the city, not far from the place where Youssef T. deliberately tried to murder the police officers.

Continue reading

Brazilian Establishment Tries to Overthrow Bolsonaro

The Brazilian Left, like the Left anywhere else in the world, never lets a good crisis go to waste. According to this report by José Atento, the ramped-up push to damage President Jair Bolsonaro during the Wuhan Coronavirus crisis is similar to what is being attempted against Donald Trump in the USA.

The continuous effort of the Brazilian establishment to overthrow President Bolsonaro has reached its maximum level

by José Atento

Jair Bolsonaro was elected president of Brazil in November of 2018 because for most Brazilians he personified the opposition to many of the issues plaguing Brazil and Brazilians. First, the rampant corruption, notably from the leadership of the Labour Party (herein referred to as PT), which ruled Brazil for sixteen years. Secondly, the precarious situation of the Brazilian economy. PT squandered the economy. When PT rose to power in early 2000s, Brazil was a leading member of the BRICS. When PT left power, Brazil was basically bankrupt. Socialists are good at squandering economies.

Bolsonaro is anti-establishment, and in Brazil the establishment is predominantly of the Left. Bolsonaro spoke the language of the people, who are mostly nationalistic and Christian, disagree with gender ideology, are against abortion, and oppose big government, i.e., are against the flags of the Left.

Bolsonaro is also anti-Socialist and against the South American Socialist alliance known as São Paulo Forum, which has the participation of former and current leaders such as Lula (Brazil), Chavez/Maduro (Venezuela), Morales (Bolivia) and Cristina Kirchner (Argentina).

Bolsonaro showed his independence when he selected his ministers based on competence, not on political arrangements. Among his ministers two would represent the fight against corruption and for economic recovery. Sergio Moro (Justice Minister), the judge who led the Operation Car Wash, which put into jail powerful politicians and entrepreneurs, including former president Lula. And, Paulo Guedes (Finance Minister), a renowned economist from the Chicago School, with the intention of developing the economy towards free market.

By building a team of technical ministers, Bolsonaro angered a large group of politicians (from several parties) known as Centrão, which means roughly, Big Center. This group is not really in the center of the political spectrum, but they are known by their appetite for bargaining with the government, approving projects proposed by the government in the exchange for electoral gains. They did that during the PT government, and, as a consequence, several members of the Centrão are accused of corruption but, as members of parliament, they have “parliamentary immunity.” Both houses of Congress, the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, are controlled by the Centrão. Unable to sell its support, the Centrão suffers from something similar to what a drug addict in withdrawal experiences.

The president of the Chamber of Deputies, Dep. Rodrigo Maia, has been slowly undermining the government by delaying the consideration of projects and decrees signed by Bolsonaro to the point of letting them expire. Similar action has been undertaken by the president of the Senate, Sen. Davi Alcolumbre. Both are from the Centrão.

Other sources of opposition are the left-leaning media (such as Folha de São Paulo and the all-powerful Globo TV) and the Supreme Court (STF), whose judges were nominated by socialist governments. The current president of the Supreme Court, Dias Tófolli, is a former PT lawyer. It is important to add that the governors of the states of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, both targeting the 2022 presidential elections, would love to see Bolsonaro’s chances for re-election decrease.

Bolsonaro is also the target of relentless attacks by the international media. His anti-socialist stance puts him at odds with the likes of The Guardian, El Pais, the BBC, CBC, ABC, CNN, and other left-leaning globalist media powerhouses, who waste no time before throwing mud at him.

Continue reading

Academic Coronaskeptics in the Czech Republic

The following document was published at the website of Charles University in Prague. We owe Xanthippa a debt of gratitude for translating it from the original Czech. The translator also recommends an English-language analysis of it by a highly respected physicist and formal presidential advisor.

This is one of the most sensible things I’ve read about the coronavirus. It’s good to see something like this put out by fully credentialed academic experts (as opposed to TV talking head experts). It’s like a formal text version of the video by the two California doctors that went viral before YouTube took it down:

April 21, 2020

Challenge from 11 doctors of Charles University to the public

The Czech Republic has been on lockdown for almost six weeks under restrictive measures introduced in connection with the protection of citizens’ health during the COVID-19 epidemic. The government needs to be commended for the first swift and comprehensive measures, which have undoubtedly helped to manage the risks. At present, in light of current epidemiological data and the development of the epidemic, it is necessary to significantly accelerate the dismantling of these measures — for the sake of the health of citizens, economic and social stability and the prosperity of the country.

The common motivation for the emergence of this challenge is the protection of the health of the citizens of the Czech Republic, which is threatened by long-term restrictions, fears for our future, whether health-related or economic, as well as efforts to dispel the untruths and myths which are being spread about the epidemic. These blanket measures will not lead to the eradication of COVID-19 . Above all, it is necessary to create an immune response in the majority of the population, which will also protect vulnerable groups of the population, as defined by their diagnosis, not by their age.

In order to maintain the health and prosperity of our country, it is essential to:

  • end the state of emergency by 30 April 2020;
  • restore full access to healthcare for all citizens;
  • resume classes at primary, secondary and higher learning institutions during May 2020;
  • remove obstacles to the functioning of the economy, prevent the collapse that threatens significant parts of small and medium-sized enterprises and sole proprietors;
  • gradually loosen state borders in coordination with neighboring countries, and especially with our neighbors and those with a similar epidemiological situation, such as Germany or Austria;
  • adopt well-thought-out solutions instead of chaotic and contradictory measures.

Our conclusion is drawn from current epidemiological data, knowledge, facts, expertise and also from our professional and practical experience and knowledge.

1. IT IS NECESSARY TO RESUME FULL MEDICAL CARE FOR ALL CITIZENS

Since the beginning of March, there has been a service outage in healthcare facilities for seriously ill patients who are not COVID-19 positive. Preventive programs in cardiovascular care and oncology have been stopped. For example, the removal of transplant organs and a number of surgical procedures have been reduced.

Other casualties are caused both by postponing planned interventions and by patients’ fear of going to hospital in time. There are increasing cases of neglected abdominal pain (ruptured appendix and other sudden abdominal events), minor movement or speaking disorders (stroke) or shoulder or back pain (acute myocardial infarction), all due to patients’ fear of infection during treatment or hospitalization.

The reduction in the choice of health insurance — even with the proposed increase in payments for state insured persons — will lead to a deepening of underfunding of the entire health care system, and thus, in its consequences, to worsened care for patients with other, often more serious diseases than COVID-19. Unfortunately, victims of this lack of care will have been caused by anti-epidemic measures against the coronavirus.

2. THE HEALTHCARE SYSTEM DID NOT AND SHALL NOT COLLAPSE UNDER THE PRESSURE OF SUPPORTING COVID-19 PATIENTS

From Italy, we know that 80% of the population infected with COVID-19 present with mild symptoms that do not require hospitalization. Of the 20% experiencing more severe symptoms, 5% required intensive care. Here, proponents of a full quarantine of the nation and the closure of the world are basing their calculations on 50% mortality rate and three weeks’ hospitalization in intensive care units [per patient]. These figures only apply to the most severe forms of pneumonia and respiratory distress. However, we find these in only 25%-30% of intensive care patients, while overall, the most common length of stay of a patient with COVID-19 is between 8-10 days. This more than doubles the estimated capacity of the availability of intensive care units. In addition, up until today (April 21, 2020) we have not filled more than 45% of the capacity of intensive care units in the Czech Republic, so we have more than half of them in reserve!

Continue reading

Gates of Vienna News Feed 4/28/2020

A number of states in the USA will begin easing coronavirus restrictions this weekend or next week. Meanwhile, a man in Ontario was fined $1,200 for walking his dog during the lockdown. Also, undercover police arrested two women in Texas for providing cosmetology services in their homes.

In other news, a complaint from a Muslim MP caused Tommy Robinson to be banned from the Tik Tok platform.

To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.

Thanks to Fjordman, JM, Reader from Chicago, SS, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. I check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

Continue reading

Coronavirus is Rockin’ the Projects

The following news report from Germany discusses the quarantining of two apartment buildings due to the presence of two COVID-positive families who failed to obey the social-distancing regulations.

The reporters don’t discuss ethnicity, but describe the residential area as “socially disadvantaged”. It’s hard to tell for certain from the long-range shots of the residents, but one suspects that the two apartment buildings may be significantly culturally enriched.

Many thanks to MissPiggy for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes and RAIR Foundation for the subtitling:

Video transcript:

Continue reading

Damage to Catalonia (Again)

Last weekend I posted about the broadcast of the Ramadan call to prayer from the cathedral in the Catalonian city of Lleida.

I asked our Catalonian correspondent Pampasnasturtium to look into the incident and see if he could learn anything more. Here’s the report he sent:

To start with, I made a cursory search, and the mohammedan call to prayer in Lleida doesn’t seem to have been covered by the Catalan mainstream media online journals.

I also checked the web pages of El Periódico and La Vanguardia (for Spanish), and El Nacional and Ara (for Catalan), for example, and no coverage, either.

It seems to only have been covered by so-called “right-wing” outlets. Here is some additional pertinent information:

1.   The political composition of the municipal coalition government in Lleida:

  • Partly ERC (‘Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya’, EU suck-ups, globalism-loving leftists) and
  • Partly JxCat (‘Junts per Catalunya’, disoriented residual right/centrists, former Christian Democrats),
  • With ‘En Comú Podemos’ (extreme left, Iran-loving, Maduro-loving communists, basically antifa) barely represented.

No surprises then that the town council authorized such jihad/dawah activities via loudspeakers.

2.   Sandra Castro is Lleida’s ‘councillor for education, cooperation, rights and feminisms’ [sic], an ‘LGTBIQ+ activist’ (as per her own description on Twitter bio), and county secretary for the Republican Left of Catalonia.

She tweeted this. Her caption reads:

Goosebumps, beautiful and very emotional, to listen to the call to Ramadan from the Baluard de la Reina (fortress walls). This year, they’ll live it in confinement, without being able to hold community prayers. To all of the Muslim community of Lleida, #RamadanMubarak @dretscivilsll @afersreligiosos

The account that re-tweets this obscenity reminds its readers of the public positions she holds (as described above), and that (as per the caption):

‘Last year she proposed to turn the pubilla* into something else because they were anachronistic and male supremacist.’

Fortunately, if I recall correctly, that project was dismissed after sparking much outrage.

 

*   A pubilla… in ancestral Catalan tradition was the female that would inherit the whole rural estate in the absence of a brother.
 

My first “Damage to Catalonia” post was in February 2019.

Gates of Vienna News Feed 4/27/2020

Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced plans to let the state’s Wuhan Coronavirus lockdown expire on April 30 and allow businesses to reopen. Meanwhile, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine revealed his plan for a phased reopening of the state. Also, many Italians are calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte after he reneged on a promise to ease the coronavirus restrictions at the end of this month.

In other news, the mayor of Prague is under police protection due to an alleged Russian plot to poison him with ricin.

To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.

Thanks to Reader from Chicago, SS, Upananda Brahmachari, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. I check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

Continue reading

The Unbearable Lightness of Being Omar

Many thanks to FouseSquawk for translating this article from Fria Tider:

Omar raped girl in HVB [Hem för Vård eller boende, Home for Care or Residence] home hours before he turned 18 — escapes prison

April 27, 2020

Omar claims that he was born on January 1, 2001, and therefore he was only 17 years old when he raped a 14-year-old girl on New Years Eve 2018. Thus he receives a sharply reduced sentence and completely avoids prison for child rape.

“It should be particularly noted that Omar had not turned 18 when he committed the crime of rape on a child,” the high court writes in justifying the rapist’s getting away with custody.

On December 31, 2018, in an HVB home in Gothenburg, a 14-year-old girl was raped anally and vaginally by Omar, who comes from Syria. The rape occurred hours before Omar turned 18, according to the age information he himself had provided to Swedish authorities.

During the rape, personnel at the residence were busy with paperwork, wrote OMNI when the sentence was announced. The girl, who also lived at the home, was therefore left alone with Omar in the HVB shelter on New Year’s Eve.

During a police interview, the girl reported that Omar asked about her age, and she answered that she was 14 years old. They were told that a meeting in the residence was scheduled, and they went into another room to play ping pong. After a few games, they sat on a sofa and talked.

When Omar showed her his room, he suddenly turned off the lights and locked the door, according to the girl, who said that she then understood what was going to happen and said, “No”. Omar lay over her on the bed and took off her clothes. The girl said, “No, I have a boyfriend,” several times, but Omar didn’t care, and instead proceeded to rape her while he banged her head against the wall and tied a string around her throat. He asked if it hurt and tightened it even more after she answered, “Yes,” according to the girl.

Afterward, the 14-year-old girl went crying to her room and told her boyfriend on Facetime that she had been raped and strangled. The boyfriend’s mother also learned about the rape and told the girl to alert personnel. She told the personnel about the abuse and said that she wanted to report it. The police came to the HVB shelter, and the girl was allowed to go the hospital, where an examination was performed.

Continue reading

The Perils of Being a Coronaskeptic in Germany

The two videos below show the treatment meted out to citizens who protested the coronavirus restrictions last weekend in two German cities. Many thanks to MissPiggy for the translations, and to Vlad Tepes and RAIR Foundation for the subtitling.

Video #1: Protest in Berlin

The first video was recorded in Berlin by a woman who was arrested for not immediately obeying commands by police to leave the area of the demonstration:

Video #2: Protest in Frankfurt

The second video was recorded after an event in Frankfurt am Main. Henryk Stöckl is a journalist and a vlogger. Here he and Inge Steinmetz describe his treatment by police in Frankfurt who used the arbitrary powers granted them by the German state to suppress dissent or even discussion about the restrictions imposed due to the Wuhan Coronavirus:

Below is an article (also translated by MissPiggy) from Bayerischer Rundfunk about the Corona demonstrations that took place in various German cities on Saturday:

Numerous protests against Corona restrictions

April 25, 2020

In several German cities today people gathered for demonstrations against the Corona restrictions. There were also protests in Bavaria. Some of the participants were rights activists, conspiracy theorists and anti-vaccination activists.

Hundreds of people gathered for partly spontaneous, partly registered rallies.

Nuremberg: Demonstration was not registered, curious excuse of the participants

In Nuremberg city centre at least 50 people gathered for an undeclared rally. According to BR research, this was a collection of conspiracy theorists and right-wingers who criticized the government’s Corona actions and organized themselves into chat groups.

Several USK emergency personnel were there in the afternoon and broke up the rally. At least one person was taken into custody. According to the police, the participants had denied that it was a meeting at all, that they only wanted to sit there together and meditate.

Würzburg: Protest under strict conditions

Another 50 people demonstrated in Würzburg against the Corona measures. The city had previously granted the necessary exemption from the current ban on assembly.

The demonstrators displayed placards such as “Fundamental rights!” and “Freedom, I stand here for you!” and also protested against a vaccination requirement. They sang the national anthem and the song “Thoughts are free”. The rally was registered by the group “Democratic Resistance”, which has regularly organized similar demonstrations in Berlin since March.

The police enforced the strict conditions imposed by the city of Würzburg for the demonstration. The demonstrators had to keep a minimum distance of one and a half meters from each other and also from passers-by.

Kempten: Hundreds of onlookers, police must demand distance

A large crowd of onlookers gathered at a protest in Kempten. A demonstration with 20 participants was registered and approved. They remained in an area cordoned off by barriers.

Police estimate that 300 more people were outside the cordoned-off area during the operation. Some of them were likely visitors to the weekly market, which took place at the same time, a police spokesman said. The emergency services drew the attention of onlookers and demonstrators with loudspeaker announcements about the current distance rules. The people were close together, the police spokesman said. Thanks to the announcements, however, the police were able to enforce the distance.

Demonstrators as well as onlookers chanted “We are the people.” The protesters’ signs read: “Fundamental rights? Yes! Forced vaccinations? No!” Other inscriptions were “Freedom” and “Enough is enough! End of shutdown”. The demonstration was organized by a group that describes itself as a “group of staunch democrats.” In a press release, they stressed in advance that they do not belong to any political party or tendency.

Berlin: Protest despite ban, several arrests

Despite a current ban on demonstrations in Berlin, about 1,000 people gathered to protest against the Corona restrictions — at times close to each other.

Police repeatedly asked participants to leave the scene via loudspeakers. Individuals were arrested. Gradually, the crowd dispersed in the afternoon.

The protesters belonged to various political currents. Among them were well-known right-wing populists, AfD politicians, conspiracy theorists, but also many people without a clearly recognizable political orientation. Some people sat meditating on the floor.

Stuttgart: Initiative overcomes demonstration ban with urgent application

Between 350 and 500 people in Stuttgart responded to the call for the “lateral thinkers” initiative and gathered in Schlossplatz. At the demonstration, which was described as “non-partisan”, the organizer, Michael Ballweg, called for respect for fundamental rights such as freedom of assembly and freedom of belief.

The demonstration took place for the third time. After an initial ban by the city, the initiative was allowed to demonstrate a week ago, because the Federal Constitutional Court had granted an urgent motion against the ban.

Protests also on the German-Polish border

Several hundred people took to the streets on the German-Polish border on Friday evening to protest against the closure of the border by the Polish government. Warsaw had justified the move by citing the Corona pandemic.

In the neighbouring town of Zgorzelec near Görlitz, there were about 300 people, the PAP news agency reported. In the border towns of Slubice near Frankfurt (Oder), Rosowek in Western Pomerania and Gubin in Lower Lusatia, there were demonstrations with more than a hundred participants each.

Video transcript #1:

Continue reading