Petrelis Files

Vid: Reporters Chase German Politician into Men's Room Stall



As far as I know, German prosecutors have not brought privacy violation charges against the various journalists and persons wielding cameras who videotaped and snapped photos of a politician in a men's room while attempting to flee their questions.

Should we call those with cameras pee-parazzi? (Sorry, I couldn't resist some humor.)

Here's the story from The Local, a German news site in English, explaining what led to the bathroom incident which has been dubbed Toiletgate:

The Left (Die Linke) party chief Gregor Gysi took refuge in a toilet after two activist journalists chased him down alleging that he called them anti-Semitic.The incident was recorded and posted onto YouTube on Tuesday. 

"When I have a hit on my life, are you going to take responsibility for that?" asks Canadian-Israeli activist David Sheen as he follows Gysi down the corridor housing the Left party's parliamentary offices on the video. "Are you going to take responsibility for the threats on my life?" 

Gysi then locks himself into the bathroom, yelling "Out! Get out of here!", as Sheen continues to shout after him. The confrontation stemmed from a talk that Sheen was supposed to give with American author Max Blumenthal, a sharp critic of the Israeli state's conduct in the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict, at Berlin's Volksbühne on the anniversary of Kristallnacht, November 9. 

Gysi had also sought to prevent the pair from speaking to MPs in the Linke conference room at the parliament.

Let's be grateful the German prosecutors aren't like San Francisco's vindictive Supervisor Scott Wiener. He abused the power of his office to have Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi, the police department and District Attorney George Gascon investigate and prosecute me, to the tune of $26,000 in taxpayer dollars, for an impromptu photo I snapped of Wiener at a sink in a men's room at City Hall in October 2012.

I'd like to think Gysi is one politician who does not go charge-shopping against political adversaries.