BBC reports that organized gangs of young men assaulted, groped "between their legs", in at least one case raped, and robbed some 100 women in Cologne and Hamburg. Similar attacks were reported in Stuttgart. Cologne's police chief reported that the men were of Arab or North African appearance. A British woman visiting Cologne said the assailants spoke neither German nor English. Germany's Justice Minister Heiko Maasinister warned against linking the crime to migrants and refugees, and Cologne mayor Heriette Reker said it would be "completely improper" to do so. Which would leave only long-resident men of "Arab or North African appearance ... [who] spoke neither German nor English."

     Unless one policeman's report that "They were all asylum seekers, carrying copies of their residence certificates" is correct. Whether the minister and the mayor, opposed to placing the blame on refugee-immigrants, or the cop on the beat who says that is indeed who they were, is correct doesn't matter much to the groped, raped and robbed. But might to refugee-advocate chancellor Angela Merkel, who professed herself shocked and disgusted, and might be worrying that the one-million new refugees she has invited to come to live in Germany bring along more cultural baggage than the nation can accommodate.