As I’ve mentioned before, Angela Merkel has recently been picked to receive the Roosevelt Foundation’s ‘Four Freedoms’ award.
One of FDR’s original four freedoms was freedom from fear.
How’s that working out?
MAINZ, Germany — A spate of Hundreds of sex assaults allegedly committed mostly by North African men on New Year’s Eve in Cologne has sparked an “explosion in sales” of pepper spray and non-lethal guns, German officials and an industry chief said….
“We saw a huge spike of sales numbers after January,” said Ingo Meinhard, head of the German association for gunsmiths and weapons dealers.
The association expected purchases of “so-called deterrents and defensive small arms” to at least double in 2016 following the Cologne attacks, Meinhard told NBC News.
“CS gas spray, stun guns and pepper spray are especially in great demand,” he added.
…In addition to defensive sprays, Cologne police said it had already received more than 300 applications from adults wanting to carry imitation handguns and so-called gas pistols.
This was compared to 408 licenses for these weapons issued during all of 2015, police spokeswoman Daniela Lindemann said. Germany’s strict gun laws mean that only hunters and professional marksmen are allowed to obtain licenses for lethal arms and would-be buyers are subject to background checks.
A survey by public broadcaster ZDF found that 60 percent of respondents believe Germany cannot cope with the large numbers of new arrivals, which reached 1.1 million in 2015. The Cologne attacks clearly had an impact, the broadcaster said, as only 46 percent of people surveyed in December felt that way. The poll of 1,203 people over January 12 to 14 also found that a majority (56 percent) are now dissatisfied with German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s refugee policies, up from 49 percent in December. Seven people in 10 fear the influx will lead to more crime, compared to 62 percent in October.And a growing minority, now at 42 percent from 33 percent in October, say they fear their cultural values are under threat.A separate survey by the group DeutschlandTrend for the state TV ARD found that 51 percent of German adults said they do not believe Merkel’s repeated claim – “we will manage” – that Germany can absorb the inflow.In October, 48 percent of respondents said they had this view. The poll also found that 48 percent of those surveyed said they were afraid of refugees, while 50 percent said they did not have this view. That question was not asked in October.
Meanwhile from Warsaw the Centre for Eastern Studies (OSW) gives its verdict on Merkel’s immigration policy. Here’s an extract:
Germany: Freedom from Fear?The Chancellor’s calculation that she would succeed in imposing a model of appropriate behaviour on the migrants (by making gestures of solidarity and by admitting the migrants resident in Hungary at the beginning of September 2015 to Germany) has failed. Attempts to stigmatise the backgrounds of groups opposing the admission of the migrants also failed.
Merkel did not foresee that these measures, combined with earlier instances of neglect (several years of ignoring the fact that the German asylum system is used as a gateway for economic immigrants, the lengthy consideration of applications for asylum and the over-extended deportation procedures, although since last September the relevant laws have been revised), will spread the view even more widely that Germany is not in a position to enforce its own regulations. And as a consequence, this will lead to increased pressure from the migrants. According to a former President of the Constitutional Court of the Federal Republic of Germany, Hans-Jürgen Papier, never in the legal order of the Federal Republic of Germany has there been “such a gap between the letter of the law and the reality”.