Law and Order Populism

An attack in the Munich subway, says Robert Misik, has led to a discussion which shows how the issue of youth criminality in Germany is turning into a debate about ethnicity

It is a case about which the whole republic is talking, and has led the tabloids to use their thickest headlines. Two young thugs beat up and almost killed a 76-year-old in a Munich subway station. They attacked him because he told them to stop smoking in the train. That appears to have been enough to lead them to cross of the threshold of civilised behaviour.

This is all being seen under the rubric of "violent behaviour by foreigners." Serkan A., 20, is a "Turk." That means that, although he was born here, he holds the citizenship of a country with which he has nothing to do. And that means, above all, that he has grown up here with the sense that he would never "belong" – a state of affairs which in the end has little to do with formal citizenship. The other young man involved, Spiridon L., is a "Greek."

Evidently this did not stop the Turk and the Greek from becoming friends, but it was enough to make them both feel that they were different – "non-German." They are alleged to have shouted "You German shit" at the old man as they kicked him.

Populism instead of understanding

Such behaviour should not be played down or pardoned. It stems from social brutalisation. Poor social conditions may occasionally produce good individuals, but such things normally happen in the works of Charles Dickens and other social romantics rather than in real life.

The incident might lead people to ask what price is to be paid for forcing whole social groups and whole generations into an underclass without a future. They might come up with the idea that one should do everything to prevent that from happening – not just out of altruism, but out of enlightened self-interest. It would be good for the whole of society if one could ensure that people are safe in parks and in the subway, and that they did not run the risk of being attacked. But that is not what people are talking about: they are talking about "violent foreigners."

The classification: "foreigner"

These people are to be deported or put in re-education camps – such are the imaginative proposals of the Christian Democrats – at the very least, the punishments for young offenders should be drastically increased. But nobody asks if the pent-up violence which such young people display has anything to do with the fact that social problems are always being seen in ethnic terms.

What people classify as "foreigners" is actually an underclass of those who suffer from exclusion and a lack of opportunity. The young people themselves begin to identify themselves as "foreigners" and develop a hatred for everything German.

It is not as if there were no brutality and violence elsewhere. But one can scarcely imagine a Hispanic or a Chinese-American attacking a white person in the New York subway and describing him as "American shit." After all, they too are American. And in France, the children of immigrants regard it as offensive that they do not have all the same opportunities as "other French people".

In any case, the country in which one lives is not seen as something from which one turns away in disgust, but as something whose promises one takes seriously – even if reality does not match the fine ideals of equality of opportunity and fraternity which may be declared.

Prevention instead of reaction

That is not the case in Germany, where people remain lifelong "foreigners". Turning social hotspots into ethnic hotspots certainly does not make it easier to quench the fires. It is certainly true that simply not referring to ethnic issues would not solve the problem; there is no doubt about that. But the problems of youth violence, brutalisation and hopelessness about the future can only be solved if one starts in early childhood to prevent such underclass careers from developing.

That needs investment in kindergartens, remedial classes and schools – in short, fair chances for all who are born into poverty of opportunity. Many of them are migrants – but not all of them. "Violent foreigners" are a varied group, and there are many "true Germans" among them.

The law-and-order populists who are now taking to their soapboxes – people like the prime minister of the state of Hesse, Roland Koch – have to be told: prisons are not appropriate institutions for learning how to live the right life. They are rather academies of violence. Of course, violent attacks must be punished by the law. But instead of fighting their elections on a reactionary platform of introducing tougher penalties for young offenders, it would be better if they argued for a society in which young people do not choose to lead a life of violence.

Robert Misik

Translated from the German by Michael Lawton

Qantara.de

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