Residents of a small German town have been left outraged after its mayor suggested young girls “provoke” sexual harassment.
Jens Müller, Mayor of Bad Schlema, Saxony, made the comments at a council meeting last week, after a grandfather raised concerns young girls were being subject to harassment as they walked home from school, German newspaper FreiePresse reports.
The man, who has not been identified, claimed his granddaughter, who he said was under 10 years old, had been a victim of such behaviour.
He said: “The girls have been harassed by the refugee children" as they walked to their physical education classes at school.
He raised further fears the harassment may increase when the girls wear less clothing in the summer months.
In response to the comments Mr Müller said: “That’s easy, just don’t provoke them and don’t walk in these areas.”
“It’s technically not necessary for the girls to walk there,” he added. “There are alternative routes for going to school.”
20 comments
The mayor may have been misunderstood. Of course, the kids should be able to walk wherever they wish without harassment, but what can the police really do about it? I don't think you can even arrest a child in Germany for anything but a major crime. I think the mayor ham-handedly pointed out that some due diligence is necessary to avoid trouble. You don't walk through the "bad" part of town with $100 bills stapled to your clothes.
The best solution would probably be to have some kind of escort as they walk, or drive the kids home. As an openly-gay man, I go where I wish, but I know not to walk into a redneck biker bar in drag and start singing showtunes. A little common sense goes along way.
You also don't walk through the bad part of town looking like someone who won't be missed. You also don't walk through the "good" part of town looking like someone who won't be missed because then it's the respectable citizenry and law enforcement that will jump you where they would normally be content to ignore attacks on your person. Victims of opportunity are not limited to standouts people with money are just the ones we raise a fuss about.
Using the same idiot argument about women's bodies is even worse - and keep in mind these kids are 10 - because as stats from the very country these refugees fled from being covered from head to toe does nothing to dissuade predators because all their lives they've been condidtioned to believe the damned DARVO and literally anything can be used as an excuse and they will get away with it.
@ midnightcyn
And what is always with the over the top visual metaphors? A mugger in Harlem doesn't give a shit your bag is Prada or your suit is an Armani and probably couldn't even identify them from a 30 dollar bargain bin item. Having clothes in good repair is more than enough to make them think you have something worth taking. Just like being disinterested in college football or looking cross when somebody lifts up a woman's skirt at the pub with a pool cue is more than enough to make them question your sexuality. Having a small, unassuming home makes it look soft while having a security system makes it look like you have something worth the effort. There is no visual encouragement or discouragement for a career criminal just risk/payoff/thrill sometimes underlined by a sense of entitlement.
It is and has always been a question of what people think they can get away with. As they get away with a malicious act using the same excuses they will gradually push boundries uping the scale of thefts and assaults while jumping on smaller and smaller instances of their excuse. General high school level physical bullying will explode into public beatings if routinely permitted and when bullies get away with harassing the openly gay they lower their standards to include things like speech impediments, to hair partings, to not being ultra-agressive about their masculinity, to flat out picking fights and deciding afterwards not liking whoever they just scrapped with was enough to think them gay and nobody will bother questioning it.
You wouldn't walk into the redneck bar and advertise what you are and in a very short term view that delays redneck aggression but the fact remains they'll victimize you without a second thought and it wouldn't even matter how inconspicuous you were or even if you came in a ten block radius of what you've identified as a danger zone. So ask yourself just what keeps the rednecks in their bar instead of hunting you all over the city using tinier and tinier indicators? Take IS and their 'flirting' squads as the endgame. That's the direction you head for as long as anyone is afraid of going to the bar instead of the bar being afraid of someone losing their self-control.
They're just kids right now, and kids can be assholes to each other. That said, if they keep being assholes in a few years, I think the police should probably keep an eye on them. Most refugees, of course, aren't criminals, but being a refugee and being a public nuisance and outright committing crime probably means you need to be deported.
@1913228
That's rather idealistic, I think.
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