"Reports: asylum seekers among Cologne attacks suspects"

"According to the newspapers' reports, citing officers on duty on New Year's Eve, officials checked the IDs of at least 100 people present at Cologne's central station on December 31 after their behavior became conspicuous. Seventy-one people were identified, 11 people were remanded into custody and 32 criminal complaints were registered, according to the Welt am Sonntag (WamS) report."

"There were, quite to the contrary of what was said publicly, identity checks on numerous people," the WamS quoted an unnamed officer as saying. "Most of them were recently-arrived asylum seekers."

"For the mostly Arabic offenders, sexual assault was the priority, or, to express it from their point of view, their sexual amusement was the priority. A group of men would encircle a female victim, close the loop, and then start groping the woman," WamS quoted the officer as saying.

Meanwhile, the German government, in charge of protecting their citizens, (I'm assuming) most of all the physically less capable, like the women, is cracking down on "anti-immigration speech."

Prosecutors are charging people who are “inciting hatred” in Germany by speaking out against immigrants and their impact on German society. Prosecutors and judges are determining what criticism will be allowed and what will be treated as criminal. In the meantime, the government has reached a deal with Facebook, Google and Twitter to crackdown on Internet speech. It is an effort to create the artificial appearance of agreement and tolerance by denying free speech to critics. While it is still not clear how many of the Cologne attackers were immigrants (two of the suspects have been identified as Moroccan citizens), the incident has been a flashpoint as numerous stories of women and girls being harassed about their clothing or assaulted by immigrants. For example, a 26-year-old Berlin man’s home was raided by police, who confiscated his computer and phones after he had posted the image of a dead 3-year-old Syrian boy on a Turkish beach and wrote “We are not mourning, we are celebrating!” A disgusting comment and one that is worthy public condemnation. However, it is also an act of free speech.

Nevertheless, many citizens are celebrating the denial of their own free speech rights. So long as they disagree with the speakers, there appears little concern over the rising tide of censorship and criminalization of speech. People are now unsure what they can say about immigration, which is precisely the chilling effect that governments seek in such measure. The result is a forced silence . . . which is golden for governments like Merkel’s that do not like what they are hearing.

"Harvard Law dean puts ‘microaggressions’ in the same league as sexual assault"

The College Fix: Dean Martha Minow recently addressed graduating students at her alma mater, the University of Michigan, for the school’s winter commencement, The Harvard Crimson reported.

Telling students to be “upstanders” – those who intervene when they see injustice – Minow compared apartheid and forced segregation of public schools to … accidentally offending someone:

“Taking even seemingly small acts in one’s own school can build the culture that prevents violence, bullying, sexual assault, and racial microaggressions,” she said.

...the University of California was telling faculty that saying “America is the land of opportunity” was a microaggression.

"MA NAACP President Compares Dem’s Assault On A Woman To “Jaywalking”"

From Massachusetts Radio talk show Michael Graham's blog...

The New England Area Chapter of the NAACP released a letter this morning urging the Massachusetts House of Representatives not to vote to expel convicted woman-beater Rep. Carlos Henriquez. Henriquez is currently serving simultaneously in the State House and the “slammer” up in Billerica. (Or rather was. The House voted 146-5 to expel him.)

I asked the NEAC President, Juan Cofield, who signed the letter, to join me on my radio show today and discuss it... (go here to listen to it)

***

From Wikipedia...

War on Women is an expression in United States politics used to describe certain Republican Party policies as a wide-scale effort to restrict women's rights, especially reproductive rights. Prominent Democrats such as Nancy Pelosi and Barbara Boxer, as well as feminists, have used the phrase to criticize proponents of the laws as trying to force their social views on women through legislation. The expression is used to describe Republican policies in areas such as access to reproductive health services, particularly birth control and abortion services; the prosecution of criminal violence against women; the definition of rape for the purpose of the public funding of abortion; and workplace discrimination against women.

"Reports: Alleged trend of 'knockout game' a myth"

"Some news organizations are refuting the existence of an alleged phenomenon known as the "knockout game" that has been the subject of media warnings in recent weeks."

According to reports by CNN, the Today show, USA TODAY and others, the game takes place when young people randomly assault strangers in an attempt to knock them out with one punch.

The attacks are leading to arrests, more officers on the streets and warnings for vigilance among the public, law enforcement officials and victims advocates told USA TODAY. In New Haven, Conn., police spokesman David Hartman said police are investigating six incidents in the past month as possible "knockouts."

But police officials in several cities where the attacks have been reported say the knockout game is an urban myth, and that attacks that have received recent attention in the media have been random assaults, the New York Times is reporting.

USA Today, NYT