Germany: Teacher fined for erasing swastikas

[Nevski]

So now you get fined when you remove a swastika.... LOL!

Court fines elementary school teacher 1,000 euros for painting over swastika graffiti to hide them from students.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/204041

One might have thought that spray painting the swastika - symbol of the genocidal Nazi regime - on walls in Germany was a crime, but a recent event would seem to suggest that the opposite is true.

Ralph Bander, a teacher at an elementary school in the small town of Limburg, found swastikas painted on wall adjacent to his school back in 2013.

After his numerous complaints to local authorities to have the offensive symbol removed went in vain, he decided to erase the swastikas himself by buying a can of paint and repainting the walls.

However, the town's municipality decided to submit an indictment against Bander on the grounds of "vandalism and defacing public property."

Several days ago, judges in the local court found him guilty and slapped him with a 1,000 euro (over $1,060) fine for his "crimes." The judges said that while they accepted the fact that Bander tried to hide the swastikas from his young students, they nevertheless charged him for the cleaning expenses of the municipality.

"Bander could have covered the graffiti of the swastikas with a sticker, and not with the black paint he used to cover the inscriptions," said the judges. "By doing so he caused municipality workers to repaint the wall afterwards."

The teacher was furious over the decision, telling local media: "this is a joke. How is it possible to think that I could put a sticker on graffiti of a length and width of dozens of centimeters?"

"I'm deeply hurt by the fact that the court fined me, and by how the local municipality ignored the swastikas despite the many warnings I gave them," said Bander. "Swastikas were a witness to the victims of the Holocaust, and this is something no one needs to suffer."

"I stand in front of children every day and my job is to give them an educational example," said the teacher, noting that following the ruling he received many messages of support from residents of the town - but also death threats from neo-Nazis.

Bander intends to petition the court ruling, and does not intend to pay the fine until his case is heard in higher courts.