German Police Union Cartoons Slammed With Racism Charges

This is one of those stories that's difficult to follow for mostly not being reported in a language with which I'm familiar (I can feign competency with English, and that's about it). It looks like a calendar sponsored by the police union in the German state of Bavaria (the southeast state in the country; biggest city Munich) has been removed, defended and generally discussed depending on the circumstance and report, but generally following criticism of the racial caricature and wordplay depending on the otherness of those depicted. This includes caricatures of black people generally and Arabic people more specifically. This has now led to the standard fallout one can imagine will accrue to such an item, which in this case has included charges of another police calendar from another union in Germany, equally racially charged.

If I'm reading the stories correctly, while one police chief ordered the originally indicted calendar removed from police station walls, other police officials including those more directly responsible for the material being published have defended it. This is what seems to have led to some pointing out that other police union calendars/cartoons have been equally deplorable, including that second calendar now driving coverage. Links to what looks like past, racially-charged work by the cartoonist in question can be found here, here and here. While the cartoonist's web site is now down, a key official has apparently denied that this purported other calendar was ever published, asserting that the cartoons in question were rejected for publication. So it's clear there's still some sorting out to do.

You can see a slideshow of some of the cartoons here here, which includes some humor that some feel is just more generally tasteless whether or not it has a racial component.

Footnote: As is always the case with political stories, I'm happy to run any even vaguely responsible letter. I'm not going to engage with e-mail seeking to form or alter coverage or vent in my direction (or even correct factual errors) without being published -- so everything barring irresponsibly provocative responses will be published with your name on it and linked to from this article.
 
posted 4:00 am PST | Permalink
 

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