A leaked audio recording has revealed a Berlin police academy instructor talking about problems dealing with migrant recruits, saying that many have stolen items and threatened other officers with violence with the instructor calling them an “enemy in our ranks”.
The unidentified police instructor complained that many officers who come from migrant backgrounds, specifically from Turkish and Arabic origins, refuse to learn in the academy classrooms and some have trouble simply articulating or writing in German, Die Welt reports.
In the recording, which was confirmed to be authentic by the Berlin police on Wednesday, the instructor said: “I’ve never experienced anything like this, the classroom looked like hell, half Arabs and Turks, cheeky as hell. Stupid. Could not articulate. Two or three I had been close to knocking out because they only disturbed and literally slept. German colleagues have said that they were threatened with violence.”
The instructor added that he was “so shocked, and I’m really scared of them, and I think the trainers too because if they throw them out, they’ll be there and break everything”.
The future of the Berlin police force looks in jeopardy according to the instructor who said the migrant police officers would be “a second-class of police that will only be corrupt”.
“These are not colleagues, that’s the enemy. This is the enemy in our ranks and I have never felt such hostility in this class,” he added.
Police spokesman Thomas Neuendorf said that while he objected to the instructor’s tone, “He was clearly in an overwhelmed situation.”
According to sources within the police academy, the problems with migrant recruits is nothing new. The source said Turkish, Arab, and Afghan recruits “lack respect” and many refused to accept female officers with one student questioning why a female officer did not dress conservatively enough in her time off-duty.
Another issue has been that many individuals related to Arab clan criminal gangs have also been joining the forces. An official said that the police could not criticise those with a clean record but noted: “We know that with these people the family is above everything else.”
Arab clan gangs have also reportedly been recruiting asylum seekers in asylum homes to run low-level drug operations and the connection between the drug scene and the radical Islamist scene has authorities in the city concerned.
If an Islamist were to infiltrate the Berlin police, it would not be for the first time. Last year, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) arrested one of its own officers who was not only recruiting jihadists but plotting to bomb the agency headquarters in Cologne.