German police say AfD membership incompatible with service
The Federal Police Commissioner of Germany has expressed disapproval of police officers' membership in the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
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.
Honestly, it's not as rosy as this makes it out to be. Germany and the rest of Europe have their own surge of right wing extremism to contend with. Some of it can be traced back to Russian and Chinese influence. But they wouldn't have it so easy if there weren't enough seeds already.
Police groups that have chats where they share their racist views. Clubs fighting to keep their sexist and racist "traditions" alive that are about a hundred years old. Our current government is conducting illegal border controls despite rulings deeming them illegal and ordering a stop.
A quarter of last election's votes went to the extremists. Another quarter but slightly more to the not so extreme racists who now form the government together with a so called left wing party that failed biology when backbones were discussed.
Our media just ignores it all or amplifies everything the extremists are saying in an attempt to "show all sides".
By now we have an official document by our constitution defence spelling out without a doubt that the extremists are not a democratic party but want to dismantle democracy. And our government refuses to open up the lawsuit to ban them because "we have to defeat them politically" when that has failed spectacularly over the last decade because bit by bit they copy their talking points.
This mechanism to ban extremists in Germany was explicitly implemented to fend of exactly what is happening right now. Because we know from our history that anti democratic parties can rise to power through democratic means. And we have to fight that every way we can before it is again too late.
Watch their bank accounts very closely, Russian money is sure to pop up
That's a really good photo for the article
It absolutely isn't, but it's good that he's saying so anyway.
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.
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
Must be opposite day in Germany.
Of course, afd is probably way too moderate for large parts of the German police
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.
Good, rationality prevails a little at least