29 cops linked to neoNazi propaganda suspended
BERLIN — A police force in Germany on Wednesday suspended 29 officers suspected of sharing images of Adolf Hitler and violent neoNazi propaganda in at least five online chat groups, adding to concerns about farright infiltration in Germany’s police and military.
Herbert Reul, interior minister of the western state of NorthRhine Westphalia, where the chats were discovered, called them a “disgrace.” At a news conference Wednesday, he described the images that were shared among officers as “farright extremist propaganda” and the “ugliest, most despicable, neoNazi immigrantbaiting.”
The 126 images shared included swastikas, a fabricated picture of a refugee in a gas chamber and the shooting of a Black man, officials said.
The number of cases of farright extremists in Germany’s police and military, some of whom hoard weapons and keep lists of enemies, have multiplied in recent years. On Monday, authorities raided the home of a 40yearold soldier in connection with an investigation of a suspected farright terrorism plot.
For years, German politicians and security chiefs rejected the notion of farright infiltration of the security services, speaking only of “individual cases.” The idea of networks was routinely dismissed, and the superiors of those exposed as extremists protected.
But this summer, the government disbanded an entire company of German special forces because it was deemed to be infested with farright extremists. And the problem has become so serious that authorities appear to be struggling to get a grip on it.
Early Wednesday, investigators raided the homes and workstations of 14 of the 29 suspended officers in at least five towns and cities. Their senior officer was among the members of the chat groups.
Reul, the interior minister, said he had long hoped that such episodes were isolated exceptions.
“Today, I can no longer speak of individual cases,” he said.
Several police departments in Germany have found themselves in the spotlight over farright extremism.
In the state of Hesse, investigators have traced to police computers information used in a string of death threats sent over the past two years to leftwing politicians and prominent Germans with immigrant roots.