Amid Rising Migrant Crime, Germany’s AfD Party Hands Out Pepper Spray To Women Voters

Migrant crime has risen by a staggering 52 percent compared to the year before.

8.30.2017 

 

News

 

 Vijeta Uniyal 

 

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Germany’s right-wing Alternative for Germany's (AfD) handed out pepper spray to women voters in the run-up to the next month’s general elections in the western city of Bad Kreuznach.

The party confirmed handing out 15oz. cans, and maintained that the sprays were only meant for self-defense in "absolute emergency.” Given Germany’s highly restrictive gun laws, the law-abiding citizens are turning to pepper sprays and similar devices to protect themselves amid a rising crime wave driven by mass migration.

German newspaper Die Welt reported:

The AfD is handing out pepper spray at its election stand in Bad Kreuznach. A politician belonging to the AfD clarified that in case of emergency [pepper spray] can be used against people.

This unusual election way of campaigning in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate has raised some eyebrows and criticism. The pepper spray cans were distributed at the information stand of the AfD’s district unit and that of the party’s youth organization.

Rhein-Zeitung broke the story. More than 150 cans were distributed at the information stand on Saturday.

It was indicated [to the voters] that the sprays were meant only for protection against animals, said the member of the state assembly, Damian Lohr, in his position as the spokesman for the AfD youth wing in Rhineland-Palatinate. [The pepper spray was otherwise meant] to defend oneself against people, “but only in absolutely extreme situation,” Lohr added.

The incident came in the backdrop of the nightly cordoning off of the three city parks [by the law enforcement] in Bad Kreuznach. The ban was imposed in late July, following a fight between two separate groups of migrants there, ending in injuries.

According the concurring media reports by Rheinische Post and Allgemeine Zeitung -- citing Green politician Stephanie Otto and Left Party’s Rainer Dohnau -- pepper spray cans were handed out to minor girls.  [Translation by author]

According to a report released by Germany’s Federal Crime Bureau (BKA) earlier this year, thanks to Merkel’s open borders policy, the migrant crime has risen by a staggering 52 percent as compared to the year before. These newly-arrived migrants, while accounting for less than 2 percent of the German population, constitute around 9 percent of the country’s criminal population. Migrant men now dominate Germany’s violent crime scene. Around 15 percent of all suspects charged with bodily harm, rapes and sexual assaults come from this demographic group, the German Crime Bureau’s annual reportreveals.