Live data from Hacker News

Police search homes of Zwiebelfreunde board members and OpenLab in Augsburg

ccc.de

61–70 of 136 posts

Re: Police search homes of Zwiebelfreunde board members and OpenLab in Augsburg

#62

The gist of it: Someone did something probably illegal and put a @riseup mail in as the contact info. Police looked at riseup (Not-in-Germany) and found some people (In-Germany) forwarding donation money to riseup. Police and state prosecutor somehow conclude that these donations might be relevant and seizes them (and the usual bycatch). -- Now my commentary: On the face of it this seems overblown and rather out of p…

Calling for protests of a far-right conservative party's convention in Bavaria apparently is now "probably illegal" and justifies this kind of action?

Not just protests, violent protests. While I think the police’ action was overblown, I have little sympathy for violent politic groups (if it turns out to be correct).

Re: Police search homes of Zwiebelfreunde board members and OpenLab in Augsburg

#63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Incredible. It is obvious that they will not be able to show intent beyond reasonable doubt as to this "crime" (they even acknowledge it is just a model), proceeding regardless is just farcical. Amusingly enough, they labeled it "mutmaßliches Modell einer Atombombe" (presumptive model of an atomic bomb) with the crime being "Herbeiführen einer Sprengstoffexplosion" (causing an explosion), but the relevant norm [1] ex…

There's actually StGB § 307 specifically for nuclear explosions.

Not sure when it was put into law, but Germany has hosted tactical US nuclear weapons since the Cold War.

Re: Police search homes of Zwiebelfreunde board members and OpenLab in Augsburg

#64
I found this part the most disturbing:

> While searching the premises of the board members in Augsburg, Jena, Dresden, and Berlin, the police – on their own accord –decided to extend the search to premises also used by members of the CCC: the OpenLab in Augsburg. Here the officers were confronted with hackers in their natural habitat: substances to clean and etch circuit boards as well as hair bleach. After interpreting the contents of a whiteboard as a bomb making manual, the officers then went on to accuse random people present at the hackerspace of plotting a bombing attack. Three people were arrested on the spot and the hackerspace was subsequently searched without a court order and without any witnesses.

So working on circuit boards is being construed as plotting a bombing attack? Really?

Re: Police search homes of Zwiebelfreunde board members and OpenLab in Augsburg

#65
post #27

Its especially chilling, because in germany, we dont have the food of the poisonous tree doctrine. So even if the police searches those places illegaly, if they find something else while conducting the search, lets say small amount of drugs, they will prosecute you for that.

Small note, it's usually rendered as "fruit" of the poisonous tree.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fruit_of_the_poisonous_tree

Re: Police search homes of Zwiebelfreunde board members and OpenLab in Augsburg

#66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm referring to the blog which is said to be the reason for all this. The blog is named "AUGSBURG für Krawalltouristen" and has the tagline "Den AfD-Bundesparteitag am 30.06./01.07.2018 angreifen!". Translated: "Augsburg for Hooligans: Attacking the AfD party conference on the 30.06/01.07.2018". "Krawalltouristen" specifically is a term that came up for the first time, I think, with the G20 protests last year. Hooli…

So the purpose of the blog is to inform about a political protest. I still think it's misleading to refer to it as hateblog, even if the organisers are militant or radical.

The blog doesn't just "inform about political protest", it explicitly advocates for violence. Their primary motivation seems to be hate of the political right. As a leftist myself, I think that "leftist hateblog" is a pretty accurate description.

Re: Police search homes of Zwiebelfreunde board members and OpenLab in Augsburg

#67

Is there an Electronic Frontier Foundation equivalent in Germany? If not, what stops police from conducting searches like this in future? (If this can even be shown as illegal in a court.) I doubt individuals or even small organization can properly fight legal battles.

>Is there an Electronic Frontier Foundation equivalent in Germany?

The CCC is a bit like that. And in this raid they searched offices that where also used by CCC. And they do have the resources and willingness to fight this.

Re: Police search homes of Zwiebelfreunde board members and OpenLab in Augsburg

#68

[flagged]

>These same people are calling others Nazis for sharing non-radical ideas with conservative parties.

Who? The CCC or Zwiebelfreunde?

Can you give me a link?

Edit: Oh, you are the one with the flagged comment in this thread.

Re: Police search homes of Zwiebelfreunde board members and OpenLab in Augsburg

#69
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand some of the searches took place outside of Bavaria, though (Berlin, etc.)? How does the German legal system work in this case, does police in other German states automatically cooperate with requests from Bavaria even when there's potentially a discrepancy between the laws used to provide the legal justification for the actions in question? I've seen a general sentiment in HN and other tech circles over…

I think they do, but I'm not 100% certain. I don't know how far you want to define "police state", but in general, SWATting won't be terribly successful here, the only police units with near-military equipment are special units like the GSG9, and while there's certainly racism, and also at least one probable murder (Oury Jalloh), our police doesn't regurlarly murder minorities. If you limit it to surveillance etc., y…

The militarization of police is largely a U.S. problem among first world countries. As a practical matter I'm more concerned about things like investigations with poor judicial oversight, poorly justified police searches, warrantless or rubber stamped surveillance, frivolous information requests, general lack of respect for privacy rights, etc.

France, for instance, unfortunately seems to have moved quite a bit in that direction after the terrorist attacks of recent years. I've not heard of a similar trend in Germany, but it's always nice to hear an informed perspective from people who actually live there.

Re: Police search homes of Zwiebelfreunde board members and OpenLab in Augsburg

#70

Is there an Electronic Frontier Foundation equivalent in Germany? If not, what stops police from conducting searches like this in future? (If this can even be shown as illegal in a court.) I doubt individuals or even small organization can properly fight legal battles.

Ironically the CCC (Chaos Computer Club) is roughly the equivalent of the EFF. And they were raided (too).
Post reply on HN