Germany: Police Powerless Against Middle Eastern Crime Gangs “The clans simply have no respect for the authorities.” by Soeren Kern

  • Observers have surmised that the real reason for the judge’s leniency was that he feared his family might be subjected to retribution from the clan.

  • “In their concept of masculinity, only power and force matter; if someone is humane and civil, this is considered a weakness. In clan structures, in tribal culture everywhere in the world, ethics are confined to the clan itself. Everything outside the clan is enemy territory.” — Ralph Ghadban, Lebanese-German political scientist and leading expert on Middle Eastern clans in Germany.
  • “The state promotes organized crime with taxpayer money.” — Tom Schreiber, a member of the Berlin House of Deputies.

A court in Hanover has handed suspended sentences to six members of a Kurdish clan who seriously wounded two dozen police officers during a violent rampage in Hameln. The court’s ruling was greeted with anger and derision by police who said it is yet another example of the laxity of Germany’s politically correct judicial system.

The case goes back to January 2014, when a 26-year-old clan member, arrested for robbery, tried to escape from the magistrate’s office by jumping out of a seventh-floor courtroom window. The suspect was taken to the hospital, where he died. Members of his clan subsequently ransacked the hospital, as well as the court, and attacked police with rocks and other projectiles; 24 police officers and six paramedics were injured.

The judge said he was lenient because the defendants witnessed the death of the 26-year-old and were traumatized. The judge also revealed that he had reached a deal with the clan, which among other effects prevented police from testifying in court.

Dietmar Schilff, chairman of the GdP police union in Lower Saxony, said that the ruling had left many police officers shaking their heads in disbelief: “All police forces expect protection and support from the state.” He added:

“If we want to protect those who ensure public security, it must be clear that anyone who attacks police officers attacks the state — and has to fear appropriate consequences. It does not matter from which milieu the perpetrators come.”

Observers have surmised that the real reason for the judge’s leniency was that he feared his family might be subjected to retribution from the clan.

Middle Eastern crime syndicates have established themselves across Germany, where they engage in racketeering, extortion, money laundering, pimping and trafficking in humans, weapons and drugs.

The syndicates, which are run by large clans with origins in Lebanon, Turkey, Syria, among other places, operate with virtual impunity because German judges and prosecutors are unable or unwilling to stop them.

The clans — some of which migrated to Germany during Lebanon’s 1975-1990 civil war and have grown to thousands of members — now control large swathes of German cities and towns — areas that are effectively lawless and which German police increasingly fear to approach.

Ralph Ghadban, a Lebanese-German political scientist and a leading expert on Middle Eastern clans in Germany, said that the Hanover ruling was a massive failure of the German judicial system. He added that the only way for Germany to achieve control over the clans is to destroy them:

“In their concept of masculinity, only power and force matter; if someone is humane and civil, this is considered a weakness. In clan structures, in tribal culture everywhere in the world, ethics are confined to the clan itself. Everything outside the clan is enemy territory.”

In an interview with Focus, Ghadban elaborated:

“I have been following this trend for years. The clans now feel so strong that they are attacking the authority of the state and the police. They have nothing but contempt for the judiciary…. The main problem in dealing with clans: state institutions give no resistance. This makes the families more and more aggressive — they simply have no respect for the authorities….

“The state must destroy the clan structures. Strong and well-trained police officers must be respected on the street. It is a poor example if clan members are allowed seriously to injure 24 policemen and six others without having to fear real consequences. In addition, lawyers and judges must be trained. The courts are issuing feeble judgments based on a false understanding of multiculturalism and the fear of the stigma of being branded as racist….

“The clans adhere to a religious group, a kind of sect with an Islamic orientation. The Islamic understanding of their spiritual leader, Sheikh al-Habashi, who died a few years ago, justifies violence against unbelievers. He taught that there is only the house of ​​war [Dar al-Harb], which justifies plundering unbelievers and possessing their wives….”

In Berlin, a dozen or more Lebanese clans dominate organized crime in the German capital, according to Die Welt. They effectively control the districts of Charlottenburg, Kreuzberg, Moabit, Neukölln and Wedding. The clans are committed to counterfeiting, dealing in drugs, robbing banks and burglarizing department stores. Experts estimate that around 9,000 people in Berlin are members of clans.

The clans reject the authority of the German state. Instead, they run a “parallel justice system” in which disputes are resolved among themselves with mediators from other crime families. A classified police report leaked to Bild described how the clans use cash payments and threats of violence to influence witnesses whenever German police or prosecutors get involved.

(Photo by Carsten Koall/Getty Images)

The clans are now canvassing refugee shelters in search of young and physically strong men to join their ranks. State Prosecutor Sjors Kamstra explained:

“The refugees come here with no money. They are shown how inexpensive money can be obtained very quickly. Poverty makes this seductive. Many of them cannot speak German and are naturally vulnerable when they are addressed by someone in their native language. For the clans, the refugees are welcome newcomers, because they are new here and are not known to the police.”

The clans have also entered the refugee business by buying real estate and renting those properties to asylum seekers at exorbitant prices. Focus magazine reported that they are laundering dirty money while at the same time getting paid by the German state to house migrants.

Focus reporters visited a dilapidated apartment in Berlin in which five Syrian refugees were accommodated in 20 square meters (215 square feet). On the regular rental market the apartment would barely have yielded €300 ($335) a month in rent, but the clan collects around €3,700 ($4,125) per month from the German state, which pays landlords to house migrants. “Business with the refugees is now more profitable than drug trafficking,” said Heinz Buschkowsky, a former mayor of Neukölln.

The Berlin Criminal Police Office (Landeskriminalamt) confirmed that “proceeds from criminal offenses, including organized crime, were invested in real estate by the persons concerned or by third parties.” Tom Schreiber, a member of the Berlin House of Deputies, said the clans have exposed the moral bankruptcy of the German government: “The state promotes organized crime with taxpayer money.”

“Berlin is lost,” said Michael Kuhr, a well-known Berlin-based security consultant. “These clan structures have established themselves in all areas of organized crime. We will never go back to how things were 20 years ago. In addition, these people are highly dangerous and have lost all respect for the power of the state.”

In Duisburg, a leaked police report revealed that in the Marxloh district, the streets are effectively controlled by Lebanese clans that reject the authority of German police. They have taken over entire streets to carry out illegal business activity. New migrants from Bulgaria and Romania are contributing to the problems. Marxloh’s streets serve as invisible boundaries between ethnic groups, according to Die Welt. Residents speak of “the Kurdish road” or “the Romanian road.”

Police say they are alarmed by the aggressiveness and brutality of the clans, which are said to view crime as leisure activity. If police dare to intervene, hundreds of clan members are mobilized to confront the police. A local woman interviewed by Deutschlandfunk radio said she was afraid for her safety: “After dark I would not stand here because there are a lot of conflicts between foreigners, especially between Lebanese and Turks.”

A 17-page report prepared for the state parliament in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) revealed that Lebanese clans in Duisburg divide up neighborhoods in order to pursue criminal activities. These clans do not recognize the authority of the police. Their members are males between the ages of 15 and 25 and “nearly 100%” of them are known to police.

The report also described the situation in Duisburg’s Laar district, where two large Lebanese families call the shots: “The streets are actually regarded as a separate territory. Outsiders are physically assaulted, robbed and harassed. Experience shows that the Lebanese clans can mobilize several hundred people in a very short period of time by means of a telephone call.”

Peter Biesenbach of the Christian Democrats (CDU) said: “If this is not a no-go area, then I do not know what is.” He has called for an official inquiry to determine the true scope of the criminal clans in NRW.

NRW Interior Minister Ralf Jäger rejected that request because such a study would be politically incorrect:

“Further data collection is not legally permissible. Both internally and externally, any classification that could be used to depreciate human beings must be avoided. In this respect, the use of the term ‘family clan’ (Familienclan) is forbidden from the police point of view.”

In nearby Gelsenkirchen, Kurdish and Lebanese clans are vying for control of city streets, some of which have become zones that are off-limits to German authorities. In one incident, police were patrolling an area in the southern part of the city when they were suddenly surrounded and physically assaulted by more than 60 members of a clan.

In another incident, two police officers stopped a driver after he ran a red light. The driver stepped out of the car and ran away. When police caught up with him, they were confronted by more than 50 clan members. A 15-year-old attacked a policeman from behind and strangled him to the point of unconsciousness.

Senior members of the Gelsenkirchen police department subsequently held a secret meeting with representatives of three Arab clans in order to “cultivate social peace between Germans and Lebanese.” A leaked police report revealed that the clans told Police Chief Ralf Feldmann that “the police cannot win a war with the Lebanese because we outnumber them.” The clan members added: “This applies to all of Gelsenkirchen, if we so choose.”

When Feldman countered that he would dispatch police reinforcements to disrupt their activities, the clan members laughed in his face and said: “The government does not have enough money to deploy the numbers of police necessary to confront the Lebanese.” The police report concluded that German authorities should not harbor any illusions about the actual balance of power: “The police would be defeated.”

Another leaked police report revealed that the clans are the “executive body of an existing parallel legal system to self-adjudicate matters between large Kurdish and Lebanese families in the western Ruhr area.” These clans “despise the police and German courts” and “settle their matters on their own terms.”

The Frankfurter Neue Presse reported that Kurdish, Lebanese and Romanian clans have divided up the Gelsenkirchen districts of Bismarck, Rotthausen and Ückendorf, including around the central station, and have “claimed individual streets for themselves.”

Arnold Plickert, the head of the police union in North Rhine-Westphalia, warned: “Several rival rocker groups, as well as Lebanese, Turkish, Romanian and Bulgarian clans, are fighting for supremacy of the streets. They make their own rules; the police have nothing more to say.”

In Düsseldorf, two members of a clan brutally assaulted a 49-year-old woman who witnessed a car accident in the Flingern district. Her mistake, apparently, was to corroborate the “wrong” version of what she saw. The Rheinische Post called on the German government to fight the clans:

“The threat remains, in particular wherever large families, mostly immigrants, place the supposed need for the protection of their loved ones above all else. The readiness for violence is great, the inhibition threshold is low. The punishment of existing laws hardly deters anyone.”

In Naumburg, police confiscated the driver’s license of Ahmed A., a 21-year-old member of a Syrian clan, during a traffic stop. Almost immediately, police were surrounded by a mob of other clan members. The police retreated. The mob then marched to the police station, which they proceeded to ransack.

Ahmed A., a serial offender whose asylum application was rejected but who remains in Germany, said: “Lock me up. I have nothing to lose. I am going to put a bullet in the head of every single police officer. I will make your life feel like hell. Then I’ll just be a cop killer.” He also warned the police officer who seized his license: “I will destroy his life. I know exactly where he lives.” He then explained what he would do to the officer’s wife and daughter. Ahmed A. was allowed to walk free; police said there were insufficient grounds for his arrest.

Naumburg police have defended their weak response as being due to a lack of personnel, but regional parliamentarian Daniel Sturm pointed to the big picture: “We are talking about resistance to the power of the state.” The Interior Minister of Saxony-Anhalt, Holger Stahlknecht, said that it appeared as though the Syrian clan had established a “parallel society” in Naumburg. A local newspaper noted that the police’s failure to act “sounds like the capitulation of the state of law (Rechtsstaat).”

In Mülheim, around 80 members of two rival clans got into a mass brawl following a dispute between two teenagers. When police arrived, they were attacked with bottles and stones. More than 100 police backed up by helicopters were deployed to restore order. Five people were taken into custody but then released.

In Munich, police arrested 20 female members of a Croatian clan believed to be responsible for up to 20% of all the burglaries committed in Germany. Investigators believe that the clan has at least 500 members throughout Germany.

In Bremen, police effectively surrendered to clans from Kurdistan and the Balkans because of the need to conserve limited personnel resources for the fight against spiraling street crime by migrant youths.

Rainer Wendt, head of the German Police Union (DPolG), criticized city officials for their lack of resolve. “Bremen has capitulated to extremely dangerous clans. The state’s monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force [Gewaltmonopol des Staates] is now becoming the law of the jungle. Security continues to go down the drain.”

Soeren Kern is a Senior Fellow at the New York-based Gatestone Institute. Follow him on Facebook and on Twitter.

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25 Reader Comments

BillJun 18, 2017 at 13:57

It is obvious this is no longer a police matter. Only the military with their gloves removed can handle this.

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Ken LewisJun 18, 2017 at 13:38

Germany has lost it’s place as a very attractive and interesting country to visit and spend time in while in Europe. Having been there many times both working and visiting I will never return. Not being able to defend myself as in the good old USA and walk the streets safely and feel secure is a major deterrent especially after being aware of the deterioration of law and order and respect for the authorities. Thank you Angela Merkel you have opened the floodgate for disaster! You have failed your countrymen. Everything that goes around comes around

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tedh754Jun 18, 2017 at 13:30

So if the police can’t defeat them, send in the army. Wait…does Germany have an army?

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Judy WallJun 18, 2017 at 13:26

At what point will the citizens of Europe stand up to fight this monstrous take-over of their land? There will be riots to stop this encroachment of EVIL or it will be an all out slaughter of law abiding citizens, men, women, and children. Or are there no men left in civilized Europe? Make no mistake about it, ladies. This is something that only men can do: a fight to the death and winner take all.

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RichardJun 18, 2017 at 13:12

How can stupid liberal thinking in Europe and Germany in particular allow things to reach this point. The only way out for the German people now seems to be an armed takeover of their government by the police, military and ethnic Germans of a conservative mind-set. Of course, if they tried doing it, they’d be called Fourth Reich Nazis. But Merkel’s iron-fist is much worse because she believes in the false promise of Multi-Culturalism which is at the root of the clan-gang Muslim troubles!

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BillJun 18, 2017 at 13:10

AND!!!! The Euro’s could not see this coming.? So much for Euro. intellectual thought.
My apologies for a somewhat short statement.
I lived and worked in the Middle East for 11 years.

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SandyJun 18, 2017 at 12:53

Coming soon to America. But at least we’re armed!

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Forrest GrumpJun 18, 2017 at 12:51

The Germans allowed—even encouraged—the immigration of these feral animals into their country. America is now following suit, and are now fighting to preserve the Constitution over Muslim Sharia Law. Unless there is some immediate display of genuine LEADERSHIP, neither Europe or North America will remain sovereign. Thanks to liberals and liberal politicians they elect, (some Republicans included) the countries involved are TOAST due to the resulting negative demographics caused by Muslim immigration on such a large scale!

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Charles LutzJun 18, 2017 at 12:00

Don’t kid yourselves, electors of Macron. The same situation will develop in France in a very short while.

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RoydenoralJun 18, 2017 at 11:25

Excellent article. So sad that Germany is lost.

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Edward ClineJun 18, 2017 at 10:01

Hey, Angela! How’s that refugee welcoming and diversity working for your citizens? Or do you care how it isn’t working, because you’ll never be personally bothered by migrant violence or the corruption, unless something goes wrong during one of your selfie sessions with a Muslim or migrant gangster?

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Ken Lewis Edward ClineJun 18, 2017 at 13:29

Germany, one of the most beautiful countries in Europe, is losing it’s tourism on a major scale. Who in their right mind would travel there with his wife and children to be subjected to assault.

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Stan LeeJun 18, 2017 at 09:34

Germany’s current problems with Muslim lawlessness is what obstinate, stupid, Merkel created! Now, Germany has the problem, and for all we know, that nation cannot even state why it now has a problem getting worse by the minute. German people are prohibited from even complaining publicly that the difficulties are from Muslims–YES, MUSLIMS! they show total disrespect for Germany. This is the result of Merkel’s obedience to the EU and disregard for the German (the real Germans!) population.

So…What will the EU now do for its most productive state? Not a damned thing! Wake up, Germany! You have the finest army tanks in this world, you have an army, not large, but with superior weapons. You have a Luftwaffe of fine pilots! Send them against the Muslim horde which intends to suppress Germans! You cannot negotiate with them. They scorn discussion, they believe it is a sign of weakness and appeasement, and truthfully discussion and appeasement are all you have shown these unwelcome bandits. If you cannot display the strength you have, you will lose your country. Decide what alternative you prefer; surrender by taking no action. Or, putting the bandits in their place, once and for all!

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robert davisJun 18, 2017 at 09:27

No European nation can control the millions of Arabs and other Moslems which they let in during the past few decades and which accelerated of late thanks to Angela Merkel. This is the beginning of the end of Europe and can be compared to the barbarians who entered the Roman Empire and destroyed it.

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TonyHJun 18, 2017 at 09:23

If this problem is as widespread as described, why is there no centralised response? Does the ruling government led by Merkel consider that this escalating problem is a price worth paying to protect their immigration policy? At what saturation point will the Bundestag realise that a majority of German cities are beyond the control of the state and that a military solution can be the only option? The German nation has been badly and sadly betrayed once again.

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Ralph JohnsonJun 18, 2017 at 08:42

This is sickening. As an American of German descent, this information is very disturbing. What has happened to German pride? Is testosterone removed at birth from male German kinder? How could a country as great as Germany allow themselves to be conquered by these clans? I still have a lot of relatives in Germany, but this story along with all the terrorists they have allowed into their country have diminished my desire to visit.

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jebJun 18, 2017 at 08:42

They were never refugees, they were Islamist colonists. Germany has a long history with ignoring the truth about Islam. Even Bismark refused to acknowledge the Armenian’s extermination in the 1880s and blamed the Armenians. This continued to be a constant theme and even Hitler joined in and claimed the Armenian Christians were “Uber” Jews.

The founder of the liberal church theology still practiced today led by Naumann also accepted these racial and bigoted attitudes.

While some historians of the period prefer not to see a direct link to Islam and or to Nazi Germany, the template is the same.

That Germany preferred blindness reminds me of John 9:41? Jesus in response to a debate by what authority he healed a blind man responded, paraphrasing, “You are not guilty because you are blind, you are guilty because you claim you can see.”

Germany has condemned itself. Apparently WWII was not enough, Stalin was not enough. Maybe this will be enough to rouse a genuine awakening of moral conscience.

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Francis MeyrickJun 18, 2017 at 08:35

I really appreciate the way Gatestone hyperlinks to their sources. That gives me the opportunity to check & do due diligence. A well researched, balanced, and informative article.

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David J RoseJun 18, 2017 at 08:31

And now the Germans are the Jews.

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ElisabethJun 18, 2017 at 07:53

Doing nothing is not an option. What does the German government propose to do about this?

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Christopher ShearwoodJun 18, 2017 at 07:46

I am sad to say that not only has Germany created chaos to itself and the whole of Europe because of its madness in two world wars, but is now doing the same through Angela Merkel’s tunnel visioned immigration aligned to her Kalergi related philosophy of a totally Federated Europe which even Count Coudenhove-Kalergi would never have agreed to under its current dangerous form. This cannot go on otherwise civil war and a very far right dictatorship will result with ethnic cleansing being the norm. The question is, are our politicians in Western Europe prepared to let this happen or take the necessary draconian steps now to prevent a much, much worse Armageddon occurring in the future?

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Richard HallJun 18, 2017 at 06:55

To read that story really made me feel sad. I was stationed in Mainz back in 1975 with the U.S. Armed Forces and the first thing we were told upon arriving was to have the utmost respect for the Polizei because they were some very strict policemen and they would not hesitate to shoot first and ask questions later. The countrysides were well maintained and very picturesque. I never saw any type of violence in towns and cities.

Now the Germany I remember from 42 years ago sounds like it’s all gone and has been taken hostage by organized crime never to return. Once the Polizei have lost control,,,,it’s only going to get worse from here on out.

I have always wanted to revisit Deutschland and see parts of the country that I was never able to when I was stationed there, but I can see from your article that my return will never happen because of the increase in violence in your country.

I can never understand why people are the way they are, and it saddens me. I wish that the whole world will heal itself from this cancer that seems to be festering everywhere, so we could all live in harmony, and with love in our hearts.

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Jeff PageJun 18, 2017 at 06:18

“Clans and Tribal,” says it all doesn’t it? European politicians are still on a learning curve when it comes to Islam, Muslims and their general outlook on life and cultural beliefs. Above all is the way that Muslims interpret the hand of welcome as a sign of the weakness of the West. All there to be exploited to the full. Any riot or attack is seen as breaking down society and seen as the way to disrupt our whole culture. Police and authorities are looked upon as an obstacle and they use the force of numbers to break through and enforce their will on others.

The ordinary people of Germany are simply allowing this to happen all over the country by clinging on to the policies of Merkel and trying to make up for what the Nazi Party did decades ago. Now, many coming to Germany have the very same issues with Jews, they want to wipe them from the face of the earth and German people are willing helpers, forgetting of course that they themselves will become targets if the Jews are ever expelled or killed!

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FatherJonJun 18, 2017 at 06:15

Sounds like our issues in Australia with Middle Eastern crime gangs. Barely a night passes in our cities without drive-by shootings or gun fights. Our much vaunted ‘freedom’ from guns on the street is a nonsense these days as weapons are smuggled in from Europe via cargo ships and the postal service. Just two weeks ago there was a police shoot-out with an ISIS-inspired Somali in Melbourne. He was killed, but not before he killed a motel worker. The govt. has announced a new gun amnesty from next month, but that’s hardly likely to take the guns off the streets.

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Mark Miller FatherJonJun 18, 2017 at 14:22

The problem is your government is run by idiots that think your problems can be settled by giving Muslims more love and understanding. The problem with that is they look at kindness as weakness that needs to be exploited. We don’t have that problem here in the states because the populace is armed! Get your guns back and take your country back before its too late.

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