Mass suspension of German police officers who shared pictures of Hitler and doctored images of refugees in gas chambers

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Police officers at a demonstration against COVID-19 restrictions in Munich, southern Germany, on September 12, 2020. CHRISTOF STACHE/AFP via Getty Images

The widespread sharing neo-Nazi imagery and pictures of Adolf Hitler on far-right chatrooms by German police has led to the suspension of 29 officers.

The officers shared extremist content, including Swastikas and doctored images of refugees in gas chambers, according to officials in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW).

Some face charges of spreading Nazi propaganda and hate speech while others are accused of not reporting the actions of their colleagues.

German police have previously faced accusations of not doing enough to weed out potentially violent nationalists in their ranks.

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Twenty-nine police officers in Germany have been suspended for sharing neo-Nazi imagery and pictures of Adolf Hitler on far-right chatrooms.

According to officials in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), the officers were allegedly using chatrooms and WhatsApp groups to share extremist content, including Swastikas and doctored images of refugees in gas chambers.

Most of the officers working in the city of Essen are said to have shared more than 100 neo-Nazi images. The findings come after 34 police stations and private homes linked were raided.

"This is a disgrace for the NRW police," the state's interior minister, Herbert Reul, said on Wednesday, according to the BBC.

"This is the worst and most repulsive kind of hate-baiting... Right-wing extremists and neo-Nazis have absolutely no place in the North Rhine-Westphalia police, our police," he added.

Reul also said he launched an investigation into the extent of extremism among state police departments, adding that authorities had to show a "crystal clear political profile" that rejected the far-right.

Some of the officers face charges of spreading Nazi propaganda and hate speech, while others are accused of not reporting their colleagues' actions.

"I'm appalled and ashamed," said Frank Richter, who is the chief of police at the force where most of the suspects worked, according to Reuters."It is hard to find words."

In July, a retired police officer from Hamburg was arrested on suspicion of sending threatening emails to Turkish lawmakers.

The officer allegedly signed the emails off with the name "NSU 2.0" — a reference to a neo-Nazi gang, which committed ten racist murders between 2000 and 2007.

Displaying images of Swastikas or other SS sig runes is illegal in Germany and considered "symbols of anti-constitutional organizations," according to Deutsche Welle.

The Nazi salute and statements such as "Heil Hitler" are also banned in public.

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Rorschach_2002 on September 20th, 2020 at 07:40 UTC »

What's this? Actual consequences and police accountability?

IMPOSSIBLE!

TheMightyCE on September 20th, 2020 at 05:33 UTC »

The widespread sharing neo-Nazi imagery and pictures of Adolf Hitler on far-right chatrooms by German police has led to the suspension of 29 officers.

That's a lot, but if you dig:

The findings come after 34 police stations and private homes linked were raided.

And of the people charged:

Some face charges of spreading Nazi propaganda and hate speech while others are accused of not reporting the actions of their colleagues.

So, this is a case where police officers were reported by their fellow officers, those that didn't report them got punished for not doing so, and the German police went to extreme lengths in order to show that this sort of shit doesn't stand.

That's exactly what's supposed to happen when this shit occurs.

autotldr on September 20th, 2020 at 05:00 UTC »

This is the best tl;dr I could make, original reduced by 80%. (I'm a bot)

The widespread sharing neo-Nazi imagery and pictures of Adolf Hitler on far-right chatrooms by German police has led to the suspension of 29 officers.

The officers shared extremist content, including Swastikas and doctored images of refugees in gas chambers, according to officials in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

According to officials in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, the officers were allegedly using chatrooms and WhatsApp groups to share extremist content, including Swastikas and doctored images of refugees in gas chambers.

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