Authorities in Cologne, Germany, have vowed to do everything in their power to make sure the city’s famous carnival is not blighted by a repeat of the violence seen on New Year’s Eve.
The city’s new police chief, Jurgen Mathies, on Monday said that more than 2,000 officers would work 12-hour shifts alongside 350 cadets to guarantee safety on the streets during Weiberfastnacht, or “women’s carnival day,” on Thursday, twice as many officers as were employed last year.
Video surveillance would also be increased, said Mathies, whose predecessor resigned after the scale of the New Year’s Eve assaults became apparent early last month.
More than 1,000 people have since filed criminal complaints, including about 433 women alleging sexual assault. Some of the victims have jointly filed a single complaint, so that the number of alleged crimes stands at more than 750, of which more than 380 are sexual offenses, including at least three rapes. Cologne police are investigating 43 suspects in connection with the incidents, the majority of whom are Moroccan or Algerian. Nine of the suspects are currently in prison.
The organizers of the Cologne carnival have published a leaflet for refugees that explains the customs of the tradition, warning non-Germans not to worry if they meet locals wearing historic soldier uniforms.
“Their guns are only made of wood, and are only loaded with flowers — every single one a small expression of colorful, peaceful coexistence,” it read.
Marking the last Thursday before Lent, Cologne’s Weiberfastnacht traditionally sees women dressed in colorful costumes frequenting the streets and bars of the city, pecking strangers on the cheek and playing practical jokes, such as cutting off ties. The “crazy days” of carnival peak with a procession of floats on the following Monday.
Cologne Mayor Henriette Reker said she had “not the slightest concern” that people would not be able to celebrate carnival as usual, while also admitting that “one can never provide a guarantee for 100 percent safety.”
In an interview with Die Welt newspaper, Reker also said she regretted the phrasing of her controversial suggestion that women “keep at arm’s length” from strangers to avoid harassment.
“It would have been more sensible to say in that press conference that I was talking about New Year’s Eve and nothing else,” the mayor said.
The remark about keeping strangers “at arm’s length” had been a quote from a brochure for young women, Reker said.
“That’s something that every good mother would tell her daughter when she leaves the house. You can’t do schunkeln [swaying from side to side with locked arms, another Cologne carnival custom] at arm’s length either, I know that. I’m a Cologne girl, after all,” Reker said.
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