Freiburg, Germany prides itself on being the country’s “Green City,” a friendly, open place where a family of four is more likely to own a tandem bike than a station wagon. On Saturday, however, the small city on the edge of the Black Forest in the south of the country was splashed across the German media for a much different reason – the decision by a group of clubs and bars to keep refugees out.
According to reports, a wave of pickpocketing and sexual assaults preceded the decision in the university town where thousands of students flock to bars every evening. After a series of sexual assaults in the city of Cologne on New Year’s Eve , the line between welcoming refugees and providing security has become a flashpoint across the country…
While no one yet knows if the ban will affect any change in Freiburg nightlife, police chief for North Freiburg, Harry Hochuli, told “Badische Zeitung” about a similar measure from a decade past that worked well at curbing petty crime. A group of bars and clubs, alongside the city government and police department, organized themselves under the motto “Kicked out once, you’re not going back in anywhere,” meaning a ban from one location meant a flat ban across Freiburg.
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