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Last updated on August 9th, 2017 at 03:45 pm
Inexplicable mayhem in Germany:
A knife-wielding man attacked people streaming out of a gala ceremony for Berlin’s new central rail station on Friday night, injuring up to 20 before being arrested, police said.
“A crazy man ran down the street stabbing people arbitrarily,” a policeman at the scene said. Police said some of the injured were in serious condition.
The attacker was identified as a 17-year old German man from Neukoelln, a southern Berlin district with a large immigrant population. Police said he did not have a far-right background.
It’s a Reuters piece, of course. Speaking of Reuters, one of the agency’s employees is under investigation after apparently sending this note to LGF’s Charles Johnson: “I look forward to the day when you pigs get your throats cut.” It is not known if the employee has a far-right background.
Police said he did not have a far-right background.
I don’t understand this reference either. Apparently there were earlier racially-motivated attacks on “dark-skinned people” in eastern Germany. Possibly, they’re saying this particular attacker isn’t a skinhead. But, since the crowd of people coming out of the train station would obviously not all be dark-skinned, why mention at all that the young man is not a skinhead. Unless it’s code for “his name is Mohammed”?
#3: I think Rebecca may have nailed it. Maybe it’s code, particularly when viewed in the context of his having come from an area “with a large immigrant population”.
On the other hand, maybe it was just a teutonic kook with some weird grievance against trains. Perhaps the media will favor us with the facts soon.
But unless far-right thugs are particularly known for random knife attacks against large groups of people, it seems odd that Reuters would have seen fit to exclude the category from consideration.
My guess is that a reporter asked the police whether the suspect had a far-right background, which is European for white racist, and the police said no. Reuters passed along the info because there is little else to report right now.
In news items, reporters’ questions are usually omitted from the story and only the answer is reported. This is to give the impression that reporters don’t exist and that the item as printed is handed down by god. The practice frequently gives news a weird, unnatural vibe.
Posted by Brian O’Connell on 2006 05 26 at 11:05 PM • permalink
Yes, what does the term “far right” add in this context? The story is about a spate of foreigner-bashing in Germany
“The anti-immigrant far right has no seats in the national parliament, but occasional successes for fringe parties in state elections and high-profile hate crimes have raised concern — especially in the formerly communist and economically struggling east.”
This is my take on the use of the term “right” by the left.
“The use of the term ‘right’ to apply to all positions that are not clearly ‘left’ has been a powerful rhetorical tool for the left ever since Hitler gave the so-called Right a bad name and associated the ‘right’ with jackboots and concentration camps. It is helpful to recall that Hitler was actually a socialist, to wit a National Socialist rather than a State Socialist of the communist variety. The labels did not make much difference to the victims.”
A bit more on that theme.
The attacker was identified as a 17-year old German man from Neukoelln, a southern Berlin district with a large immigrant population.
What’s the best the offender was a young male of middle-eastern appearance?
Posted by Oafish and Infantile on 2006 05 27 at 04:24 AM • permalink
Most of the comments here are focused on the German train station story. May I suggest that people follow the second story about the death-threat to LGF’s Charles Johnson? It really is quite interesting.
You see, the suspect is not just any old ‘reuters employee’ – he appears to be Inayat Bunglawala, media secretary of the Muslim Council of Britain.
To give a rough analogy, this would be the equivalent of, say, Keysar Trad (prominent and influential islamic spokesman in Oz) threatening to cut Tim Blair’s throat via email!
This story should be huge. This should be front-page news on the BBC in England.
I just read the LGF story, and the associated forum at the Guardian, and an associated commentary at “The Nordish Portal” by a Guardian commenter who was debating Inayat at the Guardian site.
The evidence they have ammassed is really quite damning. They have logs of the offenders IP address logging via his Reuters acount at his work computer, and his hand-held Blackberry, and following links between the three websites mentioned, all at the exact same time as Inayat Bunglawala (who apparently writes for Reuters) is commenting at the Guardian (he denies the claims)…
I really, really hope Charles from LGF refers this to the Britsh police. At the moment, I think he has only referred it to Reuters who have suspended a guy pending an investigation – but they havent released the identity of the person publicly. The police, of course, could compel Reuters to reveal the hate-mailer’s identity…
If there are any Britons (preferably lawyers!) who read Timblair.net, perhaps you could head over to LGF and see if Charles needs any info/help on how to pursue this with the Brit police?
This could be another Rathergate-feather in LGF’s cap!
A knife-wielding man attacked people streaming out of a gala ceremony for Berlin’s new central rail station on Friday night, injuring up to 20 before being arrested, police said.
It may just be a hard luck case.
A Japanese random railway station knifer http://home.att.net/~rhhardin2/japancut.bad.ra noticed something.
“The subject reportedly told police that no matter what he does, it never turns out well.’’
- You want Right-wing? Try this.
Kills terrorists, beings freedom, brings peace. What a psycho. Go Alvaro!Posted by Hector Cross on 2006 05 27 at 07:52 AM • permalink
Speaking of Reuters, one of the agency’s employees is under investigation after apparently sending this note to LGF’s Charles Johnson: “I look forward to the day when you pigs get your throats cut.” It is not known if the employee has a far-right background.
Said Johnson: “When a comment expressing the desire for a group of people to be killed was posted to LGF were were just shocked. It was just so out of character for one of our blog posts to receive a comment like that.”
According to The Scotsman, “The teenager, whose identity was not released, was known to police for previous acts of violence.”
Maybe he is a German tennis fan?
Posted by andycanuck on 2006 05 27 at 10:38 AM • permalink
#11, I’ve been paying close attention to this story and I certainly hope Tim Blair will devote a lot of space to this story on his blog. Very interesting indeed.
Incidentally, this is a guy who was appointed by the British Home Office to tackle muslim extremism in the UK. And the fact that he is a well known terrorist sympathiser, did not stop the appointment, nor him being portrayed as a ‘moderate.’
And We all know, it’s not the first time that Al-Guardian had employed a terrorist.
*squint*
Heh…
. .
.*squint*
Nope, still not working, ushie.
:^þ
Posted by Spiny Norman on 2006 05 27 at 02:13 PM • permalink
Mr Uribe, 53, an Oxford-educated lawyer and yoga fanatic, changed the constitution to stand a second time and all the polls suggest he is far ahead of his rivals.
Is he a RW or LW yoga fanatic? These things make a difference, you know!
18 Ushie’s suspicion
I’m getting the vibe that Tank is a new troll.
Not so sure. Tank’s not all that new, for one thing, and hasn’t been very trolly up until today.
Posted by Stoop Davy Dave on 2006 05 27 at 03:09 PM • permalink
- March 31 2006 until today is a long time for a troll to lay low before climbing out from under the bridge, if that’s what’s happening. Most of them don’t have that kind of discipline, far as I can tell.
-Stoopy Goat GruffPosted by Stoop Davy Dave on 2006 05 27 at 03:13 PM • permalink
You musta forgot this pseudo-contrarian posting spree by Tank right after he signed up, Stoop.
Oh, and then there was this thread where Tank plays überpatriot in order to claim that I’m an asshole for criticizing anonymous stupid remarks by military personnel that appeared in an NYT defense of Zarqawi’s much-laughed-at weapon “proficiency”.
No worries, I can’t readily remember every troll, either. Goggles are my friend, or whatever that saying is.
Incidentally…in hindsight, I’m struck by how much Tank’s claims about the anonymous colonels in the Zarqawi thread echo that “absolute moral authority” the media likes to heap on Cindy Sheehan. I guess anyone (even those icky, babykilling military people) can be invested with that, as long as they mouth along with the lefty party line. But hey, he’s named himself “Tank”, so I’m sure He Supports The Troops.
In updates, the media isworking hard to try to find a political hook while the answer is staring them in the intro:
A KNIFE-wielding German teenager in a drunken frenzy stabbed at people…
The cops had seen him earlier but did nothing. If they had, they might have saved more than 20 lives. No one’s actually dead yet but:
One of the first victims was HIV positive, police said, adding it could not be ruled out that those stabbed after that person could also become infected.
Flippin’ ‘eck.
—Nick
Posted by The Thin Man Returns on 2006 05 28 at 03:47 AM • permalink
I don’t have a far-right background either.
For some god-damned reason my father would always vote Labor.
He thought they represented the working class. He never gave it much thought. Mostly because his father before him did the same.
Mind you that was also before (well before) the prancing class of psuedos and effetes and the Beattie Labor Government arrived. Well before. Like when Labor actually Laboured.
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Am I missing something? Were there threats of violence from right-wing groups, or is there absolutely no justifiable reason for that line to be in this news story?