CITIZENS NEWS

Sharing official crime statistics on social media is now a hate crime in Germany

By isabelle // 2024-05-13

Sharing facts is apparently now a hate crime in Germany as a politician there has been found guilty of “inciting hatred” against local Afghan workers after posting gang rape statistics online. It all started when Hamburg’s First Mayor, Peter Tschentscher, announced in 2021 that a group of 200 Afghan workers would be moving to the city. This caught the attention of 27-year-old Marie-Therese Kaiser, a member of the right-learning Alternative for Germany party who is also a women’s safety advocate. Unhappy with this decision, she shared statistics on social media showing that Afghans in Germany have a notably high rate of committing gang rape. It was accompanied with the caption: “Afghanistan refugees; Hamburg SPD mayor for ‘unbureaucratic’ admission; Welcoming culture for gang rape?” The official government statistics show that foreign people are involved in half of all of the gang rape cases there and the role of Afghans in gang rape, rape and other serious crimes is very high relative to their population. However, despite this data, authorities decided that she was inciting hatred against these individuals, with a Verden regional court in Lower Saxony finding her guilty. Judge Heiko Halbfas stated that “anyone who attacks human dignity cannot invoke freedom of expression” and that her “statements” caused hatred of a nationally determined group. She will now have a criminal record and must pay a fine of $6000. Ahead of her case, the politician stood behind her decision to share the data, writing on X: “My appeal hearing for alleged incitement will take place at the beginning of May. Simply naming numbers, dates and facts is to be declared a criminal offense, just because the establishment does not want to face reality. I will not allow myself to be silenced.” Many people expressed their horror over this insane interpretation of the law, with X owner Elon Musk asking on the platform: “Are you saying the fine was for repeating accurate government statistics? Was there anything inaccurate in what she said?”

The data shows a clear link between crime and immigration

Others have been sharing a chart showing the makeup of gang rape suspects, with a caption that reads: “In Germany, Afghans and Africans are proportionally 40x and 70x more involved in gang rapes than Germans.” Mass immigration to Germany from the Middle East has spurred a significant spike in violent crime in the country, including rape. According to a government-commissioned study, there was a 10.4% rise in violent crime during the height of the immigration crisis – a time when around 850,000 Muslims flooded into the country. According to Deutsche Welle, 90% of this rise in violent crime can be attributed to immigrants, especially males aged 14 to 30. Moreover, despite making up less than 2% of the country's overall population at the time, nearly 12% of sex offenders and 10% of murder suspects in the country were refugees and asylum seekers in 2017. Things have only gotten worse since then. Kaiser said she intends to appeal the verdict, telling Junge Freiheit: "The whole world is astonished by this decision by the German courts. After even Elon Musk picked up on my case, I have received numerous messages of support and press inquiries. The demand for a way to donate is also becoming louder and louder.” She added that the incident has “severely shaken” her trust in German law. Although Germany claims its citizens have freedom of speech, censorship is rife and the label of “hate speech” is often used as an excuse to censor people with right-leaning views. Sources for this article include: Rmx.news TheBlaze.com

free speech censorship freedom Germany crime Hate speech intolerance migrants bias suppressed speech police left cult liberty