The West Won’t Survive Its Own Cowardice
Across Europe, things feel increasingly fragile. As governments lose control of basic order and the state becomes rapidly incapable of maintaining law and order, this isn’t so much a ‘clash of civilisations’ as the West quietly rolling over and letting itself die.
Today, it was announced that Germany will be working alongside the Taliban. Yes, those same extremist Islamists that NATO forces—including Germany’s—spent years fighting in Afghanistan. The aim here is to facilitate the deportations of Afghan criminals living in Germany. Despite not officially recognising the Taliban regime, Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s government will allow two Taliban officials to work at Afghan diplomatic missions in Germany. Apparently, the only way Merz can conceive of deporting undesirable migrants and failed asylum seekers from the country is by enlisting the help of a murderous, terrorist regime.
It is a depressing indictment of the situation Europe has got itself into, where a nation must grant de-facto diplomatic representation to a brutal Islamist government in order to deport asylum seekers driven to Germany by the Taliban themselves. This scheme, however ridiculous, is at least doing something to stop Germany from being overrun by opportunistic criminals, dangerous thugs, and those who will generally strain the country’s already creaking public services.
In other areas, the government is failing miserably to even try to stop rising crime. German police are more interested in going after pensioners who are rude to politicians online than stopping young male migrants from assaulting teenage girls and running riot in small towns. In some places, like the town of Harsefeld, the authorities have given up policing altogether, and now let gangs of migrant youths commit violence and deal drugs as they please. As such, local citizens have been forced to set up their own patrols in an attempt to keep the streets somewhat safe.
German institutions are essentially telling people to deal with crime on their own. Academics from one university have even suggested that “vagina traps” might be the solution to Germany’s steadily increasing rape rate—an almost 50% jump in the last five years. They plan on investigating the effectiveness of various anti-rape devices, including one called Rape-aXe, which activates during an assault to injure the attacker and help to identify him later on. Rather than deporting migrants who sexually assault women and girls in Germany and closing the borders to people whose backgrounds are a mystery to us, these academics believe that women should instead booby-trap their bodies to stop themselves from being attacked.
This attitude of simply letting people fend for themselves is pervasive, all over the continent. Where governments have spent the last decade or so allowing all and sundry to cross the border, the ruling elite are now hesitant to deal with the consequences. In fact, people are expected to adapt to lawlessness. In Spain, however, we see what happens when they refuse. Across the country, there have been a string of protests by locals angry about an increase in crime and the changing nature of their neighbourhoods. In Torre Pacheco, scenes have been particularly brutal. Here, clashes between residents, migrants, and riot police erupted after a pensioner was attacked by a group of North African men. For almost a week, protests and often violent demonstrations raged throughout the town, showing just how tired people are of being ignored, endangered, and lectured about the need for ‘tolerance,’ all while the authorities abdicate their most basic duties.
Meanwhile, the French state is demonstrating a different kind of negligence. Instead of vanishing in the face of mounting crime, it dishes out punishments for all, criminal or not. This month, towns have started to introduce curfews on children and young people in response to youth violence and drug gangs. In places like Nîmes, Limoges, and Béziers, teenagers are not allowed outside unaccompanied between certain hours—this applies to under-13s between 11pm and 6am in Limoges, and to under-16s between 9pm and 6am in Nîmes, for example. This is, of course, a euphemistic, roundabout way of trying to tackle crime rooted in immigrant-heavy neighbourhoods. Needless to say, the sorts of youths who are already involved in drug gangs are not likely to be deterred by curfews. Last weekend, Bezièrs was hit with yet more unrest, despite the new rules. Roughly 50 young people launched fireworks and mortars at police and started small fires.
France’s youth gang problem will continue to worsen, so long as the French government refuses to take a harsher stance on immigration and deportations. All curfews will do is mask the symptoms of the deeper issue, as well as making life slightly less convenient for regular, law-abiding people.
The pattern is similar elsewhere. Denmark literally doubled criminal penalties for residents of so called ‘ghetto’ postcodes, instead of isolating the actual ringleaders. Sweden handed police the power to frisk anyone inside ‘visitation zones’ after gang bombings—broad dragnets that hit every passer-by. Berlin went for “knife free zones” across transport hubs, meaning anyone could be subject to random searches, while the same repeat offenders slip through the net. In virtually every European city, anti-terror barriers blight the landscape.
Governments will do literally anything other than address the actual policies and attitudes that got us into this mess in the first place. The West’s immune system has gone haywire, targeting healthy parts of society while the deadly virus rages on. No amount of curfews, gimmicky anti-rape devices, or turning a blind eye can make up for years of neglecting proper border controls. Until leaders can admit that mass, poorly vetted migration and a justice system that is terrified of being called ‘racist’ are the real reasons why Western societies are breaking down, things will only continue to deteriorate from here.
If Europe’s elites still refuse to pay attention, they can’t feign surprise when—like in Spain, Germany, and elsewhere—citizens start to vent their frustration and take the law into their own hands. Fix the borders and enforce the law, or get used to mobs doing it themselves.