German defence ministry: Training incident 'unacceptable'
The German defence ministry today said an incident in which a German soldier was told to envision blacks in the Bronx while firing a machine gun was "absolutely unacceptable".
It “contradicts the training standards of the German army”, defence ministry spokesman Thomas Raabe said.
He said the army was investigating the incident, which was recorded in a video made available on the internet, but cannot say when the probe would be completed.
A video of the army instructor telling the soldier to shoot and yell obscenities while thinking of African-Americans in the Bronx aired on German national television on Saturday and prompted calls for an apology by the New York City borough’s president.
The video shows an instructor telling a soldier: “You are in the Bronx. A black van is stopping in front of you. Three African-Americans are getting out and they are insulting your mother in the worst ways. … Act.”
The German Defence Ministry said the video was shot last July in the northern town of Rendsburg and that the army has been aware of it since January.
