Interior Minister: "a disgrace": 18 police officers after racist chat messages before being thrown out

Police officers with extremist chat messages are noticed again and again, now also in Saxony-Anhalt.

Interior Minister: "a disgrace": 18 police officers after racist chat messages before being thrown out

Police officers with extremist chat messages are noticed again and again, now also in Saxony-Anhalt. There, 18 of them are to be released after anti-Semitic and racist messages are discovered in a chat. Criminal proceedings are also pending against four officers.

In Saxony-Anhalt, 18 police officers are to be dismissed because, as police students, they are said to have been involved in a class chat with National Socialist, anti-Semitic, racist and violent content.

"According to the current state of knowledge, 11 of the 18 employees have actively posted messages, videos and pictures with corresponding content in the chat group," said Interior Minister Tamara Zieschang in Magdeburg.

The chat lasted from September 2017 to December 2021. At least 50 of over 5,000 individual messages were anti-Semitic, racist or glorified violence. "The content of this class chat has not only shocked me," said Zieschang. "This class chat is a disgrace to the state police."

The chat became known in the course of investigations against a former candidate in another matter, said the minister. Criminal investigations were initiated against 4 of the 18 police officers for using license plates of unconstitutional organizations, hate speech and distribution of violent and animal pornography.