Germany: Police officers who incited hatred online with racist posts have been fired
Police in the state of Saxony-Anhalt in the east of Germany have fired 18 officers over their extremist posts to an online chat group for a class of Police Academy students; Deutsche-Presse Agentur (DPA) reports some officers actively contributed content to the discussion that was antisemitic, racist, and celebrated violence. "Of the 18 police officers, according to our findings so far, 11 actively posted messages, videos and photographs with the content mentioned to the chat group," said the Interior Minister of Saxony-Anhalt, Tamara Zieschang, in Magdeburg.
According to the minister, the chat group existed from September 2017 to December 2021, and of more than 5,000 messages posted to it, there were at least 50 with antisemitic, racist or violent content. “I was not the only person shocked by the content of this chat for the class,” Zieschang said.
“This chat for the class shames the state police,” she said, adding that the discussion group was discovered when a former applicant to the police service was being investigated because of a different case. That led to an investigation being opened into the four officers who started the chat group over their use of symbols for organizations which are against the German Constitution, their incitement of hatred, and their spreading written material with content that was violent and zoopornographic.
