General News Possible terrorist attack in Berlin

A truck drove into a christmas market in Berlin. They currently say 9 dead, 50 injured, some might not survive. :tears:

It was the same modus operandi as it was in Nizza, so they are pretty sure it was a terrorist attack. The police have already caught a suspect. The co-driver of the truck is dead.

It is recommended that inhabitants of Berlin stay at home.

 

Oh crap

 

From the -religion of peace- with love. The truck was polish and there's a dead body in it. Probably the original driver, the truck was hijacked. So the victims are 10. I'm waiting to see more results, but it's amazing to see some german media calling it a rode accident.
Quick check in google maps shows that the place in which the "accident" took place has nothing to do with an actual rode. It's a zone for pedestrians.

Am I the only one who lost count of all the supposed isolated cases?

 

Woahhhh

 

Hi, this is Berlin calling in. First of all I'm glad that me and all my friends are safe.

I doubt it was an accident. It is, indeed, a pedestrian zone and why would you flee the scene if it's an accident. They caught the guy though, so I'm curious how this will develop.

And to end - wtf is going on this year everywhere. Can we stop with all this ridiculous shit please. But am I afraid? No, not at all actually.

Edit:

It is not sure if this is true and if the truck was actually hijacked, please don't speculate and wait for facts.

 

Well I saw few pics, a comment from the owner of the company that manages the truck. It -is- a polish truck. And they did lose contact with it. And there is a dead body. 2 plus 2 makes 4, you know?

But of course, there's some room for mistake and truth might be diffrent, but it's highly unlikely.

 

AFAIK, it has not been yet officially confirmed by government that it was a terrorist attack. Investigations are still taking place.

(Glad to see your post, timo...)

Probably the most important lesson right now is the FACT that we do live in fear.

 

Bolded text - that's all true indeed But it could also be that the original driver lost his mind. We don't know yet - I'd rather wait for official news than speculate. But if it turns out that you're right, I'll be the first to admit that

 

ISIS a;ready claimed responsibility. The sane part of the world is now waiting for Merkel to do the same.

 

ISIL will always claim attacks in order to appear coordinated and influential, even when it only has a tangential or even no link to the killer. It is vitally important for the German intelligence services to establish that ISIL's claim is true before Merkel announces any responsibility.

That said, one can only hope that Germany will begin to accept that it must take greater pains to strengthen its intelligence apparatuses and take more seriously its defence commitments and international obligations. This, at least, might inspire some level of public demand for a firmer hand in military and intelligence capabilities that Germans have so far avoided.

 

Yeah, we know, we know. Someone kills Christians, ISIS claims responsibility and it's most likely a coincidence.

Also, when I mentioned Merkel I meant something else entirely, which actually correlates with the idea of Germany strengthening its intelligence apparatuses.

 

Do you mean that she ought to take greater responsibility? If so, I mistook your point and assumed you meant to acknowledge the claim. If your first line is sarcastic, I'll just point out very clearly that it's insanely reckless for a government to accept a claim before it has itself verified it.

I think everyone can agree with the point about German responsibility. It's incontrovertible that even with the current government's steps to rebuild the military to acceptable levels, Germany has neglected to maintain the sort of military and intelligence presence its wealth, size and political importance should oblige it to do.

That said, if Germans were to decide to punish the government for that military and intelligence failure by voting in an anti-establishment party to form an anti-Merkel coalition, I think it's safe to say the AfD couldn't govern a platoon, let alone Europe's third largest armed forces.

 

They now say that it was a pakistani refugee. How did he get into a polish truck? I think it is likely that it was stolen and the original driver killed.

Number of deaths raised to 12.

AfD will not govern shit anyway. Merkel will stay and if the government will be her, SPD and green party. That's gonna be the case. And we will have a paralyzed opposition, Linke and AfD don't even vote together if they agree with each other.

 

Confirmed that the suspect (the pakistani) was not the driver. It seems the killer is still on the run, possibly armed, as the gun has not yet been found.

12 Dead
48 Wounded

The dead man found in the truck, on the passenger seat (the owner of the truck/original polish driver) had not only gun shots, but also other kind of wounds, it seems he also struggled against the attacker at some point.

Police is still examining the crime scene and the truck, BKA in cooperation with the Berlin police, and other agencies are also quite busy right know analyzing all the facts. There is a lot of information on a huge crime scene, it will take time...

I think the way the government is dealing with this attack is admirable : Security forces, firemen, health professionals... Everyone is doing a great job. No signs of chaos, confusion or panic, and no false, premature statements : They reported that it had been a terrorist attack when they were sure about it, which is the way it should be.

We had to endure too empty, emotional statements from pseudo-politicians about 'not giving up our lifestyle', whatever that means... There is police everywhere you look. At many markets all over Germany, the police is heavily armed, we are talking machine guns here, post-Paris like. I am not exactly sure how useful are the politicians stupid rants, they all sound the same to me, but some like to be told what they must think, and how they should react, right...

 

It doesn't change our lifestyle at all. I never leave the house unarmed and plan to get a permission for an alarm pistol the day I turn 18.

 

And here we go again. People will feel horrified, use #prayforberlin hashtags, will hold vigils, people will put German flags as their avatars, world leaders will call for "unity", and two weeks later, everyone will forget about what happened...until the next attack. And so on and so forth.

---------- Post added 20th Dec 2016 at 09:43 AM ----------

Would you say this kind of heavy security has increased since the influx of refugees? Do Germans consider the refugee presence in the country threatening?

I am honestly asking since I don't usually have an opportunity to speak to an actual German. I mostly hear Americans rant about it, but that doesn't tell me much.

 

@libertino:

The current hashtag is #defendberlin which I adapted from identitaire movement.

In my area, I didn't notice heightened security from the state, but here nothing has happened yet apart from some small cases of assault. But in private I know a lot of girls who have pepper spray with them.

Some do feel threatened although I don't know how many. Estimates up to 20%. A lot don't care and talk about how it was just single incidents. The political situation is horrible, the seperate groups don't talk to each other and if they do it ends in insults and might get a physical fight started if they meet in person. I was outside at the day of german unity and had to intervene two times when they were one second before punching each other in the face.

If you want to know more from an actual german, feel free to post on my profile page.

 

I literally only know one girl who feels threatened by the refugee presence. Everyone else I know is either indifferent about it and doesn't care that much, or they're like #refugeeswelcome (me included).

I refuse to use the #prayforberlin hashtag. Praying doesn't get us anywhere. Going on with our lives, caring about and looking after each other like we did before does. So I keep on doing exactly what I did before yesterday evening, living my life the way I want to, and not let this shit get in my way.

Edit: when I cycled to work this morning, I didn't notice any difference compared to any other morning commute.

 

That's the real meaning behind the order 'don't change you lifestyle'. It says 'hey, nothing happened here, don't even think about it, just let us take care of it, okay?'. Well, that is what we did before, and look what happened...

We are where we are because of our collective silence when our governments went ahead and bombed those countries. That is the ugly truth nobody wants to accept.
This attack looks like a revenge attack, probably the murder had had his family bombed by a drone, but you rarely hear anyone telling you how it is. To blame their religion is much comfier, as it is to blame somebody's skin for their shitty circumstances...

Check the facts with Amnesty International, they keep track of the number of assaults last year against refugees, including against their provisional homes. Fascism is on the rise (again) in our country. I see refugees as a blessing, because it's new blood, and because I'd like somebody to pay for my pension someday. On the other hand, I feel ashamed when I see them, because they had lost everything, and it wasn't caused by a natural disaster, but (in part) because of my own silence, which turned me into an accomplice. I despise anyone who complains about refugees : We owe them.

It doesn' make any sense to continue this sort of politics. To fight fire with fire won't lead us anywhere but to more attacks. It would be unwise to turn away now, forget and 'continue with our lifestyle'. Our modern 'culture' of silence, indifference and fear is nothing to be proud about.

 

Just randomly curios, of what significance is the truck being Polish? That it was snuck across borders or something? That it wasn't a German national?

Sorry, probably missing something obvious but I'm confused on that point.