The following video features a press conference held by German Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière in which he summarizes the country’s crime statistics for 2016. Mr. de Maizière does his best to spin the facts in such a way that the “refugees” don’t end up looking quite so criminal, but he can’t completely hide the reality of the numbers. To mitigate all those embarrassing un-PC statistics, he makes a point of emphasizing politically motivated right-wing crime as an important component of the report.

Many thanks to Egri Nök for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

Below is an essay from Vera Lengsfeld’s website that discusses Mr. de Maizière’s press conference and his statistics. Many thanks to Nash Montana for the translation:

Video transcript:

00:00 Together with my colleague, the Interior Minister of Saxony,

00:04 we will today, by tradition, present to you the figures from the police crime statistics

00:09 for the year 2016, and also the numbers of politically motivated crimes.

00:17 The number of crimes committed in Germany

00:20 has essentially remained constant in Germany over the past year.

00:25 It did not rise — in spite of markedly more inhabitants.

00:30 That is pleasing. It is also pleasing

00:33 that the crime clearance rate is the highest in five years.

00:39 But the state of criminality in Germany shows

00:42 more than before, much light — and much shadow.

00:48 Fewer burglaries, fewer shop thefts, less fraud.

00:54 But increasing numbers of violent offenses of all kinds.

00:57 With the exception of a decrease in robbery.

01:01 And the statistics also show that the

01:04 level of crime is highly different in the different Federal States.

01:10 Ladies and gentlemen — the barbarization of our society and the consequences of it is alarming.

01:16 We have been observing this for a while.

01:19 Violent crime in Germany was falling, until 2015.

01:24 Then, it rose for the first time, even before the peak of the refugee situation.

01:30 The barbarization not only shows in speech —

01:34 for example on the Internet, in a lack of respect,

01:37 in the unceremonious way some treat their fellows;

01:41 it also shows in crime. Everywhere.

01:45 In everyday crime, in politically motivated crime —

01:50 from the left, from the right, by foreigners.

01:53 It must concern us all that violent crime has risen markedly.

01:59 Especially the cases of dangerous and grievous bodily harm have risen.

02:05 In this area, we have added new criminal offenses to the law governing sexual offenses,

02:11 as the numbers of rapes and sexual assaults have increased, too.

02:17 Sexual assaults by groups can now be punished more appropriately than used to be the case.

02:23 This is a consequence of Silvester Night in Cologne.

02:28 The increase in numbers also has to do with developments in and after Cologne.

02:35 How do we want to live together in Germany?

02:38 Our Basic Law and our laws set the framework for that, and it is non-negotiable.

02:44 Besides that, and just as non-negotiable,

02:48 there are values and unwritten norms that determine our life together.

02:52 These are of outstanding importance, particularly in difficult times.

02:59 And right here, something in our country has begun to slide.

03:03 This development cannot be compensated for

03:07 by politics, the judiciary, and the security authorities.

03:12 All parts of society are asked to

03:15 firmly oppose the increasing barbarization, and every form of hate and violence,

03:21 on our streets as well as on the Internet.

03:24 Unfortunately, we also have to lament frequent so-called “resistance offenses”,

03:29 massive attacks on police officers, which have also shown an increase,

03:33 but by now even on rescue teams and paramedics.

03:37 This is also reflected in the increase of violent crime.

03:41 Ladies and gentlemen, I’d like the increase in violent crime in the last year to be a wake-up call.

03:46 A wake-up call to us all, to re-establish more respect, moderation,

03:50 and nonviolence, in our language and in our actions,

03:57 and not to leave the problem only to police and the judiciary.

04:03 In the years 2015 and 2016, altogether,

04:08 more than one million people migrated into Germany as fleeing persons.

04:13 Added to that are migrants from Europe and from third [i.e. non-EU] countries.

04:17 It follows inevitably that a higher number of people means higher crime numbers.

04:25 However, the crime numbers in Germany have not risen,

04:30 In spite of more inhabitants, they have remained constant.

04:34 This is good news, at first glance.

04:37 But it is unpleasant, that migrants —

04:41 you will find a definition of that [term] in the report as mainly the fleeing persons —

04:47 that crime committed by migrants has disproportionately increased in the past year.

04:53 There is no sugarcoating that.

04:57 This unfortunately applies to almost every single category of crime.

05:01 And unfortunately, as the numbers reveal, the marked increase in violent crime

05:06 is primarily caused by an increase in the violent crimes committed by migrants.

05:10 In violent crime, we see an increase of one percent by Germans,

05:14 but an increase of 90 percent more migrant suspects in the year 2016.

05:20 However, the following is also true:

05:23 80% of the migrants who were victims of a violent crime

05:27 were victim of violence by another migrant.

05:31 This does not make it any better, but is part of the complete picture.

05:37 One possible explanation for this striking perpetrator-victim constellation

05:41 may lie in cramped housing conditions,

05:45 which we still had in wide areas last year.

05:51 When violent crimes were committed against migrants on streets and in public squares,

05:54 the proportion was markedly lower, only 65 percent.

05:59 Additionally the residential, ethnic and religious conflicts from the home countries

06:04 clash in Germany. Fuel for conflict, which is easily ignited.

06:09 Another possible explanation, which does not justify the increase in crime in any way,

06:13 is age and sex of the offenders.

06:17 The crime rate of 18- to 21-year-old men

06:22 is, also among Germans, four times as high as in the general population.

06:27 As most of the migrants are young men, it is not surprising from a criminological viewpoint

06:31 that their criminality is comparably high.

06:35 And — this is a particularly important finding —

06:39 often, it is a few fleeing persons, and from certain countries,

06:44 who often commit several crimes,

06:47 and thus bring other, blameless fleeing persons into discredit.

06:51 A not insignificant part of the increase therefore

06:55 can be attributed to intensive multiple offenders

06:59 among the refugees, and furthermore, from certain countries.

07:03 It is also certain — the numbers show this — that those who are truly in need of protection,

07:08 those whom our citizens want to protect as the true refugees,

07:14 such as for example Syrians, are under-represented

07:18 among criminal migrants; notably less criminal.

07:22 This group in particular commits comparatively few offenses.

07:27 Ladies and gentlemen, now briefly on to the numbers of politically motivated crimes.

07:32 We are looking at less than one percent of total criminal activity.

07:37 I wish to say that in advance for classification.

07:41 Nevertheless, it is important to record these crimes separately.

07:45 These crimes have enormous significance for coexistence in Germany.

07:50 Crimes motivated by hate, targeting minorities,

07:54 meant to overrule the constitution.

07:58 I see in this type of crime, despite the relatively small significance in terms of numbers,

08:04 a seismograph, a barometer of public opinion.

08:10 The past year shows the following development:

08:14 The number of politically motivated crimes in 2016

08:19 has, again, peaked, for the fourth time. This is unacceptable.

08:24 It is congruent with the rise in violent crime other than politically motivated crime.

08:31 This is particularly due to the notable increase of politically motivated

08:34 so-called “foreigner criminality” of more than 60 percent.

08:38 This area records, for example, crimes in the name of foreign extremist organizations,

08:43 such as the so-called Islamic State, the PKK [Kurdistan Workers’ Party], or the Tamil Tigers.

08:50 The terrible pictures of the attack of December 19 on the Breitscheidplatz

08:54 and the other terror attacks showed us in a cruel way:

08:58 Germany is in the declared target range of terrorist organizations.

09:03 Besides, Germany is, and has been for a long time,

09:07 a mirror of internal Turkish conflicts.

09:10 Federal and state security authorities are aware of that.

09:13 In 2016, just the crimes related to the Turkey-PKK [conflict]

09:18 have almost doubled.

09:22 Right-wing motivated violence, too, has

09:25 markedly increased by 14.3 percent.

09:29 The numbers now are at about the same high level as left-wing violence,

09:33 which decreased over the past year.

09:36 The pleasing fact of the decrease in left-winged violence, however,

09:40 can be attributed to the fact that there were barely any large-scale events,

09:44 such as the opening of the European Central Bank, or the G7 summit,

09:49 that could be used as alleged justifications for violence

09:52 and destruction by the left scene.

09:56 This will presumably change this year, with three state elections,

10:01 and the G20 summit.

10:05 In particular the great brutality and recklessness with which it proceeds is what shocks.

10:10 In several cases, occupied asylum seeker accommodations were torched with Molotov cocktails.

10:18 In two cases, foreigners were pushed onto railway tracks.

10:22 It is cases like these that are behind the

10:25 18 attempts of right-wing motivated homicide in the statistics.

10:29 Just by chance no person was killed.

10:33 A focus of the attacks from right was, again, asylum seekers and their accommodations.

10:38 But the numbers are finally decreasing.

10:42 Since the peak in January 2016 with 191 incidents,

10:46 the attacks on refugee accommodations have markedly decreased.

10:50 In December, 37 incidents were reported, and the first numbers of the year 2017

10:56 confirm this trend: we are approaching the level of 2014,

11:00 when attacks on refugee accommodations were reported for the first time.

11:04 But the decrease is not nearly proportionate to the decrease in asylum seeker accommodations.

11:10 So there is no reason to relax,

11:13 and no reason not to be active anymore.

11:18 We will begin with the first question by our colleague Lohse.

11:21 In the meantime, I will take further requests for questions.

11:28 I have got two quick questions. One: the chosen term “migrants”,

11:33 insofar as I have understood this, does not include the accepted asylum seekers.

11:41 The question: will the term remain? And why was it chosen?

11:44 Why the term “migrants” at all, which also, for example,

11:48 applies to Canadian engineers who came in under the Residence Act.

11:52 That was the first question, and the second question —

11:55 I did not have the opportunity to read up on it; how many successfully accomplished homicides

11:58 are in the “migrant” category, and where

12:01 do the 12 homicides by Mr. Amri appear in these figures, or do they appear at all?

12:09 Mr. Lohse, one may discuss whether the term “migrants”

12:15 is chosen adequately.

12:18 It’s the way the experts have chosen it; it is defined in the text,

12:22 and it does not refer to migrants from the EU,

12:26 and it does not refer to migrants from third [non-EU] countries,

12:30 but to the refugees, regardless of their residence status,

12:35 but also illegals who are here. I have said this time and again:

12:38 A portion of the Moroccans come here, stay illegally, and

12:42 and only when they become an offender do they file an asylum application.

12:47 It has been defined the way it is particularly

12:51 because the public discussion is about that:

12:56 How is our level of crime developing in particular concerning this group of people?

13:01 But that does not mean the others are overlooked. You will find

13:05 the category “non-German suspects” in your documents.

13:10 Those are all. And the group of “migrants” as described by me is in there.

13:16 So that we can get a complete view.

13:19 I would also like to point out that the BKA (Federal Criminal Police Office)

13:24 today released the report which is usually given every quarterly period,

13:28 concerning criminality and migration 2016, the “Lagebild”.

13:35 This, too, is at your disposal. Regarding your second question.

13:42 The criminal statistics by the police, now this becomes a bit technical,

13:45 are the so-called “outcome statistics”; this means

13:48 they are recorded when the police have

13:52 closed their investigations, and are handing them over.

13:55 What this means for the homicides is, that for example the twelve

13:59 people murdered on Breitscheidplatz are not yet included here,

14:04 but the more than 200 people killed in the German Wings plane crash