The German police Union has stated that the events in Cologne could have been prevented, if there hadn't been that many agents sent out to protect the borders, because of the refugee crisis.
The Bayern ministister of internal affairs, Joachimm Hermann, says this is not true. He says the refugee crisis at the border is also important, and despite several police stations suffering from understaffing, he regards the deployment of extra forces to the borders as justifiably.
They also further clarified the suspension, which by now has become an official early retirement, of the Cologne police chief Albers.
His position became under fire because of two things he said:
1) he said that the police had things under control, while in reality they did not.
2) he stated that the sexual assaults were "merely a diversion" used by robbers, so they could rob people, while in reality, according to debriefings, "sexual amusement was the primary goal of the assailants"
In the past few days, it has become clear that Cologne has not been the only German city where incidents occured, there's reports coming in from other cities, including Hamburg. So far, 170 complaints have been filed with the police, two thirds of which include sexual violence.
So far, the police have arrested 31 suspects, amongst whom are 18 refugees. They are being accused of theft, and agression. One of the suspects is also charged with sexual verbal harrasment. No suspects have been arrested for the sexual violence charges yet.
The 31 suspects include 9 Algerians, 8 Moroccans, 5 Iranians, 4 Syrians, one Iraqi, one Serbian, one American, and two Germans.
In the posession of one of the suspects, a Arabic- German short dictionary was found with translations for "nice tits", "I want to fuck", and "I will kill you".
Police are still investigating if the assaults and robberies were a coordinated event.
An eye witness, a female refugee from Iraq, told the Guardian that "I saw how three neatly dressed man gave instructions to groups of young men, and then dispersed back into the crowd, only to repeat the procedure with more groups of young men. Sometimes they paused to take selfies". The eyewitness herself got injured when she tried to protect keep fireworks from being thrown into the buggy holding her 3 year old son. <<< my personal thought there? Heh, it's the Guardian. It probably were three German drunk guys wishing refugees happy new year and making selfies so they can show their friends they're not rascist.
http://www.volkskrant.nl/buitenland/politiebond-excessen-keulen-te-wijten-aan-inzet-agenten-voor-vluchtelingencrisis~a4220827/