Don't mention the walk (Soccer Fans Who Use Nazi Humor at World Cup to be Jailed)

The Sun ^ | February 9, 2006 | NICK PARKER

[RWR8189]

Fawlty powers ... two weeks in jail if fans goose-step like Basil

GERMAN cops will use sweeping powers to collar England fans doing Basil Fawlty-style Hitler impressions at the World Cup. Yobs will be instantly banged up for TWO WEEKS if they goose-step like John Cleese in his most famous Fawlty Towers scene. And hard core louts who give Nazi salutes — like the one jokingly made by Michael Barrymore in Celebrity Big Brother — could be hauled before a judge within 24 hours. If convicted of inciting hatred they will face jail terms of up to THREE YEARS. Wearing joke German helmets or any offensive insignia will also result in a stretch behind bars. The crackdown was revealed by police in Nuremberg, where England will play Trinidad and Tobago in a first-round World Cup match on June 15. The city is particularly sensitive to World War II jibes. Its gleaming World Cup stadium stands in the shadow of the parade ground used for Hitler’s notorious Nazi rallies in the 1930s. Not awight ... salute like Barrymore could end with three YEARS in jail The city was carpet-bombed by the Allies during the war. Cops there say Nazi taunts are NOT funny and will NOT be tolerated. Police chief Gerhard Hauptmannl, a 59-year-old former judge and Mafia crimebuster, said yesterday:   “We will come down hard on people who use insulting behaviour or make trouble. We are very sensitive about our history. England football fans should be aware that the Nazi salute and provocative behaviour like goose-stepping in public will be punished. We will offer the warmest welcome to true football fans. But anyone glorifying extremism here risks arrest. We are prepared to use our police powers to hold fans for up to two weeks without charge if we feel they are a threat to public safety and order. This used to be the city of the Nazi rallies but is now famous as the city of human rights. We do not live in the past.” Around 10,000 England fans will have tickets for the match at the refurbished 44,000-seat Franken Stadium on the outskirts of the rebuilt Bavarian city. But a similar number of Three Lions followers are expected to travel without tickets — including our nation’s notorious hooligan element. The city’s police are beefing up CCTV surveillance with a £1.1million space-age computerised control centre. Jail awaits ... Sun man Nick Parker inspects German cells It has a bank of high-definition flat screen monitors linked to cameras that can zoom in on a single face. Close-up pictures can then be transmitted to snatch squads who will grab ringleaders in seconds. A new cell block has been built at Nuremberg’s police HQ, with space for at least 65 prisoners. Another 230 cells will be available in the area. Even the stadium has its own lock-up block ready for hooligans and drunks. More than 3,000 cops will be on red alert, including a rapid reaction force supported by highly-trained riot teams, helicopters, water cannon and dogs. Uniformed British bobbies will also patrol grounds where England play. Police station jailer Sergeant Horst Schwarz showed The Sun one of 14 purpose-built steel cages installed in the bowels of the nick.

He declared: “English, German or whatever, I don’t care. If they are hooligans, they will not cause problems once they arrive here.”

Police fear rival yobs who follow teams from the old East Germany may travel to confront English louts.

They are also worried racist Brits will attack black Trinidad and Tobago fans.

Mr Hauptmannl said: “We are co-operating with British police to look for any provocative behaviour in the city which might lead to violence.

“Racist abuse of black people by England fans will also be taken very seriously.

“If such behaviour is seen as a threat to order, my officers will have the power to remove offensive fans from the situation.

“They can then be held for up to two weeks without charge or charged under a fast track system and fined or jailed the next day.

“Either way, we have the power to deal with troublemakers and we will not hesitate to use it.”

More than 3,000 England fans are on a banning order list forbidding them to attend matches.

It is possible another 1,100 names will be added before the World Cup tournament kicks off.

But German authorities are ignoring warnings about booze-fuelled aggro.

Bars will serve strong local beer from 1pm to 1am on match days.

[Michael81Dus]

Deal. ;-)

[Michael81Dus]

Of course I respect your opinion. I even understand it from the American view. It´s just that it doesn´t give anybody the right to call us unfree, because we have these limits of free speech. Insults (like calling someone an @$$hole) and the Nazi symbols are banned. Everybody knows it, and except for the Neo-Nazis, nobody bothers.

It´s strange for me that the Brits have a problem with this law, because they see in every German a Nazi - even in this logo of the German police for World Cup 2006 they saw Hitler:

The Brits are really obsessed with the Nazis.

[truemiester]

Dont worry about the goose stepping to nazi salutes. The soccer hooligans will beat up enough people and break enough stuff that those will be the most minor of charges.

[Joe Boucher]

I am ignorant of this so I ask, are there many neo-nazis there? Are they from east Germany or from all over?
I understand that we have extreme right wingers here as well
just that here they are amongst all the other crazy groups and not too many.

[Michael81Dus]

We ´ve ca. 3/4% of the voters choosing Nazi parties. And there´re several thousands of Neo-Nazis who would use violence to promote their aims. Fortunately, the number of crimes with Nazi background is stable on a low level, compared to the riots shortly after reunification, when people especially in East Germany had no understanding that we grant asylum to political refugees. As far as I know, noone was killed by Nazis last year for political/religious reasons. So, yes, we´re watching closely the Nazi scene, but no, they don´t pose an immediate threat to our society so far.

[libertylover]

Do you actually think military troops should obtain a court order before capturing an enemy soldier or enemy combatant on the battlefield? And no, these battlefield prisoners should not be allowed to further clog our court systems. And by the way, even the police don't require a court order to arrest someone. If they see a crime they arrest the person. Courts come later.

Totalitarian government? I ask you, is Cindy Sheehan in a concentration camp? Is Michael Moore in a concentration camp? Nope. They're free to be as stupid as they like as long as they don't commit violence.

[Michael81Dus]

Are you opening a new book?
Inform yourself about the Zamar case, about the El-Masri case and learn about the correctness of your government. Learn about torture practises, capturing civilians from travel busses in the foreign and bringing them to secret prisons.
I have not called your government totalitarian, so don´t call mine like that! How many people in Germany were arrested for doing the Nazi salute in 2005? None. How many people sit in prison for doing the Nazi salute? None.

Accept it, laws restrict freedom, but this doesn´t mean you´re unfree. You are free to drive a car, although you´ve to "buckle up - it´s the law". You are free to express your opinion on whatever in Germany - you may call yourself a Nazi in public - but the way how you do it is relevant. We don´t allow disrespectful behaviour with regard to the dignity of the Nazi victims.

[Supernatural]

Laws everywhere are getting more and more restrictive all the time. Especially in the U.S.A., in the name of the
"War on Terrorism". Soon those laws will be used against citizens that the govt. doesn't like. Always happens with laws made for an intended purpose, always will.

[Brian Allen]

<< .... our guests will behave ... so ... our policemen don´t have to waste their time on (the) Nazi-costumed .... >>

1. Ve haff vays und means off making you beehafe and;

2. The police probably need the practice. Especially given that Germany's native-descended males are all emasculated, feminized and homosexualized girlymen and, baring American Servicemen and the occasional handful of British visitors, the few intact and virile men found there are either Turks or are representative of Germany's various assorted harbored and asylumed Islamanazis.

[Michael81Dus]

Oh, we how despaired we´d be if we hadn´t you and your thoughtful, well-founded, experienced posts. Thank you for your contributions, this forum wouldn´t be half as funny without you!!

[AnalogReigns]

Germany since WWII has ALWAYS been sensitive to any public reference to the Nazi era--making open reference to it illegal from the 1945 on. 10s of millions of Germans died following the evil madman Hitler and understandably it's not something they can joke about. Also, even though it's 60 years ago, the world still often thinks of Germany as latent Nazis. Just let Germany do anything someone doesn't like...and the Nazis are brought up.

The movie Eurotrip is just that, a movie....in real Germany, or Austria too, a brat who pretended to look like Hitler would be utterly shocking, and I bet his parents would be at least yelled at...and certainly not helped out (as Germans usually do for tourists).

This would be the equivelent of going to Haarlem and dressing in black-face to make fun of slaves and slavery.

When was the last movie you saw where someone with a German accent was the good guy? It happens...but very rarely. 9 of 10 times the bad guy has the harsh evil German accent. (even though German really doesn't sound that harsh, in real life)

I don't know what you're referring to with calling African players monkeys--but if you got caught...they'd jail you for that too.

Germany is very free thinking and full of free speech--and especially the young people are very frank in condemning the Nazis, but it's still a very sensitive subject. We in America too, encouraged(required?) West Germany banning of Nazi symbols, salutes and speech, in order to help root out any sympathizers to that horrific regime. A compromise on free speech? Yes, but in light of their history, understandable. It's not America, but it does work for them.

[AnalogReigns]

I agree with your comments about Germany. With the few exceptions that good, normal, sane people wouldn't violate anyway, its just as free as the USA.

I've been to Germany three times...twice for several weeks each, and I have several German friends. It's kind of shocking how ignorant a lot of us Americans are of modern Germany....many just think of storm troopers, very sad.

I doubt you and I would see the war on terror the same way, however. I'm sure you're probably aware that the European media bias starts to the left of the most left-wing of Americans. You don't get the same news that we do...nor do we get the same often anti-American news you do, and it definitely affects perceptions.

I've known Europeans who've lived in the USA for a while...and they usually end up seeing things much more "conservatively" then when they first came over from Europe. Of course the "right" in America is different than the "right" in Europe. From what I've read the right there(folks like Le Pen in France) are close to being truly fascist.

Conservatives here are primarily constitutionalists...meaning that they want smaller , more restrained government--not the mean nationalism found in Europe's right.

Our left too, say, someone like Ted Kennedy, has views that would be considered relatively mainstream or even conservative in Europe.....we do live in different worlds.

[AnalogReigns]

That's a really bigoted remark. Not worthy of a conservative.

[Sofa King]

"So you say it´s totalitarian to punish people who enjoy insulting victims of the Nazi regime?"

Yes, it is. If you only have the freedom to do things that others approved of then you don't have any freedom at all.

[Brian Allen]

<< So you say it´s totalitarian to punish people who enjoy insulting victims of [Germany's Nazis]?

Yes, it is. If you only have the freedom to do things that others approved of then you don't have any freedom at all. >>

Well said.

Sadly the Germans, like all of the other old Europeons, are so deeply steeped in so many generations of fasciSSocialism and in every other form of left-wing authorarianism as to have long ago lost any ability to realize how totalitarian their satellite Euro-peon Neo-Soviet police states have long been.

[Michael81Dus]

Thanks for your kind words. In fact, I´m with you in the WOT. One may discuss details, such as Gitmo (as we have), but the general course has no alternative.

[Michael81Dus]

And I say that it makes a difference whether you´re generally not allowed to do something or if the restriction is limited to the public. One can compare Nazi salutes with having sex in the public, the usual citizen doesn´t want to see it, so it´s forbidden, but nobody cares when you do it at home. We have not banned Nazi views (how can we?) and we don´t care about what you do at home (as long you´re not preparing crimes).

[Dante3]

Don't the Russian troops also goose-step?

[plain talk]

All you have said is that it Nazi style salutes are in bad taste and dishonor people. People can agree or disagree about that. However, no rational case has been made for arresting people and putting them in prison for it.

I just gave you another Sieg Heil while placing my left index finger over my lip.

[MikefromOhio]

Well at least they aren't talking about an inflatable Penis....



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