Teaching Her a Lesson

An Iranian culture-enricher in the German town of Nürtingen evidently developed a dislike for the woman who was teaching him German, so he killed her. There’s no word yet on whether the civil authorities have decided that he is mentally ill.

Many thanks to Hellequin GB for translating this article from the online news portal Nius. The translator’s comments are in square brackets:

Dead teacher discovered on the banks of the Neckar: The suspect is an Iranian refugee

An unexpected discovery occurred early on Sunday morning: Passersby discovered the body of a woman on the banks of the Neckar in Nürtingen (Baden-Württemberg). It soon became clear that it was a violent crime. The manhunt quickly led to a result: on Thursday, a 37-year-old man from Iran was arrested as a suspect. In the course of the investigation, it emerged that the victim and the alleged perpetrator knew each other personally, reports Bild. [Since at least 2015, there has been NOTHING unexpected in these murders any longer.]

The dead woman is Isabelle D. (66) from Nürtingen in Baden-Württemberg, who worked as a German teacher. The suspect lived in a refugee shelter in Oberboihingen and was currently attending a German-language course. As Bild learned from investigators, Isabelle D. taught her later suspected murderer. “Her students came to her house,” said a local resident.

“He picked a fight with everyone”

Investigators suspect a robbery-homicide as a possible motive. The teacher’s car, a grey Seat Cordoba, was initially reported missing and later found and confiscated near the suspect’s accommodation.

Witness statements and traces found eventually led the police to the suspect. The Iranian was arrested in the accommodation after his room was searched on Thursday morning. He was then brought before the magistrate.

A roommate of the suspect told Bild: “He argued with everyone, constantly complained about trivial things. He played the violin in his room. He repaired or even built the instruments and earned money from them, probably illegally.”

Rumour has it that the suspect has a family in Iran — a wife and a child. So far, he has not commented on the allegations and has remained silent since being arrested and taken into custody on Thursday.

Afterword from the translator:

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The Revolving Door of Lunacy

A criminal migrant from Lebanon was imprisoned after a string of larcenies and then deported. Now he has returned to the country and applied for asylum. The authorities haven’t ruled out the possibility of his asylum application being approved.

Seems reasonable, right?

Right?

Well, apparently it does, if you’re German.

Many thanks to Hellequin GB for translating this article from the online news portal Nius. The translator’s comments are in square brackets:

7 months after his deportation, clan criminal Khalil El Zein returns to Germany — and applies for asylum

It is a story that once again demonstrates the state’s failure in migration and asylum policy. Khalil El Zein, a former suspect in the spectacular KaDeWe robbery, who was also convicted of fraud and deported to Lebanon in the spring, has returned to Germany — and is demanding protection. As Bild exclusively reports, El Zein is said to have reported to the arrival center for refugees in Berlin-Tegel and applied for asylum.

It is unclear how the 35-year-old Lebanese was able to return to Germany. What is certain, however, is that he submitted his asylum application to the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) and was arrested immediately after the hearing. The reason: “additional preparatory detention,” as the authorities call it. The man was released a short time later because, according to the court, the detention was “no longer necessary to prepare for the threat of deportation,” according to BILD. [Whatever they mean by this legalese.]

Khalil El Zein, also known by the spelling Al Zein, belongs to one of the most notorious Arab extended families in Germany. Several members of the El Zein clan have been under police and judicial surveillance for decades for serious crimes. Khalil, who has re-entered the country, was one of five suspects in the KaDeWe robbery until 2016, in which masked men stole jewelry worth over €800,000. Although an accomplice incriminated him, Khalil was acquitted before the key witness could testify. [And did this witness have had an unfortunate event before the end of his or her life? Just curious.]

In 2019, he was arrested for defrauding an elderly woman after he and his accomplices posed as detectives and stole cash and jewelry worth tens of thousands of euros. For these and other crimes, Khalil El Zein was sentenced to prison and eventually deported to Lebanon.

Previous deportation “in principle does not preclude” the possibility of asylum

The renewed arrival of the well-known clan member caused a stir among the authorities. The Berlin Senate Interior Administration stated: “Prior deportation does not, in principle, preclude the possibility of applying for asylum.” Each case is examined individually, according to official sources. At the same time, however, a spokeswoman emphasized that “criminal charges could lead to exclusion from refugee protection.”

The question of whether El Zein could be deported again remains open. A spokeswoman for the Interior Ministry said: “There is currently no indication that deportations to Lebanon are not possible due to the situation there.”

Let’s see where Khalil El Zein is in seven months. [Most likely, through the courtesy of the German taxpayer, in a luxury penthouse-suit in Berlin, planning his next heist.]

Afterword from the translator:

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Gates of Vienna News Feed 10/25/2024

Explosions were heard across Tehran and the nearby city of Karaj early on Saturday morning. Israeli officials confirmed that Israel has started striking targets in Iran. A second wave of targeting reportedly caused explosions in Shiraz. Iranian officials claimed the blasts that occurred were from air defense systems.

In other news, the Washington Post announced that it will not endorse a presidential candidate this year. Following the announcement, Robert Kagan, the editor at large and husband of Victoria Nuland, reportedly resigned from his position.

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

Thanks to Conservative Tree House, Dean, DV, JW, McN, MM, 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.

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The Latest Murderous Culture-Enriching Loony

A Moroccan culture-enricher who had just been released by police after committing an earlier violent crime attacked without warning and killed a white citizen, the father of a family. Now it has been determined that the unfortunate criminal youngster was in fact mentally ill. Why? Because he smoked some weed. Conclusion: he shouldn’t be prosecuted.

Makes sense, right?

Right?

Well, apparently it does, if you’re German.

Many thanks to Hellequin GB for translating this article from Junge Freiheit. The translator’s comments are in square brackets:

Next asylum murderer declared not guilty

He kicked a father of a family down the stairs in a train station from behind. The victim died. Nevertheless, a rejected asylum seeker from Morocco can hope not to be prosecuted for the crime. It is not the first case of its kind.

Uelzen

An 18-year-old Moroccan who attacked and killed a father of a family in Uelzen train station in July can apparently expect not to be convicted. “The expert sees indications of a psychiatric illness,” said a spokesman for the Lüneburg public prosecutor’s office, according to the Bild newspaper. The reason is that the foreigner regularly consumed cannabis. [The perfect “Hassassin”.]

Background: The migrant had kicked his victim down the stairs to the platform for no apparent reason. The man suffered a severe traumatic brain injury and died on the steps. The crime occurred early in the morning on July 14th, around 1:30 a.m. The victim is a kitchen helper from Lüneburg. He only met his murderer by chance. According to the police, the victim was suddenly pushed or kicked, fell down the steps and lay motionless.

He killed after the police let him go

The Moroccan had already been arrested the day before, first for pickpocketing in the city center and later for assault at the central bus station in the same city. To protect the public from him, the police took him into custody — but released him again at 9 p.m. A few hours later, he killed a man.

The public prosecutor’s office is currently examining how to proceed and whether it wants to press charges at all. If it follows the expert’s advice, the 18-year-old tolerated asylum seeker may be placed in a psychiatric institution. [To be released within a month back among the unsuspecting public so that he can kill again.]

Similar case in Ravensburg

Most recently, another migrant in Ravensburg was also declared not guilty after he attacked a four-year-old girl from behind in a supermarket with a 20-centimeter-long knife and tore her stomach and intestines. The child barely survived. During the trial, the Syrian said he had had a divine inspiration.

In his statement of reasons for the verdict, presiding judge Veiko Böhm said it was “difficult to bear” that the AfD parliamentary group was making inquiries about the case and thus exploiting the crime for its own ideology. “The knife attack has nothing to do with Islamist radicalism, it is solely the result of a mental illness,” he stressed. A Swabian man could also do something like that, but in this case “there is no AfD parliamentary group that is making an application.”

Afterword from the translator:

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Gates of Vienna News Feed 10/24/2024

A knife-wielding suspect went on a stabbing rampage today at a Toyota car dealership in Illinois, wounding several employees before being shot by police. In a 911 call, an employee described the attacker as a “white male, ponytail, black cloak, and he has two large knives.” Police said the suspect remains in stable condition and is expected to survive.

In other news, an asylum seeker from Peru found hanged from a tree inside a Bronx park last month is suspected of repeatedly raping a teen relative, according to police.

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

Thanks to Dean, DV, JW, LP, MM, 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.

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Set My People Free

Hulda Fahmi is the International Directior of Set My People Free, and has been tireless in her efforts at OSCE conferences.

Below is an interview with Ms. Fahmi, followed by the text of one of her interventions at this year’s OSCE conference in Warsaw. Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff, who conducted the interview, sends this introduction:

Since 2009, a group of organizations from Europe and the United States have been active in promoting and defending Western civilization and its values at OSCE (Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe) human dimension conferences in Warsaw and Vienna. While the history of our successes has been chronicled, there are still far too many baffled faces to be seen following our reports from these conferences, and still far too many question the necessity of joining us in the diplomatic battleground. One of our greatest successes was the debunking of the term “Islamophobia,” no longer used in official print materials of the OSCE. Another victory concerned the dropping of “hate speech” charges against Prof. Armin Geus.

The Swedish NGO “Set My People Free, one of our staunchest and most vocal allies, continuously speaks out in favor of abolishing Islamic and European blasphemy laws. Hulda Fahmi represents Set My People Free, and spoke at the recent Human Dimension Conference in Warsaw, where she addressed the need to be able to change religions as well as real freedom of belief. She referred to a booklet published by the OSCE about countering “anti-Muslim hate crime” in which, in the annex, police officers are introduced to core tenets of Islam as well as key phrases. While Sharia and hudud ordinances are mentioned, there is no mention of the death penalty for apostasy and/or blasphemy.

She adds that ODIHR knows we have been raising these issues for many years and she feels that mention of penalties for leaving Islam should have been included.

In addition, she describes that our presence at OSCE conferences have made an impact. As noted by Baron Bodissey in this blog, private organizations can have a trickle-up effect at HDIM meetings, because official representatives of the participating states are in attendance, and they have to pay attention to the proceedings.

A recently released ODIHR report noted that a reform of anti-blasphemy laws is key. In addition, talking in the hall with people who don’t ostensibly agree with us helps because they know they can’t deny reality when their Afghan neighbors are threatened because they converted to Christianity. Hulda adds that, “When you speak truth, it has as impact.” We have spoken truth since 2009, and we will continue doing so. Perhaps this video will convince you to join us in defending Western values and truth at the OSCE.

Many thanks to Vlad Tepes and RAIR Foundation for uploading this video:

The text of Ms. Fahmi’s intervention is below the jump.

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Big Islamic Brother is Watching You

A gentleman of the Islamic persuasion — a former student at Al-Azhar University in Cairo — is now in charge of deciding what is and is not acceptable speech for Germans who use the Internet. To make matters worse, this soldier of Allah is also allowed to pressure online platforms to remove posts that he deems unacceptable, even if they are not illegal under German law.

Can anyone say “sharia”?

Many thanks to Hellequin GB for translating this article from the online news portal Nius:

Germany’s top censor Ahmed Gaafar admits: “If it is not criminally relevant, then we will submit a deletion request to the provider”

Numerous indications already spoke in favour of this, and now a video proves it: The reporting center “REspect”, approved by the federal government in October as the first trusted flagger, also wants to have legal content on the Internet deleted.

In a report by the [regional public] broadcaster ARD alpha from 2021, Ahmed Gaafar, the current head of the reporting office, has his say. An excerpt from the ARD report has now been published on X by Argo Nerd. In the video, Gaafar explains to the ARD reporter how the reporting office works and shows him the reports received on the computer. The reporter reads out the reports:

“Calls for violence against the police, incitement against the Federal Republic of Germany, incitement to hatred, anti-Semitism, incitement against Covid-19 vaccination, denigrating Muslims as terrorists… that is what is reported to you.”

Gaafar then explains how “REspect” deals with the reports: “What happens next is that we simply look at the reports and we have a legal team that can assess whether it is criminally relevant or not. And if it is criminally relevant, then we report it directly to the police or the State Criminal Police Office. If it is not criminally relevant, then we will submit a deletion request to the provider.”

(The video proves that Gaafar and the reporting office are urging digital platforms to remove legal content as well.)

In October, the reporting office “REspect”, which is financed in part by the Ministry of Family Affairs headed by Lisa Paus (Greens), was approved as the first trusted flagger by the Federal Network Agency. The authority, which is headed by Klaus Müller from the Greens, thus implemented the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA). Since then, digital platforms have been obliged to give priority to investigating reports from “REspect” and remove content if necessary. Critics suspect that this could lead to so-called over-blocking, i.e. the mass deletion of legal content. “REspect” has since played a central role in controlling statements on the Internet.

According to the Federal Network Agency’s guidelines, in order to be approved as a trusted flagger, “REspect” actually had to prove that its own employees were competent in distinguishing between criminal and non-criminal content. The video now proves that the reporting office and its director are striving for the opposite. The Federal Network Agency’s guidelines had already given indications that non-criminal content could also be removed. It listed numerous “unacceptable contents”, including “hate speech” or “negative effects on civil discourse or elections”. The reporting office, as Gaafar’s words suggest, could report all online posts that it classifies as hate speech or negative effects on discourse and urge the provider to delete them.

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Gates of Vienna News Feed 10/23/2024

The Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua threw boiling water at a pregnant woman in a Colorado city where the mayor insists ‘They’re not a problem.’ Meanwhile, an illegal Chinese immigrant may have exposed hundreds of people in Louisiana to a rare, drug-resistant form of tuberculosis.

In other news, the Lithuanian government has not ruled out French President Emmanuel Macron’s idea of sending military instructors to Ukraine.

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

Thanks to Dean, JW, LP, MM, Reader from Chicago, Roger, 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.

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Yet Another Mentally Ill Knife-Wielding Culture-Enricher

I posted yesterday about a 23-year-old Syrian culture-enricher in Germany who was given custody of five foster children, and paid well for his efforts.

Now we come to another Syrian culture-enricher in Germany who also interacted significantly with a child. This time the encounter featured a knife, and the victim was four years old.

Many thanks to Hellequin GB for translating this article from Junge Freiheit. The translator’s comments are in square brackets:

After a knife attack on four-year-old — Syrian does not have to go to prison

In the Allgäu region, a migrant stabs a little girl four times and seriously injures her — she barely survives. But the Syrian does not have to go to prison. The judge uses the verdict to incite hatred against the AfD.

Ravensburg

The Ravensburg Regional Court has sentenced the knife attacker Mohamed S. to life in a psychiatric hospital. The public prosecutor had accused him of attempted murder, and the jury also found it that way. The Syrian, who also has a Dutch passport, stabbed a four-year-old girl in a supermarket in Wangen im Allgäu at the beginning of April this year.

He is now considered not responsible due to mental illness. During the trial he said he had had a divine inspiration. Without warning he stabbed the child with a 20-centimetre long knife, giving the girl “four powerful stabs” and tearing her intestines and stomach to shreds. He then ran away.

While the child’s mother drove her to a hospital, the police arrested S. In addition to the co-plaintiff and the public prosecutor, the perpetrator’s legal counsel also spoke out in favor of psychiatric care. No one appealed against the verdict, which is now legally binding.

Judge: Swabians can also be knife attackers

According to the Schwäbische Zeitung, the senior public prosecutor Christine Weiss had clear words regarding the social prognosis of the now 35-year-old offender. For her, it is clear that S. suffers from “paranoid schizophrenia in an acute phase” and is extremely dangerous. She also doubted that the Syrian is capable of empathy. “There is no sign of any improvement in the man, and there is still a risk that he will commit serious crimes.” Therefore, there is no alternative to a stay in a psychiatric hospital. [Having empathy towards a kafir? Don’t be ridiculous. In which bubble does she live? Then there is the alternative to send him back to Syria. Personally, I’d send him to the bottom of the ocean.]

Presiding judge Veiko Böhm said it was “difficult to bear” that the AfD parliamentary group was making inquiries about the case and thus exploiting the crime for its own ideology. “The knife attack has nothing to do with Islamist radicalism, it is solely the result of a mental illness,” he stressed. A Swabian man could also do something like that, but in this case “there is no AfD parliamentary group that is making an application.” [Really, it has everything to do with Islam. Otherwise why wasn’t this happening before and on such a massive scale, especially since before 2015? I’d like for this “judge” to explain this phenomena. But when dealing with ideological retards… Well, they don’t seem to like sending other likeminded ideological retards to the slammer or scaffold.]

The mayor of Wangen, Michael Lang (independent), said shortly after the attack: “The fact that a child is suddenly attacked is something that shocks us all and makes us incredibly upset and dismayed.” The politician said he knew the victim’s family. Around 25,000 people live in Wangen.

Afterword from the translator:

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Gates of Vienna News Feed 10/22/2024

The IDF announced that there is a Hezbollah bunker full of cash and gold under a hospital in southern Beirut, which it did not strike. Meanwhile, a report from the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development said it could take 350 years for Gaza to rebuild to its prewar level.

In other news, The Los Angeles Times has decided not to endorse Kamala Harris in this year’s presidential election.

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

Thanks to Daniel Greenfield, Dean, DV, JW, LP, Reader from Chicago, Roger, 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.

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Kids R Us

Social Services decided to place five foster children with a 23-year-old Syrian culture-enricher, and pay the young man handsomely for his services.

Sounds like a good idea, right?

Right?

Well, apparently it does, if you’re German.

Many thanks to Hellequin GB for translating this article from the online news portal Nius. The translator’s comments are in square brackets:

23-year-old Syrian earns €13,000 a month from foster children: “For me, it’s like pimping”

It sounds like a bad joke, but it is bitter reality. In North Rhine-Westphalia, a 23-year-old Syrian receives €13,000 a month from the state for five foster children that were placed with him through youth welfare organizations. They also earn money from every child that finds a foster family. At NIUS Live, Björn Harms and Birgit Kelle talk about the profiteers of the asylum industry and why the welfare state is in danger because of this abuse.

“That’s 13 Syrian annual salaries,” says the author Birgit Kelle. “The youth welfare office would take away a German’s children,” she is convinced. The man is a hairdresser and only 23 years old. “You should be financially secure and not have to live off the money you get from the state” if you take in children, raise them, and introduce them to German society. [By a Muslim? What GERMAN society is that?] “This is a mockery to all the families in Germany who get up every morning without getting any money to look after their children.” [That’s because they are native German children, and as we know by now, not a protected species.]

“This is an invitation to organized crime”

It is quite obvious that the young man is using the children to get money from the state. “For me, it’s like pimping,” comments Kelle. “It’s an invitation to organized crime. For me, the youth organization is heavily involved in this.” It is an embezzlement of taxpayers’ money, “an invitation to fraud.”

Kelle, herself a mother of four children, was “fobbed off” with €300 in childcare allowance. The Syrian’s case shows that there is money in the coffers. “Billions are there. The only question is who gets them.” In response to a NIUS query, the ministry claimed that this was an isolated case. “The insider I spoke to says something different. It has become a business model,” says Björn Harms, describing his research. “I hope that this case will also have repercussions.” Because: “We see that a welfare state only works with closed borders. Otherwise a welfare state quickly develops into an anti-social state.”

Afterword from the translator:

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Gates of Vienna News Feed 10/21/2024

A rejected asylum seeker from Libya has been arrested on suspicion of planning a terrorist attack on the Israeli embassy in Berlin. Meanwhile, shortly after his release from prison for a stabbing attack, an Eritrean asylum seeker in Germany stabbed and seriously wounded another person.

In other news, the OnlyFans model who threw a McDonald’s milkshake at Nigel Farage has pled guilty to assault and criminal damage.

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

Thanks to Daniel Greenfield, Dean, DV, JW, LP, Reader from Chicago, TN, 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.

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Big Brother is Watching You

From the perspective of the Left, the German journalist Aya Velázquez used to be politically reliable, especially when it came to climate issues. But during the “pandemic” she strayed from the party line on Corona-related matters, and now she is being targeted by the State in the same fashion that is usually reserved for neo-Nazis or “Islamophobes”: she is under massive surveillance.

However, Ms. Velázquez is fighting back: she is now counter-surveilling the State.

Many thanks to Hellequin GB for translating this article from Junge Freiheit:

Freedom of the Press?

Critical journalist Aya Velázquez: The Enemy of the State

The press is free? The Aya Velázquez case shows how quickly critical journalists can become targets for the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution [Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz, BfV]. But the young investigative reporter is now striking back.

The enemy of the state may be slim and petite, but she is quite angry and determined to get back at the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution in kind: “Enough;” complains Aya Velázquez, “we are watching back!”

Her case shows how quickly not only right-wing but also left-wing journalists — who since the Spiegel affair in 1962 have actually been seen as a symbol of the exemplary nature of German democracy — can now come under the scrutiny of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution: With her inquiry into whether the secret service was storing data about her, the 1986-born Berliner has demonstrated a journalistic instinct.


Aya Velázquez

In fact, her name, her personal data, as well as a posting and an article written by her can be found 815 times in the files — filed in the “phenomenon area of de-legitimization of the state relevant to the protection of the constitution”. It was not revealed which texts these are, only that they were published in 2022. Although the entry will now be automatically deleted after two years, the young woman is nevertheless outraged that journalism is being denounced as undermining democracy.

Velázquez became a critical investigative journalist

It is also shameful that solidarity from the established media is lacking. What was once no obstacle to being accepted by the taz [daily newspaper Die Tageszeitung] — her origins from a left-wing activist environment — is apparently a reason for exclusion in the case of Velázquez. In fact, the cultural anthropology student became politicized in the wake of the Corona protests and initially wrote for the newspaper Democratic Resistance that emerged from them. Before that, at least when it came to climate issues, she had been fully in line with the green government. In 2019, for example, Velázquez tweeted that “the ‘end of civilization’ due to climate collapse is near” and called for a “global climate strike.” She is now surprised at herself: As a former “climate activist, I would never have dreamed that I would one day share articles critical of the climate, but the climate discourse is also riddled with power politics and massive conflicts of interest.”

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They’re Coming to Take Me Away

The municipal authorities put in a bike path that ended up being in violation of the fire regulations, so the solution was to compel residents to move out of adjacent apartment buildings.

Makes sense, right?

Right?

Well, I guess it does if you’re German.

Many thanks to Hellequin GB for translating this article from the online news portal Nius:

Because they want to build new bicycle paths: tenants have to move out of their apartments — and the fire brigade can no longer get to operations

In Kantstrasse in Berlin-Charlottenburg, hundreds of tenants are worried about their future: the district office is threatening to throw them out of their apartments by issuing a “ban on use”. As the B.Z. reports, the background to the possible eviction is a conflict over a “pop-up bicycle path” set up four years ago, which has led to considerable safety concerns.

As it happens, the cycle path runs along the right edge of the road, followed by a parking lane and the lane for flowing traffic. The fire service has already criticized this in the past, saying that such a set-up makes the distance between the left lane and the residential buildings too large, meaning that emergency vehicles such as ladder trucks cannot be used correctly in the event of a fire. This is also a problem in that for buildings up to 22 meters high, rescue by ladder is required by law as a second escape route.

Charlottenburg’s district councillor Christoph Brzezinski (CDU) has repeatedly pointed out this problem. In a letter to the Secretary of State for Transport Johannes Wieczorek (CDU) in mid-September, Brzezinski stated: “Since 2020, my department and your department have had countless discussions about this problem, with the result that the illegal situation continues unchanged.” He added that this could no longer be tolerated because there was a “serious danger to the life and limb of the residents.”

To solve this problem, the city council is now planning a drastic measure: From November 1, “use bans” will gradually be issued for the affected apartments. This means that tenants will no longer be allowed to enter their apartments from the third floor upwards. The district office confirmed this announcement at the request of the FDP faction. Where the affected tenants will be accommodated, however, remained unclear.

According to the B.Z., Johannes Heyne, district parliamentarian for the FDP, sharply criticized the situation: “The installation of the cycle path was not coordinated with the district. This dispute is now being fought on the backs of the tenants — this is causing incredible uncertainty and frustration towards the administration.” While he understands that the district council is liable if it tolerates the building code violations, the tenants should not be the ones to suffer. “A sensible solution must be found!”

Afterword from the translator:

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