
'Sharia police' are not illegal, rules German court - type0
http://www.thelocal.de/20161122/sharia-police-are-not-illegal-rules-german-court
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throwaway420
This is pretty troubling: not this specific case, but what it means for
Germany down the road.

In and of itself, there isn't anything wrong with merely going around and
kindly asking people to stop engaging in behavior you find objectionable.
That's part of free speech and freedom of action. Actually, many more problems
in society should be solved through this kind of voluntary effort rather than
the heavy hand of government using force and throwing people in metal cages.
As long as no violence or intimidation is used, this is great.

But is anybody naive or politically correct enough to think that peacefully
advocating certain behaviors is truly the end result here?

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type0
In most countries it is illegal to impersonate law officers, police or not.
It's very strange that it is not so in Germany.

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germanier
Same in Germany. It was just clear to absolutely anyone around that those
weren't actual police officers thus they were failing to impersonate anyone.
It's the same reasoning that allows people to wear shirts with "fashion
police" written on it.

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type0
It's not about what it says on the clothing, it's about how they act and what
their intentions are.

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germanier
Yes. Absolutely everyone who interacted with them or even just watched from
the distance would know that they weren't police officers. It was absolutely
clear that they were private citizens sharing their opinion. This can't be
called "impersonation".

