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Europe

CBS Follows German Police on Raid over ‘Racist Cartoon' Posted Online

2025-02-18

[Breitbart] American broadcaster CBS followed German police as they raided homes for speech crimes, such as posting a "racist cartoon" on the internet, which prosecutors in the country defended as a supposedly necessary safeguard to protect democracy.

Just days after U.S. Vice President JD Vance lambasted Germany and other European states for failing to live up to Western ideals of liberty, particularly on the issue of free speech, CBS’s 60 Minutes news magazine broadcast footage of police raids over social media posts and interviews with prosecutors defending the draconian practice.

"It’s 6:01 on a Tuesday morning, and we were with state police as they raided this apartment in Northwest Germany. Inside six armed officers searched a suspect’s home, then seized his laptop and cellphone. Prosecutors say those electronics may have been used to commit a crime, the crime; posting a racist cartoon online," 60 Minutes anchor Sharyn Alfonsi described.

Unlike the United States, where the First Amendment protects citizens from being arrested over so-called "hate speech", it is a very different story in Germany.

Local prosecutors told the American broadcaster that there are currently 16 dedicated police task forces monitoring "hate speech" on the German web, with around 3,500 cases per year. Prosecutor Frank-Michael Laue told the news programme that his unit alone has successfully secured 750 speech crime convictions over the past four years.

Fellow prosecutor Dr Matthäus Fink said that many of those arrested for online speech crimes believed that their posts were protected free speech, "And we say, ’No, you have free speech as well, but it is also has its limits.'"

Posted by:The Walking Unvaxed

#22 Vance was the good cop vs Hegseth's and Trump's bad cop routine.

Come on Europe, we can do better!

No we can't! Take that!

Posted by: swksvolFF 2025-02-18 20:48

#21 You’re always welcome, European Conservative.

Pavel Durov, founder of telegram?

That’s the one, Elmerert Hupens2660. Thank you for remembering for me.

Posted by: trailing wife 2025-02-18 19:11

#20 Insulting someome is a lot easier in the Anglo-American sphere. But not unlimited.

Posted by: European Conservative 2025-02-18 16:49

#19 Thank you for the cleaning, trailing wife :-)

Posted by: European Conservative 2025-02-18 16:47

#18 @17
Vance was the good cop vs Hegseth's and Trump's bad cop routine.

Posted by: Elmerert Hupens2660 2025-02-18 15:12

#17 Vance should have punched harder.

Posted by: Crusader 2025-02-18 14:49

#16 It's funny - not in ha-ha funny. Here in America, "journalists" claim it is an infringement of free speech when AP is denied their favorite seat in press conferences.
In Nazi Germany, and maybe soon in modern Germany, they would be charged or even executed for disagreeing with the government.

Posted by: Rambler 2025-02-18 14:16

#15 @14

Pavel Durov, founder of telegram?

Posted by: Elmerert Hupens2660 2025-02-18 14:01

#14 Will the user be faced with extraditions requests per EU agreements, or the hop site owner jailed?

France recently jailed a site owner who popped in from outside the EU, if I recall correctly because his site allowed speech they disapproved of. I can’t remember the details, but we had the story here.

Posted by: trailing wife 2025-02-18 12:19

#13
So what if say a EU Citizen using TOR, and a hop site happens to be in the 2nd Reich?

Will the user be faced with extraditions requests per EU agreements, or the hop site owner jailed?

Posted by: NN2N1 2025-02-18 10:44

#12 It should be said that insults are generally punishable by law, so if you call someone an a*hole, you can be in trouble if the insulted person presses charges.

That is frankly insane.

Posted by: Crusader 2025-02-18 10:18

#11 This comes from right wing extremists but also from our dear Middle Eastern friends.

These "friends" are put in a position of power by the censorship system.

The leader of the first government appointed "Trusted Flagger NGO" in Germany per the European DSA censorship law is Al-Azhar Islamic sciences bachelor Ahmed Gaafar. He came to Germany in 2016. (link to google translated article)

Posted by: Elmerert Hupens2660 2025-02-18 08:27

#10 Though in practice they have been applied as a form of humiliating, undignified administrative punishment which these prosecutors openly admitted.
Posted by: Elmerert Hupens2660 2025-02-18 07:39

Any J6er will tell you, the process is the punishment. Raids at 6:00am for an on line comment? Really?! German pols want to snuff out the opposition don't they? When humiliating offenders doesn't work, what then? Jail time?

Posted by: The Walking Unvaxed 2025-02-18 07:52

#9 It should be said that insults are generally punishable by law, so if you call someone an a*hole, you could be in trouble if the insulted person presses charges.

"Mit Verlaub, Herr Präsident, Sie sind ein A*loch."
"With all due respect, Mr Speaker, you are an a*hole!"
:)

If anything, Fischer's career was boosted by this insult.

Traditionally political debates (West) Germany had been very robust.
Now the insults are very one sided, politicians are very much free to collectively insult large swaths of the electorate without repercussions.

The government does not enjoy, by right, protection of its honor the constitutional held in 2024:

"The state is not entitled to protection of honor based on fundamental rights. In principle, the state must also endure harsh and polemical criticism. In principle, state institutions may also be protected from verbal attacks, as they are unable to fulfill their function without a minimum level of social acceptance. However, their protection must not lead to shielding state institutions from public criticism - possibly even in harsh form - which is to be guaranteed in a special way by the fundamental right to freedom of expression and which is also countered by the right of the state to clearly and unequivocally reject erroneous factual representations or discriminatory value judgments. The weight of the fundamental right to freedom of opinion, which is the very foundation of the free and democratic order, must then be assessed particularly highly, as it has arisen precisely from the special need to protect the criticism of power and continues to find its significance in this."

Also raids and confiscations are supposed to be investigative not punitive in nature.

Though in practice they have been applied as a form of humiliating, undignified administrative punishment which these prosecutors openly admitted.

Posted by: Elmerert Hupens2660 2025-02-18 07:39

#8 AFAIK even in the US directly calling for the murder of certain high ranking officials is a criminal offense.

Unless you're a Democrat. But...it will get your comment spamcopped here regardless of who you is
;-)

Posted by: Frank G 2025-02-18 06:50

#7 I should also have mentioned that these examples of protected speech memes didn't come from some fringe elements but from darlings of the establishment.

Namely Klaus Staeck, a famous left-leaning artist, the satirical magazine "Titanic" and the late theater director Christoph Schlingensief.

Schlingensief was arrested but ultimately his statement was held to be protected freedom of the arts.

AFAIK even in the US directly calling for the murder of certain high ranking officials is a criminal offense.

He always remained in the good graces of bien pensants and the establishment, there wasn't any social ostracism.

Kohl, despite being 30 years his senior, ultimately did survive him, so maybe there was an element of karmic justice.

Free speech is not a luxury.
It is an effective system of error detection and error correction.
Without it we will be led to slaughter, deaf and dumb, paraphrasing Washington.

Posted by: Elmerert Hupens2660 2025-02-18 06:41

#6 Sorry, comment is a bit mangled.

Posted by: European Conservative 2025-02-18 06:06

#5 Agree with E.H. This is a relatively new phenomenom, but covered by the German penal code.

The examples presented in the CBS documentary have been widely discussed (before thatI agree with E.H. This is a relatively new phenomenon, but it is covered by the German penal code.

The examples presented in the CBS documentary have been widely discussed (even before it aired, as German TV has also covered this extensively), and some actions by German LE are indeed exaggerated.

It should be said that insults are generally punishable by law, so if you call someone an a*hole, you could be in trouble if the insulted person presses charges. Politicians used to ignore insults. Now many don't and employ lawyers to scour the web for them and bring any matter to the attention of the authorities. I'd like to emphasize, however, that while the cases presented here are quite harmless, others are less so. Because of my support for Israel, I have personally been on the receiving end of these insults and even threats, but I have chosen to ignore them. "They forgot to put you in the gas chambers" is just one example of what is said. This comes from right-wing extremists, but also from our dear friends from the Middle East. Dogs that bark don't bite, as we say here. Especially when it's done under the cover of anonymity. I'm pushing for a law that would automatically revoke the asylum status of a person who engages in anti-Semitic acts. This may explain the increase in verbal abuse.

Germany has strict laws to prevent Holocaust denial and anti-Semitic statements. coverage was aired as German TV has widely covered this, too), and some actions of German LE are indeed exaggerated.

Accidentally duplicated paragraphs deleted for ease of reading.

—trailing wife at 10:10 a.m. ET

Posted by: European Conservative 2025-02-18 06:05

#4 Meet the Press

"Ja, I weaponized speech, I confess...
And the Party and State, more or less,
The SS and Gestapo,
The odd Jewish kapo...
But you're here for Der S-----r, I guess?"

Posted by: Pancho Poodle8452 2025-02-18 06:00

"The fundamental right to freedom of expression, as the most direct expression of human personality in society, is one of the most noble human rights of all. It is absolutely essential for a free and democratic system of government, because it makes possible the constant intellectual debate, the clash of opinions that is its lifeblood."

"On the one hand, the scope of protection of freedom of opinion includes opinions, i.e. statements characterized by the element of statement and opinion. They always fall within the scope of protection of Art. 5 para. 1 sentence 1 GG, regardless of whether they prove to be true or untrue, whether they are justified or unfounded, emotional or rational, or whether they are assessed as valuable or worthless, dangerous or harmless .... They do not lose this protection even if they are expressed in a sharp and exaggerated manner .... In particular, the person expressing an opinion is not obliged to share the values on which the constitution is based, as the Basic Law relies on loyalty to values, but does not enforce it."

These are deepl translated quotes of German constitutional court case law upholding very strong freedom of speech protections.

Historically freedom of speech has enjoyed very robust protection in West Germany since the 1950s. This included derogatory collages, cartoons, and very robust speech, including explicitly calling for the murder the chancellor ("Tötet Helmut Kohl!" in 1997 when Kohl was still in office.)

Not to mention implicitly calling for murder by collaging Kohl's face onto a photo of dead Nicolae Ceasusescu.

Derogatory 'misinformation' had also been normal e.g. Klaus Staeck's collage implying that Franz Josef Strauss and the German center right big tent party wanted to castrate perverts. (image search "Entmannt alle Wüstlinge")

This is a relatively new development IMHO starting as a reaction to PEGIDA in 2014. It is part of the general deterioration of Western core principles in all of the West.

As far as CBS' take on NAZIs and free speech, especially during the war when the holocaust was in its most intense phase, even the slightest deviation from orthodoxy, in public or private, carried the death penalty e.g. "Weiße Rose" or "Karlrobert Kreiten".

As a side note, is it a coincidence or proof of the simulation that Herr Frank-Michael Laue bears a striking physiognomic resemblance to the "Are we the baddies?" meme guy?

Posted by: Elmerert Hupens2660 2025-02-18 04:50

#2 Journalist goes in a ride along to suppress freedom of speech. “Put the pastel markers down and come out with your hands up.”

Posted by: Super Hose 2025-02-18 04:39

#1 Wow.
"And we (the German police) say,
’No, you have free speech as well, but it is also has its limits.'"
1984 much?
How long will real Germans tolerate this. We DO think differently from most European countries, but this...this is surreal.

Posted by: Whiskey Mike 2025-02-18 02:49

00:00