Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Hold Pølserne For Dig Selv & Keep Mouth Shut!

Ak ja, dog. Could this be yet another example of outrageous political correctness and dhimmitude in Denmark? On February 5, several Danish newspapers reported that the owner of one of Copenhagen's many saussage and hotdog-stands might have been the victim of a violent racist attack. This, by the way, is what a typical Danish hotdog-stand looks like:

Polsevogn

The alleged attack took place on Frederiksberg on Friday afternoon, February 3. Two young men "of immigrant background" approached a hotdog-stand and asked for two pieces of hotdog-bread. When the bread was handed over the counter one of them quickly grabbed the wrists of the hotdog-man, shouting "You Danish Pig! You are selling unclean (tainted?) meat!" At the same time the other man produced a wooden bat or cosh and began to beat the arms and hands (10-15 times) of the terrified sausage-vendor. It all happened very fast. After the two attackers had run away, the victim went to the hospital for treatment. Both his hands were very bruised. The incident was reported to the police the following day. Nothing surprising in all that...

The real outrage started on February 7 when the police told the press that they now believed the incident never happened and that they had decided to press charges against the hotdog-man. Because there were no witnesses to the attack, the police concluded that the injuries must have been self-inflicted, thus insinuating that the hotdog-man must be a racist who had invented the story to aggravate the tension between ethnic Danes and immigrants living in Denmark. Since the Muhammed cartoon controversy was dominating the news at the time the story was given a fairly high profile in the Danish press. The hotdog-man was branded a typical racist Dane. End of story!

Well, nearly the end, that is. Why? Because on May 23, three judges quickly reached an unanimous decision to dismiss all the charges brought against the unfortunate sausage vendor. The judges made it clear that the prosecution had brought a very dubious case before the court. When asked about the possibility of the prosecution appealing the verdict one of the judges said, "I really cannot see that happen, not in my wildest imagination..." Of course, the exoneration of the hotdog-man, as well as the implicit criticism of the police's embarrassing handling of the case was only reported by Frederiksberg Bladet, a small and very, very local newspaper. Today, more than three weeks after the verdict, Jyllands-Posten has finally found space to print a comment on the case written by two members of Venstre, the main conservative party in Denmark.That is all. One small comment-piece buried in the Debate Section (page 10) of one big, Danish newspaper. 

So, remember, if you are a fair-skinned pork-enthusiast living in Denmark who has been attacked or harassed by immigrant youths, then you need to think twice before you report it to the police. Unless you can produce independent witnesses to back your story, the police is likely to treat you as a potential racist swindler. Trying to bring your injuries to the attention of the police will probably not help your case. Your bruises and cuts might just be used against you, as the police will claim that you must have done the physical harm to yourself. Sadly, it seems the police is prepared to drag people to court based on flimsy evidence and lofty dhimmi-speculation, accusing people of bringing false charges and smearing them in public as a sinister racists. Velbekomme...

No comments: