The problem isn't the word but how you use it. There is a fear that police categorize people into certain broad groups which leads to them being stopped for checks etc. Also, it's a big PR disaster which also shows how easily such as term is used without thinking.
You run a much higher risk of being held up and checked, even illegally searched, if you 're not a white male or female.
Edit: Intentions certainly matter, but you shouldn't be surprised if other people find something offensive even though it isn't directed at them.
Some people call each other "nigger". It still remains an offensive word to the majority of people.
Back to the police terminology. Replace "Nafri" with "non-german" or "non-white". You see the problem? Where does a term used to specifiy a certain group of suspects become profiling simply based on race or religion. And you also run the risk of overlooking white suspects because you're so focussed on the others.
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At this special day? Yes. At all other days? I dont know but I dont think so. I mean if you drive an old car (>15 years) which is normaly driven by young people, you while be checked more often as if you drive a new BMW. Because the police will have more often a success. Same for people. If you look like a drug dealer, unimportant what skin color you have, you will be checked by the police in a train from amsterdam. Its just an example, but there are many others. At the end they cant roll a dice and decide than who they gonna check and who not. They use their experience, a lot of statistics and other stuff as I said in my opening post.
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My friend and I were given a Platzverweis on a Karfreitag. Why? Because I drove my VW Scirocco into town because I went to the Games store after work. According to them I belonged to the Car scene and so was not permitted to be in town for the whole weekend. A 1990 Scirocco on steel wheels and winter tires! Definitely a racer car ...
What do you think happens when the scope is too broad? They focus on people like left-wing demonstrators while ignoring the right-wing nazis. It happens in east Germany often enough. Hell, they even spied on everybodys telephones in some areas because according to their logic anybody in that area was a potentional left-wing criminal. That is why debates like this are important. It may get annoying after a while but the governments and politicians have to keep the police balanced. If you let too many things slide because it's for a good reason then eventually they think they're infallible or the ends justiify the means.
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Unfortunately it's a human nature to have prejudices by experience of themselves or their social environment, but this shouldn't lead to indifference towards prejudices and generalism.
Furthermore such actions are mostly only politicking.
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Regarding your drug example - it's true, and to be honest I feel fair logically, even from the standpoint of police. While it's not nice to say, as it often gets misinterpreted, there are regions, ethnics or countries where certain infractions are way more widespread than in other respective groups. We can call them stereotypes, and while they are not true about every individual, they are very often correct compared to others. Not every russian is alcoholic, but it's clear that alcoholism is an incredible and widespread problem in russia. Not every gypsy is a thief, but way more muggings and break-ins are done by them in Hungary then it would be expectable based in their percentage in the population. And regarding hungary - high obesity rates (welp, affected :D ), alcoholism, unhappiness, high suicide rates and such in Europe. No amount of "being offended" will change on statistics.
In my opinion (and further, according to science) stereotypes are there, are real, often accurate and people can NOT think without categorizing people because it's how our mind works. But sticking to stereotypes even after they got disproven about certain individuals IS just pure stupidity, and that's where racism and others come into play. We can't help on stereotypes, but we can help not governing our choices about individuals, and not just labeling people up with stereotypes even after they got proved wrong about them.
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Was it wrong to (publicly) call them "Nafri"? Yes I do think so.
However, they also could them have called "123" (or any random number/name/abbreviation), and then it would been a problem as well.
It's interesting to see that there's already a Wikipedia page about the term (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nafri), and that it's linked to "racial profiling".
I'm Dutch currently in the Germany, and even I was targeted by the police due "profiling". While driving in my Dutch car in Germany (visiting a friend back then), I got stop not once, but twice by the police! And simply because they wanted to check my papers and search my car for drugs... And besides my yellow plates (or orange plates as the Germans say), there was no indication for them to believe I was doing something illegal.
To be honest, the question should "Why did they stop and checked all those people, and especially them?"
Or perhaps the police (and media) should change the question; "Why the hell where are those guys there?"
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Thanks for this! I am glad to see that someone else from another country respond to my question and not only germans :D
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I read a great statement regarding this yesterday, I'll link it once I find it again.
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Narfi is fine in either meaning. Mostly vapid lefty nutters [jpg] were alleging its racist ... while police was just doing their job most effectively, that doesn't even require racial profiling its common sense ... perhaps some more recent and specific statistic to factually
sucker-punch the tards that daresay its racist would be good - anyway there's plenty of valid empirical information to relate to.
It doesn't even matter how their called (obviously not in racial slurs) people will get to know it anyway. Its not something you get to
pick and choose and nothing that is made up from thin air but rooted in actual cases [jpg] that get distilled to certain labels/names
... which might be insulting to some but most won't give a shit if they were to speak their honest and free mind.
That won't make anyone call their Afghan/Syrian/African neighbors in slur names. Those that do, are going to regardless.
Guessing there was way less girls on the infamous places of previous new years theft/rape/grope-adventure ... if it weren't for alert
and prepared coppers this time, same offenses would have occurred. The people involved in those crimes won't change in a
year, hell perhaps never. Especially in groups [jpg], there is a "simplifying" hoodlum mentality that lowers the individuals "restrain".
The actual outrageous thing, is that you need a bigger police force to avert offenses of theft and mass molestation
and possible terror attacks ... that is what bothers me most - just disgusting and aggravating.
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At the moment there is a discussion in Germany about a word - its more of a abbreviation - called "Nafri" normaly it means "NordAFRikanischer Intensivtäter" (=northafrican multiple offender) but the Kölner police used it for "NordAFRIkaner" (=northafrican people). They just checked a group (~1000) of them at new year after what happend at new year 2015. Some people think its an insult to use it and categorize people into ethical groups, but isnt it normal to use the experience - in this case from last year -, statistics and other stuff to improve the results of these checks even if that means to categorize into ethical groups? And isnt the intention of using a word what matters? I mean if you dont want to insult someone with an word, especially if you use one word for a great group, can it be an insult? I dont care if someone insult me as an asshole, bastard, motherfucker or something like that even if he want so, but why are people feeling insulted when the person dont want so? And do you think that the abbreviation above is an insult too? I would like to know how other people around the world think about it, especially because there are other laws and way other situations.
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