Reply to: Britain's Blind Faith in Intelligence Agencies

[doodab]

Germany does have its fair share of street crime but it tends to be in inner cities or larger conurbations. For example there have been two high profile court cases recently, one in Berlin where a young man (Jonny K) was killed basically just for kicks and one in Munich where a man was beaten to death by youths.

What is interesting about the Munich case is that they guy was breaking up a fight between kids on a train, and there seems to be a fair bit of surprise that nobody else tried to help him.

I remember when I was there, someone pulled a knife on the U-Bahn and tried to stab someone and it was front page news for a week. Everyone was relieved when the perpetrator turned out to be from some other city and not a Muenchner gone bad.

[darmstadt]

Germany does have its fair share of street crime but it tends to be in inner cities or larger conurbations. For example there have been two high profile court cases recently, one in Berlin where a young man (Jonny K) was killed basically just for kicks and one in Munich where a man was beaten to death by youths. Some statistics:

Crime statistics from 2012 released on Sunday showed that in Frankfurt, central Germany, there were 16,310 offences committed per 100,000 inhabitants. In Düsseldorf this stood much lower at 14, 966 per 100,000 residents. In Cologne, this was 14,590, Welt am Sonntag said.

The safest city proved to be Munich – and it has been so for years. The police registered just 7,153 crimes per 100,000 people. This equates to just one in every 13 residents falling victim to crime and makes it, by far, the nation's least dangerous city.

Coming in behind Munich was the Bavarian city of Augsburg with 8,156 offences per 100,000 residents, then Wiesbaden with 8,288 per 100,000. The North Rhine-Westphalian (NRW) city of Bielefeld was the third safest city.

Analysis of Frankfurt pointed to a number of factors which made it particularly crime-prone, said the paper. The city's lively red-light district and huge airport both push up criminal activity.

Crime rates in Frankfurt have risen consistently over the past three years, while in Munich they have dropped year on year over the past four.

Police figures also showed a stark north-south divide over how likely people living in Germany were to fall victim to crime. NRW was the state with the overall highest crime rate – 8,510 per 100,000 residents. This was thanks to its concentration of cities, like Düsseldorf and Cologne, down the Rhine river.

In Bavaria, residents were almost half as likely to experience crime. As in 2012 just 4,977 offences were registered per 100,000 people. The state is, however, less densely populated than NRW.

In the south-western state of Baden-Württemberg, 5,317 crimes per 100,000 people were registered. Up north in the city-states, crimes were considerably more frequent.

In Berlin, 14,144 per 100,000 crimes occurred, whereas in the north west city of Bremen this was 13,128 per 100,000, while Hamburg saw 12,651 per 100,000 residents.

I still feel it is safer to walk the streets at night here though, even in Frankfurt which tops out at Germany's dodgiest city, I have not too many qualms.

CCTV is rife but there is a growing backlash against it, primarily concerning privacy but does seem to be expanding in areas like train stations and shopping centres. There's a group who go around 'vandalising' the cameras, Camover:

[Mich the Tester]

That depends on who, if anyone, is watching you.

Schrödinger's Cat was watching us and not watching us at the same time.

[Sysman]

All of us at the same time or just a few of us?

That depends on who, if anyone, is watching you.

[Sysman]

No we aren't.

But are you called Spartacus?

I am.

[Mich the Tester]

I dunno why in this country getting arseholed and being a dick is considered the norm, it's such a shame and ruins everything

Yep, it's a bit of a problem in NL too, but there are luckily enough towns where things are fairly civilised on a Friday night. Tends to be the kids from out in the sticks who get into drunken fights here, usually by opening their big gobs about something outside of their life experience and which townies are accustomed to, like people with dark skin or people who like doing it with the same sex of human, as opposed to the white heterosexual six-fingered sistershaggers out in the country.

[cailin maith]

Are you calling me a nutter?

Okay - you have met me - its a fair cop.

How are the boys?

You are chief nutter

Boys are great looking forward to a long weekend with hopefully some nice weather!!

Not that've seen. Nothing like English city centres at the weekend. Far from it, yes drinking, but on tables and chairs lining the street under gas lamps when it becomes a little chilly. Very civilised.

Octoberfest is coming, almost forgot. Then once you sober up it's skiing season!!

Sounds like other other European cities.

I dunno why in this country getting arseholed and being a dick is considered the norm, it's such a shame and ruins everything

[Mich the Tester]

Are you in quantum super position?

All of us at the same time or just a few of us?

[scooterscot]

No we aren't.

Are you in quantum super position?

[scooterscot]

Do they have the same kind of street crime we do?

Not that've seen. Nothing like English city centres at the weekend. Far from it, yes drinking, but on tables and chairs lining the street under gas lamps when it becomes a little chilly. Very civilised.

Octoberfest is coming, almost forgot. Then once you sober up it's skiing season!!

[scooterscot]

No, there's Glasgow.

Glasgow is friendliest place in world. Go on SAS, take a visit and burst into a chorus of Swing Low, you'll see what I'm on about.

[BrilloPad]

See?

Nutters.

Are you calling me a nutter?

Okay - you have met me - its a fair cop.

How are the boys?

[Mich the Tester]

Oh no you haven't.

You've missed him out for a start.

And me.

So are we.

No we aren't.

See?

Nutters.

Not me.

[cailin maith]

See?

Nutters.

[Mich the Tester]

I'm in two minds about this.

So are we.

No we aren't.