Twenty-nine police officers in the western German state of North-Rhine Westphalia have been temporarily suspended after their unit was found to have shared extreme rightwing content on a WhatsApp group. The images, reportedly including Adolf Hitler, the swastika flag, a collage of a refugee inside a gas chamber, and the shooting of a young black person, were shared among officers in the town of Mülheim an der Ruhr.
The swastika is on the German criminal code’s list of 'symbols of unconstitutional organisations', and sharing such symbols via chat groups can be punished under German law. The 126 files were shared across five different chat groups, with most images sent in 2015, at the height of the European refugee crisis. The most recent message under investigation was sent on 27 August this year.
At a press conference on Wednesday, the interior minister of North-Rhine Westphalia, Herbert Reul, described the findings as a 'disgrace' for police forces in his state, which had 'shaken police to the bone'. He stated: 'Rightwing extremists and neo-Nazis have no place in the North Rhine-Westphalian police force, in our police force.'
Authorities searched 34 apartments and offices linked to the officers under investigation in several towns. The officers include six women; 11 who actively sent images are under investigation for incitement and use of unconstitutional symbols, while the remaining 18 are suspected of merely receiving the messages without reporting them.
The chat group's existence emerged by chance after authorities confiscated a police officer's phone in an unrelated investigation. Reul expects further disclosures as confiscated phones are examined. This scandal follows the federal interior minister's decision to halt a planned study into racial profiling by German police, citing that it was already prohibited.
