White woman gropes black disabled boy in ‘woke' harassment campaign
The poster was put up in an outdoor swimming pool in the western town of Büren with the caption: 'Stop! Grabbing is forbidden.'
At the foot of the poster, a turtle wearing goggles and rubber armbands informs the reader: 'If something doesn't feel right, you have the right to call for help by calling out my name: Tiki!'
The campaign comes after a furore in Germany over a recent incident where a group of Syrian men were arrested for groping girls at a swimming pool in the nearby region of Hessen.
But critics said the poster was a baffling attempt to make a politically correct statement about sexual harassment, by making the perpetrator a white woman and giving the victim a physical disability.
Official German statistics show that men are responsible for the overwhelming majority of sexual assaults in outdoor swimming pools. In 2024, 237 out of 367 recorded incidents were also committed by foreigners.
Rainer Wendt, the head of the German police union, warned the poster would likely embolden the far-Right Alternative for Germany [AfD] party, which is a vocal campaigner against 'woke' values.
'This campaign has only one winner, the AfD. But there are many losers: women and girls. Their dire situation is being ridiculed,' he told the German tabloid Bild.
Manfred Pentz, the European affairs minister for the state of Hessen, said: 'After the incidents we've recently experienced here, this must be a bad joke, which makes a mockery of those who have been affected. If it doesn't fit into their world view, it isn't allowed. Simply unbelievable.'
The city of Büren apologised for any offence caused by the poster and said it had not intended to upset victims of sexual harassment, or to trivialise the issue.
'The city takes seriously the public criticism of design elements of the campaign, Summer Sun Security.' a spokesman said. 'The occasion is an opportunity for reflection by the city administration. We are re-evaluating our communication methods and they will be more sensitive, and different, in the future.'
The row has caught the attention of the American Right, with Charlie Kirk, the Donald Trump ally and activist, posting on social media: 'Germany has a problem with Third World migrant men groping German women.
'So the German government has put up a PSA warning about white women groping vulnerable immigrant men who also have prosthetic legs for some reason.'
The Trump Administration has repeatedly clashed with Berlin over what it considers to be the erosion of democracy in Germany, where the AfD is now the second largest in parliament, but treated as a pariah by the government.
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Spectator
a day ago
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Reuters
2 days ago
- Reuters
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