DZ - Crackdown reveals anxiety in Rheinland

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EDITORIAL
Stefanie Maur

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Crackdown reveals anxiety in Rheinland

PLANET HAMBURG - In Billstedt City, anger has grown over the arrest of four teenagers on terrorism charges. In the summery -6°C weather, a crowd has gathered in heavy coats on the steps of the municipal police building. The demonstration ebbs and flows, with protesters shouting and jeering until squads of helmeted Kaiserreichpolizei stomp down to chase them away; the crowd reforms as soon as the officers depart. The four teenagers have been named by community leaders as Annett Mehler, Ben Shroeder, Leah Braun and Martin Kastner. It is understood that late on Wednesday night, one of the group spray painted the message “there are no f***ing liberators” onto the police building’s front door, while the others watched. The following day, all four were arrested in dawn raids by Billstedt’s notorious armed response unit and taken away. The families say they have not been allowed to speak to their sons and daughters and do not know where they are being held. In response to outcry, local authorities posted a brief message on social media stating that the police acted decisively to suppress a radical cell of Bundschuh terrorists, before hurriedly moving on to rote messaging extolling the virtues of the Kaiser's personal appointee as system governor, 'Erzherzog' Otto von Schäffer. While the offending phrase memorialised in graffiti does indeed come from a poor-quality audio recording of a Bundschuh speech that recently went viral, it seems unlikely that the youngsters are card carrying members of the movement. The police’s actions were a brutal and disproportionate criminalisation of expression, when a fine, a bucket of soapy water and a mop would have sufficed. The situation in Billstedt City can be seen as a microcosm of broader trends across Hamburg and Rheinland itself. The House remains scarred by almost three decades of successive wars, and deep corruption and policy failure at the federal level. This culminated in 827’s civil war in which the aristocratic minority interests of the Imperial Party violently seized the apparatus of state and sent the Federal government into hiding. While this conflict was resolved through the Holstein Accords, it has left Rheinland with a deeply insecure and anxious government that remains terrified of an ambivalent population that could rapidly turn hostile. This has resulted in a constant drumbeat of programmes and mercantilist bread and circuses that shrilly insist that everything is better now, things have improved, normality has returned! Meanwhile, further power is consolidated into the executive offices of the Executor and Kaiser, and state repression quietly continues through heavy handed interventions by the police and intelligence agencies. Against this backdrop, it is clear that all is not well in Rheinland. The imposition of a ruling elite that appeared archaic when it was first abolished 158 years ago is not a recipe to heal divisions and mend structural failings. Political radicalism continues to flourish, with the limp amnesty proffered to the Unioners and Bundschuh simply serving to carve away moderating influences. As the Bundschuh adopt increasingly violent means to achieve their goals, and a resurgent Red Hessian movement continues to occupy swathes of territory, serious questions must be asked about Rheinland's internal security. And while this deeply insecure and anxious government considers its options, civilians such as the Hamburg Four are caught in the crossfire. Perhaps we should be glad that the Unioners put an end to Vierlande, in the hope that a lack of facilities will curb the state's worst impulses.

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//With thanks to @LunaticOnTheGrass and @Civil Servant for inspiration.

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001. Blackheart
02 Sep 830 | 8:27 UTC

Police just can't help but act in line with the message on their door. No liberators indeed.

↑ 43 ↓ 16

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