Thoughts on the Woolwich killing

[cratehorus]

The racist shop owner would soon go out of business shtick is getting a little old.

History does not bear this out as being a factual statement, it underestimates the amount of racist arseholes there are.

It depends on the circumstances. In some places, sure, the shop probably wouldn't go out of business. However, places change; if enough people moved in / out of an area to cause a shift in values, that shop wouldn't be as successful anymore.

it would be extremely successful in towns like these:

Inside ‘Nazi town,’ the German enclave of extremism

In Jamel, a tiny collection of red brick farmhouses fringed by forest, dozens of villagers describe themselves as Nazis and a majority turns out to vote for the far right.

This is a place with little welcome for strangers. Rottweilers bark incessantly. A shaven-headed man shouts his own warning, while a woman shrieks an obscenity from her window.

Jamel is for some the tip of the iceberg, an indication of how the far right in Germany is open and active, especially in areas of former East Germany where jobs are scarce.

This month in Munich, the opening stages of a shocking trial have given further cause for introspection in a country which is being forced to confront the violent racism which pervades parts of its society.

Beate Zschaepe, 38, an apprentice gardener from Jena, in eastern Germany, is accused of complicity in a series of racially motivated murders carried out by a neo-Nazi cell, the National Socialist Underground. The cell is being held responsible for the murder of eight men of Turkish origin, who were shot in the head at point-blank range.

Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, has apologized to the victims’ families, describing the killings as “a disgrace for our country.”

But the case has raised questions about official complacency. German security services and police failed to pursue tipoffs about the NSU, instead suspecting the immigrant victims of having links with organized crime.

Figures published by the German government showed that crime attributed to the far right is rising, with more than 17,000 cases last year — of which 842 were violent acts. Authorities estimate that there are more than 22,000 right-wing extremists in the country. Nearly half, around 9,800, are regarded by Germany’s security services as violent.

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