The only example you cite is completely off-base. The media first reported on “no-go” zones in Paris, then in Sweden, and later in other European countries. The

The only example you cite is completely off-base. The media first reported on “no-go” zones in Paris, then in Sweden, and later in other European countries. These were reported as places where Muslim immigrants or refugees took over, declared Sharia law, attacked police for entering and were so dangerous that police refused to enter. I personally visited many of these “no-go” zones in France and Sweden specifically called out in some of these reports over the past few years out of curiosity, and found the reporting to be utter bullshit. These neighborhoods ranged from completely normal, peaceful places with a mix of native and immigrant people, to places with crime but nothing more than you’d find on an average “rough” street in the US. The violence that people reported was drug-related, just as it is in most places in the world where so much crime occurs. I saw normal police drive around on a regular basis, just as they would anywhere else. There was no evidence of “sharia law taking over” or any similar garbage. My personal conclusion is that right-wing media took a common occurrence: instances of drug-related crime, and spun a racist storybook narrative around it blaming refugees and immigration. I obviously didn’t see everything so some could have been worse, but I know enough to understand the false agenda behind this reporting. I don’t doubt that there are places where police are hesitant to go due to high crime and violence (Camden, NJ anyone?) but those exist everywhere and can be reported on without the false narrative backing it. Merkel acknowledging that there are such high-crime areas doesn’t mean that she acknowledges the racist fairytales that go with them or that the public was misled by the lack of confirming the (false) right-wing media reports about them.