Enlarge image
Andy Grote: Set the »Grote-Pimmel-Standard«
Photo: Christian Charisius / picture alliance / dpa
I have to admit that until recently I didn't know who Andy Grote was.
Today I still know very little about him: that he is an SPD politician, currently the Interior and Sports Senator of Hamburg.
That he violated corona rules with a party in honor of himself when he was reappointed as Senator for the Interior in June 2020.
And that a year later he tweeted about people celebrating in the Schanze that it was ignorant and stupid to celebrate in the pandemic.
And above all: that he became the victim of a perfidious hate crime because of this tweet, because someone called him a "dick" in the comments.
Of course that is not possible.
And since then, he's taken the fight against hate crime to a new level.
And for that we all owe him thanks!
The world might not have known about the whole thing if it hadn't been for a tweet one September morning that said, “There was a house search at 6:00 this morning. 6 officers in the apartment. We were looking for the device with which ›you're so 1 dick‹ was written under a tweet from Andy Grote. You know there are two young children in this household. Good morning Germany."
A lot has happened since that tweet, because the fight against hatspeech is often more complicated than you think. Not only was the police, as the "taz" reported, in the wrong apartment, namely with the ex-girlfriend of the Pimmeltweet author, or, as one must say: the perpetrator. The perpetrator, in turn, had previously been to the police and admitted to having written the tweet. But the rule of law is the rule of law, this cheeky bitch will learn that too. And who knows, maybe the first editors are already working on the case as a true crime podcast.
The police operation was criticized as disproportionate, there was talk of abuse of office and a Streisand effect: Since the Pimmelcausa, there is something with "Pimmel" in the comments under every tweet from Grote. People write "the top dick pimmelt around" or ask "Is it OK if I call my dick Andy?" Darknet ordered. The police had to move out to remove the stickers, to "avert danger" and to preserve evidence, the state security investigates against unknown persons. Meanwhile, in Andy Grote's Wikipedia entry, the paragraph “Controversial house search for insult” is longer than the paragraph about his work as a senator. The "Pimmelgate" even made it into the "Washington Post".
Was it worth it? Sure, of course! What is a sticker today could be a poster tomorrow, and what is a "dick" today could be an "ass with ears" tomorrow or even a "catch me, you egghole". In fact, the »Mopo« reported that a poster with the inscription »Pillemann Grote Arsch« had been seen at a St. Pauli game.
Andy Grote himself - or, as one could also say: the injured party - had told the NDR about the police's actions: “If we want such acts, hateful and insulting acts on the Internet, to be consistently prosecuted, then this should be regularly followed Searches. ”It has not been the case before. The lawyer Christina Clemm tweeted that she had often filed criminal charges for digital violence, including threats: "But I've never seen house searches because of that." - Yes, but that was BEFORE the dick!
So far it has been the case that the police often only responded unsatisfactorily to online hatred: when journalists, feminists, and activists have been insulted or threatened online, the police have often simply given advice , you should just post less on the Internet or from now on just be a little more careful when you go out alone at night. When Renate Künast was insulted in a Facebook post as "piece of shit", "bitch", "filthy cunt", the district court of Berlin ruled in September 2019 that it was okay, and then revised it after Künast lodged a complaint Make another decision. But that was all BEFORE the dick.
Andy Grote is also said to have received a threat in the course of the dick affair: "I wouldn't be sad if Lübcke's fate happened to you," someone is said to have written to him. The state security is investigating, wrote the "taz". Very interesting what will come of it. After a column about the German Armed Forces, someone wrote to me on Twitter that I should be careful not to see “another so-called Lübcke” being issued to me. The originator of the message was determined, but the investigation was then discontinued because the public prosecutor found it was a curse and not a threat, and that incidentally, hard and memorable formulations were also common in political discussions. But that was also BEFORE the Pimmelskandal.
Andy Grote has now set new standards and shows the internet mob what the rule of law is: Apparently the police have enough resources to even pursue something like "You are such a dick" with a fair amount of personnel.
One can of course be curious whether in the statistics on left-wing extremist crimes every single dickstick is rated as a criminal offense - or as several: production, distribution, damage to property.
But then these are just numbers.
It is important that Andy Grote has ensured with his brave fight that the police finally take hatspeech seriously and now, if you report much worse things than "You are such a dick" and that is not followed properly at first can now always say: No, no, I don't want the same treatment as before the Pimmelgate, I would like to be treated according to the Grote-Pimmel standard, because anything else would be absolutely not worthy of a constitutional state.
Cool.
