- The widespread sharing neo-Nazi imagery and pictures of Adolf Hitler on far-right chatrooms by German police has led to the suspension of 29 officers.
- The officers shared extremist content, including Swastikas and doctored images of refugees in gas chambers, according to officials in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW).
- Some face charges of spreading Nazi propaganda and hate speech while others are accused of not reporting the actions of their colleagues.
- German police have previously faced accusations of not doing enough to weed out potentially violent nationalists in their ranks.
Twenty-nine police officers in Germany have been suspended for sharing neo-Nazi imagery and pictures of Adolf Hitler on far-right chatrooms
According to officials in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), the officers were allegedly using chatrooms and WhatsApp groups to share extremist content, including Swastikas and doctored images of refugees in gas chambers.
Most of the officers working in the city of Essen are said to have shared more than 100 neo-Nazi images. The findings come after 34 police stations and private homes linked were raided.
“This is a disgrace for the NRW police,” the state’s interior minister, Herbert Reul, said on Wednesday, according to the BBC.
“This is the worst and most repulsive kind of hate-baiting… Right-wing extremists and neo-Nazis have absolutely no place in the North Rhine-Westphalia police, our police,” he added.
Reul also said he launched an investigation into the extent of extremism among state police departments, adding that authorities had to show a “crystal clear political profile” that rejected the far-right.
Read the article by Sophia Ankel in Business Insider Australia.