US-American view on refugees

Gang rapes? I think you exaggerate.

I see you've added a link since i responded to your post or while i was responding. That article talks about sexual assault, but not rape. The only reference i can find to gang rapes is about a 21 year old Syrian man, who is neither a refugee nor an asylum seeker, and two 14 year olds who were residents of Holland and Switzerland.

Sorry about the late edit. Truthfully, there are so many articles about rape and assault in Europe, particularly Germany, I just started linking a sampling. I'll add a couple more.

Walter, do you think law enforcement has a better grip on the situation?

There were three complaints of attempted rape connected to the situation in front of Cologne's main station.
None of that has been described as "gang rape" as far as I could find out.

If you do, try to distinguish between Cologne and the rest of Germany, and try to distinguish between asylum seekers, refugees and foreign-born residents of Germany. In fact, the police and other sources for Cologne described most of the men in the square before the train station as being of North African origin, and therefor neither asylum seekers nor refugees.

This one, in particular, addresses rape as a cultural issue among many refugees. Makes you wonder what it must be like to be a woman in those societies. Burquas seem to be the least of women's issues.

http://m.townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2016/01/07/muslim-male-refugees-are-raping-women-in-europe-n2100918

What do you mean with "the situation" here?
"The situation" actually is now that the leader of a right-wing party called for the shooting of refugees at the border by the police.

Townhall . . . really . . . what a fair and balanced, neutral source.

More information. http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/germany-sends-migrants-back-austria-7162004

Are stories from Town Hall incorrect?

They are certainly suspect because of a gross polemical bias. Can you really not see how tendentious that article was? Tell me, Lash, if you think a woman in the club district of a German city is at greater risk than a women at a frat-house party in the United States. Is Greek row more moral than a muslim neighborhood in Europe?

Regarding the situation in Germany: yes.

Just as an example:

This has nothing to do with 'progressive politicians' but is part of our constitution (Grundgesetz [Basic Law], article 16a: Right of Asylum)



Untrue.

Lest you argue that Townhall has no political bias, this is from the "About Townhall" link on their homepage:

Townhall.com - the Leading Conservative and Political Opinion Website

If you google Townhall, the hotlink reads: Townhall is the top source for conservative news, political cartoons, breaking news, election news and commentary on politics and the media culture.

I trust Townhall about as far as i can spit on a hot, dry day.

I couldn't find the linked (to ABC news) quote by Town Hall.
But is wrong (as an aside) as well: the CSU is a coalition party in our current government, with 45 seats in the Bundestag, the smallest of the five parties represented in our parliament. (It's the CDU's "sister party", though.)

The situation looks like Merkel is under heavy fire and there are ethnically-based protests - and anti-immigration, skinhead types are on the rise. I realize some news-related photos can be misleading.

Would you say appearances I mentioned above are accurate or not?

Well, I've only been in one of those situations, so I'd have to guess. That's not useful, but I do think the frat boys use alcohol and amorous persuasion, and the groups of men mentioned in all of those articles attacked in large groups sometimes in front of cops who were helpless to stop the assaults due to the numbers of large groups.

I think some Scandinavian countries' decision to educate incoming people is a great idea.

I'm also wondering how far Merkel will backtrack on her initial arms-wide-open stance.

Are you referring with your "ethnically-based protests" to those by Russian-Germans against immigrants?
That was just a smaller group of pro-Russia citizens.

Merkel certainly has to explain a lot to her own party members - the part on a more right side have different opinions.

"Skyhead types" are really on the rise: those on the extreme right are now a lot larger than the "traditional" left side.

Anti-immigration isn't on the rise - it's anti-refugees (and asylum searchers) what is the problem. (The [a female like her counterpart on the federal level] of the above mentioned right wing party in (state of) Berlin posted on facebook that even children of refugees should be shot at ... after it was published, she verified that a bit.

That's what always had been done here. However, now the resources (human and financial) are low due to the numbers - it's mainly done by volunteers these days, and those are on their last legs by now.

Walter, how can you be sure? The reason I ask is the widely-accepted 'facts' around this story have changed or evolved. It seems that the media and some people have a vested interest in covering up this story- perhaps because they're concerned about the tide turning against welcoming refugees or some other motivation I don't understand.

If you can tell me how you know with certainty that what is being reported did not happen, and that all the media outlets that are reporting it did are just fabricating a story, I'll never read them again.

An enduring question for me would be, though, if it didn't happen, why is Merkel caving?

Anyway, I know we all have media outlets we have less faith in, but most of the time it's due to the biased narrative they weave into facts - or the stories they pounce on to forward their political agenda-

-Not because they fabricate their own facts. That's almost possible to do without getting called on it.

I want to know if these things happened or if they did not. I really don't want news agencies or political groups deciding for me if I should be informed.

She'd agreed to make changes to the asylum laws - I doubt that she will agree to make changes to our constitution.

The police and the prosecution office published the data.