Canadian Tourist Arrested For Giving Nazi Salute Outside Reichstag

A 30-year old Canadian tourist was arrested on Saturday for posing for a photograph while giving the infamous Nazi salute...outside the Reichstag in Berlin, according to the Telegraph.

Berlin police arrived on the scene within seconds, handcuffed him and took his camera's memory card. The pose is a chargeable offense of up to six months in prison, yet the man was freed after being held in custody for several hours.

Three years ago, a British businessman was arrested at the Cologne airport after he gave the salute to a rental car official. Back in March, Sandra Bullock's ex-husband, Jesse James, was gripped by scandal after he posed for photos with a Hitler-esque mustache and raising his arm.

Comments

[B 42]

06:26 AM on 03/03/2011

I am all for free speech but I don't see a problem with banning words and actions that are hurtful, bigoted, racist or sexist. I would hope that people posing for a picture at Ground Zero in NYC making offensive gestures wouls be dealt with in a similar way. No need to throw them in jail, but these issues should not be taken lightly. These are issues that need to be dealt with academically, in a classroom, they are not jokes to be plastered all over facebook for uniformed youngsters to see, joke about "like", and comment on.

[inlight1]

04:55 PM on 03/02/2011

I guess they had to let him go once they saw that his papers were in order.

[Michael GE]

08:00 AM on 03/30/2011

Yes, I also think that he wasn't actually "arrested". He was taken to the police station, they checked his ID, questioned him and showed him the criminal charge. Just the usual proceedings. My take is even the fact that he was handcuffed - according to this article - is highly unusual and only because he was in front of the parliament. I guess, police around Capitol Hill in Washington is also a bit more on edge and strict than elsewhere in the country.

[msbeal]

01:33 PM on 03/02/2011

Are the Germans ever going to get this right?? Not every problem screams out for an authoritarian solution!!!

[sephiroth m75]

07:29 PM on 03/01/2011

I can understand how Germany could be a reasonable candidate for some restrictions, but on the whole I really don't like the speech laws in Europe. Bridgette Bardot get arrested a bunch of times in France for saying some stuff about France's Muslim population. What did she say? i quote, "i'm fed up with being under the thumb of this population which is destroying us, destroying our country and imposing its habits."

Well, evidently, Bardot's sentiments were common enough in France that they banned the burka, and no one tried to sue the government for doing something that actually, y'know, suppressed the culture of its Muslim population. But when a woman merely SAYS that that Muslim culture is incompatible with French culture? DING! HATE CRIME CHARGES FOR YOU!

I can understand the logic in Germany not wanting Nazism to resurface, but for the most part, speech restrictions in Europe go way too far. It is *NOT* slander to say a minority has a track reecord of misbehaving. Racist? Perhaps, but vague notions of racial prejudice are NOT something you base your country's laws on. The only acceptable restrictions on speech are defamation and perhaps EXTREME hate speech. Not only that, but even if what Bardot said really was hate speech, she lives in a country where gov't can actually DO things like ban the Burka and ship the gypsies away when the majority population decides they've overstayed their welcome?

European speech laws are really stupid.

[Atheissimo]

03:47 PM on 03/07/2011

I think it comes down to a difference in attitude between America and Europe where free speech is concerned. America has a more 'free for all' approach whereas in Europe there is the notion of responsibility attached to it.

In the UK it can be a crime to 'cause public distress' by what you say. Holocaust denial and Nazi symbolism isn't specifically outlawed like in the rest of Europe, but for instance just today a group of Muslims were fined for burning poppies on Remembrance Day (they are a widely worn symbol of remembrance of the 1st and 2nd world wars around armistice day on the 11th of November).

Obviously both systems have positives and negatives, but I suspect it's just a clash of values rather than a right/wrong scenario

[IchbineinBerliner]

11:33 AM on 03/01/2011

More than a little hypocritical and good cover under which Neo N@zism flourishes in Germany. It’s still perfectly alright and common to treat non white Germans as 2nd class citizens and worse but they are not allowed to call anybody out.
We need to be less sensitive on worthless symbolism and more honest about the reality today.

[CologneCitizen]

03:29 AM on 03/02/2011

Nazis symbolism is not "worthless symbolism", it has to be hunted down where it appears.

Who says it is "perfectly alright and common to treat non white Germans as 2nd class citzens" ? I have been to many countries around the world and I have not found one that had no racism, either right open in your face or more or less hidden. In that sense Germany is not better or worse than any other country in Europe.

[IchbineinBerliner]

07:58 AM on 03/02/2011

I meant the useless grandstanding symbolism of arresting tourists because of the salute.
Whilst Neo N@zim is on the rise and race consciousness is a high as ever in Germany.
When it comes to racism in any given country it is a question of degree and how acceptable it is within a given culture or country.
Finger pointing at other countries does not clean up the home front.

[ObamaYouBetcha]

10:04 AM on 03/01/2011

[.... sigh ......] So I suppose a prank like this is soon going to be the first move in a political campaign for every southern Republican?

[chino1138]

11:08 AM on 03/01/2011

Ha, ha, ha! Funny! Not.

[hello All]

08:13 AM on 03/01/2011

Thanks for reminding that freedom of expression and speech is applied selectively. Probably a million Muslims need to be killed before we outlaw Islamophobia.

[Erewhon7]

10:09 AM on 03/01/2011

Unfortunately, millions of Muslims and non-Muslims will lose their lives until we defeat Islamist Jihadist movement, just as we defeated National Socialism before that.

[Mr Ruthless]

03:43 PM on 03/01/2011

You cannot defeat radical islam by force. It must be disolved by muslims themselves, but don't count on it happening anytime soon or maybe if at all.

[Libertarian09]

09:10 PM on 03/01/2011

And who is going to defeat the capitalist aggression of the US? America today is no better, no worse than any nation that has designs on empire.

Oh, by the way, America did not defeat National Socialism, Nazi Germany was crushed by the Soviets and was destined to defeat with or without America's involvement. And let us not forget that without the Japanese intervening, America was quite content to let Hitler run amok across Europe. After all, there was good money being made supplying both sides.

[CologneCitizen]

01:56 AM on 03/01/2011

Germany's horrible past is responsible that we are still very sensitive when it comes to issues involving Nazi symbolism. However, the painfull dealing with all the atrocities that started here is the ground where the new Germany was built on. When you don't deal with your past, you have no future. Or the future of your children carries the burdens of the past. I was born here after the war. Having learned about these years, it is our duty to make sure history does not repeat itself. The victims should never be forgotten.

Freedom of speech ? Yes. Hate speech against minorities or Nazi symbolism ? No.
Liberty and freedom come with responsibilities.

[Rosewren]

02:11 AM on 03/01/2011

You explained it well. F&F

[Erewhon7]

10:10 AM on 03/01/2011

Genau.

[Mrclouds]

11:04 PM on 02/28/2011

Sorry but Germany sooner or later is going have to face its past no matter how much banning it does the Nazi past is going to be there like it or not banning things gives more reasons do want or do it.

[KrautMan]

02:47 AM on 03/01/2011

Drivel.

[dresdengirl]

09:16 AM on 03/01/2011

Well said.

[Danek Greori]

03:04 AM on 03/01/2011

Excuse you but Germany actively faces it's past. The German people have long accepted responsibility for World War II and the atrocities committed in their name. Their banning of the Nazi symbol and all things pertaining to it are a preventative measure against any kind of Nazism rising in the future.

In the US we might allow anyone to express themselves however they want regardless of how hate filled their actions are, but don't think for a second that just because we do it under the guise of "freedom of..." that that makes it acceptable.

In Germany you will hardly ever find anyone glorifying the Nazi's or their ideology; I went too High School just outside of Washington, D.C. and had to here pro-Neo-Nazi stuff all the time from my class mates. What does that tell you?

[Libertarian09]

11:27 PM on 03/01/2011

I wonder if the day will ever come when Americans face their own responsibilities for the heinous crimes committed in their name

[TheMuckraker]

10:53 PM on 02/28/2011

Too soon?

[Mrclouds]

09:37 PM on 02/28/2011

Germany is still suffering from the guilt of WW2 really give it a rest, they Banned Mein Kampf which increases wanting to read.

[Moti]

10:22 PM on 02/28/2011

They so over reacted to that, they even capitalized "banned", that's how emphatic they were.

[CessnaDriverI72]

09:36 PM on 02/28/2011

I wonder how the people in the south would feel if tourists posed in front of that Stone Mountain and made it look like you were engaging in oral sex with Bob Lee?

[Moti]

10:24 PM on 02/28/2011

They'd probably think you needed therapy.

[Erewhon7]

12:45 AM on 03/01/2011

LOL moti. And they would be right.

[Moti]

10:25 PM on 02/28/2011

You don't actually fly a plane do you? I mean a real one, up in the air, over people.

[CessnaDriverI72]

11:07 PM on 02/28/2011

Calm down. Trying to light up some of the ConFedSymps here.

[CessnaDriverI72]

09:22 PM on 02/28/2011

How many people have seen the standard shot of someone holding up the Tower of Piza?

This is kind of the same thing.

Damn those fern counties and their "laws"!

[Moti]

10:27 PM on 02/28/2011

Piza?

[CessnaDriverI72]

10:57 PM on 02/28/2011

Whoops, too close to dinner.

[13th Generation American]

09:20 PM on 02/28/2011

I hope they get Beck next

[markhas2]

09:00 PM on 02/28/2011

Letting them go without serving time or paying a great deal of money is wrong. They need to be severly punished. The Nazis are not a joke.

[Erewhon7]

09:16 PM on 02/28/2011

It was handled exactly as it should've been handled. Scare the Canuck lout a bit and send him back to Moose Jaw.

[saskatoonie]

10:14 PM on 02/28/2011

Hey, we don't want him in Moose Jaw!!!!

[Moti]

10:27 PM on 02/28/2011

Absolutely.