The Federal Police Commissioner of Germany has expressed disapproval of police officers’ membership in the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
Good, rationality prevails a little at least
See, this is something that can’t happen in the USA (yet,) but is easy-peasy in the rest of the world.
Don’t give avowed authoritarians positions of power. Yes, their membership in a hate group can be used to limit their opportunities. You make a choice by joining a recognized hate group, you gotta own it.
……except in the USA, where hate groups are just fine and dandy for governmental spots. (Perhaps encouraged in some cases.)
Yet another thing the rest of the world gets right that we’re sorely behind on.
The US government is a hate group.
America largely believes the right to free expression and speech outweighs the risks brought on by those rights.
The problem is now we have a lot of fascists and we are going to lose those rights
So what do they do with all the AFD sympathizers in the police?
I don’t have any experience with police in Europe but in North America you would give them a paid vacation till things blow over and perhaps shuffle them around to another dept and let them spoil another bunch.
The old Catholic Church play
Except in this case you probably wouldn’t even need to, because right wing views are somewhat of a prerequisite of the job.
Police in Europe are less fucked up than in the US but generally still suffer from all the same sorts of problems, they’re still pigs
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Watch their bank accounts very closely, Russian money is sure to pop up
AfD already has a track record of russian support/money and chinese spies.
If only that mattered.
The intelligent thing to do is to commission studies and reach out programs to understand WHY far right parties like AfD are surging in the polls. That way you can actually understand the concerns of the people who choose to support these parties, the reasons why they’re supporting far right parties over less extreme alternatives, and what deradicalization methods are actually effective.
The dumb thing to do is to make assumptions as to why these parties are growing in popularity, and double down on them eternally regardless of how invalid or wrong those assumptions are. It’s equally as stupid to try to use force and censorship to exclude these people from public life instead of addressing the underlying issues that led to this situation in the first place. It’s like the establishment is trying to give these movements validation, martyrs, and reasons to radicalize further.
That’s a really good photo for the article
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Alice Weidel is a citizen of switzerland, so not even from the EU.
A non-German becoming leader of Germany
Wait, I’ve seen this…
I agree with the sentiment but can’t help myself imagining that the AFD now has proof that " The German deep state is against them" and other " democracy is not there anymore". I’m afraid these actions just gives them fuel and countries should resolve what causes those parties to gain momentum in the first place: fight against corporate criminal attitude, fight against smaller everyday offenses and promote how law abiding foreigners are the big majority and maybe go lighter on the publicity of other affirmative actions, but still do them of course.
Fascists don’t respect democracy or even other people’s rights, so it’s logical that democracies should not trust them in positions of power. It’s basically the paradox of tolerance: “if a society extends tolerance to those who are intolerant, it risks enabling the eventual dominance of intolerance; thereby undermining the very principle of tolerance.”
And if you want to see what happens when these kinda of people are left unchecked in the cause of retaining the “moral high ground”, just look at the USA. The USA democrats have been giving in for 40 years against increasingly perverse transgressions by republican actors, and now it’s a dumpster fire on the cusp of becoming a full blown dictatorship.
Of course, afd is probably way too moderate for large parts of the German police
