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    10 months ago

    Pimmelgate

    Hamburg Senator Andy Grote sent the police after being called 1Pimmel on Twitter. This lead to the fact that he will be known by this Name for the rest of his life

    Wikipedia article translated for you:

    In September 2021, Grote again got into public discussion. After he accused “ignorance” and a “stupid action” on the online platform Twitter in May 2021, celebrating masses in the Schanzenviertel who had violated corona distance rules,[17] another user commented on this with the tweet “You are so 1 dick”. 18][19]

    Due to a criminal complaint filed by Grote, an investigation was initiated for insult. This in turn led to the Hamburg police at the alleged author of the tweet in the St. Pauli district on the 8th. September 2021 carried out a house search. The photo of the search order was published by the person concerned on Twitter. 20][19] In public, the proportionality of these police measures was also questioned because of Grote’s own violations of corona rules and his refusal to admit them publicly despite the fine notice, especially since the accused had already admitted to operate the Twitter account in question in a police subpoena and, according to his own statement, he had been promised to stop the proceedings for insignificance.[ 19] The entire incident became known as “Pimmelgate.” 18][21][22][23] The media echo was remarkably large, the New York Times and the Washington Post also reported on it.[ 24][25][26]

    As a result, allusions to the tweet developed to a viral trend on the net (Streisand effect) as well as to stickers and graffiti in Hamburg, which were removed or painted over several times by the police. The use of numerous police forces for these measures was criticized. 27]

    The Hamburg CDU accused Grote of unsovere handling of the matter and called on him to resign as interior senator in order to avert further damage from the police and the office. 28]

    In March 2022, the investigation was closed for lack of public interest in law enforcement. 29] In August 2022, the District Court of Hamburg also ruled that the house search was illegal and inappropriate.[ 30] However, there was neither a compensation payment by the state apparatus nor an apology from Andy Grote himself.[ 31]