Combined German police forces raided more than 100 homes in 13 states on March 22 to curtail alleged excesses of hate speech against politicians and “safeguard democracy.”
Several state police bureaus were involved in a “joint day of action” which involved enforcement actions against some 600 leads involving internet posts containing “criminal content” against “elected politicians,” especially women, Breitbart reported.
‘Protecting democracy’
The operation was justified according to the Federal Criminal Police Office based on Section 188 of the Criminal Code (StGB) which was revised last year to include “insults, slander, and defamation of people in political life” to be “particularly punishable,” a statement issued by the bureau said.
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“Public officials and elected representatives are given special criminal protection under [Section]188 StGB, regardless of the political level, against hate postings,” it continues.
“With the day of action, we are making it clear: Anyone who posts hate messages must expect the police to be at the door afterward,” Holger Münch, President of the Federal Criminal Police Office, said in support of the action.
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Hessian Attorney General Torsten Kunze also defended the crackdown on free speech by stating: “This day of action illustrates the extent to which public officials and elected representatives are insulted, slandered, and threatened on the Internet.”
“In order to prevent the withdrawal of those affected from reaching a level that endangers democracy, we are prosecuting these crimes consistently and in close cooperation with the public prosecutors of the other federal states,” Kunze added.
Germany’s tainted history of free speech
The “joint day of action” marked the umpteenth sample of governmental display of defiance of free speech in Germany’s not-too-stainless history of repressing dissenting voices.
The incident is reminiscent of a court ruling earlier this month qualifying the populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) political party, which has been critical of the country’s COVID-19 restrictions, as a suspected far-right extremist group.
The case was stirred when news broke that the ruling parties in the Bundestag had been eavesdropping on AfD meetings and communications under the pretext of surveilling a “suspicious entity.”
However, during an ensuing lawsuit launched by AfD directors to rectify the scandal, Thomas Haldenwang, President of the German Office for the Protection of the Constitution, ruled in favor of the ruling parties stating:
“The party [AfD] stands for racism, the party stands for exclusion of minorities, the party stands for contempt of the social system,” Haldenwang said, declaring his own ruling “a good day for democracy.”
Mysterious death
Another analog is brought to mind in German chemist Dr. Andreas Novack, another critic of the government’s vaccination push. Novack received an unsolicited visit on Nov. 18, 2020, by a heavily armored SWAT squad while in the middle of a live YouTube broadcast from his home.
Thousands of viewers witnessed how Novack was forced to lie down by a screaming special operations officer at gunpoint in a fine display of inappropriate force.
Fortunately, the raid ended in a fizzle, and after a few weeks, Novack was able to resume his work — but not for long.
One year later, on Nov. 26, Novack uploaded a controversial video in which he claimed to expose the lethal razor-like qualities of a substance many believe is one of the main (yet not listed) ingredients of the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines, graphene hydroxide.
In the video, Novack equated Austria’s chancellor Schallenberg to Hitler.
“Mr. Schallenberg needs thousands or hundreds of thousands of letters. He must know this is a razor. This is a means to kill. And if he knows this and he continues, he is a mass murderer. He will walk in Hitler’s footsteps,” Novack said.
Just a few days later, he was dead from a heart attack.
