How convenient for some commentators that the word “police” hides the term Po. With a – supposed? – A look at the podium of a woman dressed in red is currently being used by the social media department at the Munich police headquarters for self-promotion – and the comment column on Facebook is overflowing. “How are you supposed to respect women when the police post something like that,” asks a user. “The whole presentation of a photo like this is actually very…well, to put it politely…” writes one woman. “I ask myself which characters should be addressed there.”
Above all, probably those who find the “Distracted Boyfriend” meme that has been circulating on the Internet for years funny, for whatever reason. Because that’s what the Munich police recreated with their photo, with their own staff: a couple on the street, the man in the checked shirt meanwhile looks after another woman in the red dress. Why is he doing this? In Munich because he is supposed to leave his employer (former girlfriend) and move to Ettstrasse as a social media manager. So to the lady in red.
However, the Munich candidate’s gaze dwells considerably more deeply on the rear view of the woman than on the original. What is he looking at? It is to be feared that the makers of this meme didn’t think of a laptop bag that the colleague could possibly hold in her hand… That the Munich police hired a “social media manager (m/f/d )” would be for this post, which is also on Twitter and Instagram was spread, only logically, writes a follower. Because whoever “approved this sexist ad must go”. Parallels to the Ballermann hit “Layla” are drawn. For more than one commentator it is clear: “This picture doesn’t work at all.”
The social media department of the Munich police, in which women currently make up the majority according to the website, has been loved, praised and – only rarely – scolded for their work for years. She takes part in virtual challenges, presents the work of the police in a humorous way (unforgettable: Peter Beck as the eternally grumpy house moasta from da Ettstraß), tweets in Bavarian and from the Wiesnwache, even in the twelve-hour marathon. The officials then transport a serious one Warning in only apparently funny guise: “Drunk man ‘accidentally’ attacks women’s buttocks and breasts. We are DELIBERATELY initiating criminal proceedings.”
Sometimes, of course, they overshoot the mark. On New Year’s Eve 2017, the Munich Presidium distributed a photo montage in which a police officer heats a cartridge over a candle flame. A joke. The head of the team, like many users, didn’t find it funny at all: “You don’t joke about ammunition,” emphasized Marcus da Gloria Martins, who at the time headed the press office of the Munich police. And he had the posts deleted: “Duty of care”.