Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/06/11/lapd-buys-dogs-from-breeding-company-with-same-name-as-hitlers-bunker.html
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I wonder if it would have been legal to name a dog kennel “Alderhorst” in Germany in the 1960s?
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Reaver has denied allegations of racism in the past, saying the company’s name comes from a German kennel
If he’s been told numerous times that the name of his police dog company has clear associations with the Nazi police state and refused to change it, his denials of racism ring hollow.
Good question. Whatever the answer, the kennel owner (assuming he existed at all) knew exactly what he was referencing. De-Nazification was a far from comprehensive process in post-war Germany.
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There’s a company in Belarus called STASI Kennel that breeds German Shepherds purportedly descended from East German guard dogs.
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I mean, of course they do.
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The problem with those K9s from Alderhorst is they can’t move very fast because they goose-step everywhere.
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Stuff like this is harder to snuff out, because I imagine most people would just think it’s a surname. Though, yeah, I side eye anything German lately that isn’t clearly affiliated with Germany.
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I’m SHOCKED, shocked I say, that ANY cops, much less the LAPD would do anything vaguely racist.
Fetch me my clutching pearls!
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I’m sure they’ll rename it soon.
Treblinka, Ravensbruck, maybe Berchtesgaden …
LAPD Uber Alles!
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Seemingly, in the hundreds of transactions that police departments, sherrifs offices, correctional facilities and the Los Angeles Unified School District(!) have had with the company, no bureacrat paused and thought to Google what “Adlerhorst” meant.
This is a bit of a stretch. If you’re American, there’s nothing inherently suspicious about that name, nor would you have any reason to Google it, any more than you would Google “Aldi” or “Birkenstock”.
Do you Google every foreign company you do business with?
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Well, they could just abbreviate it to AH. No-one could take offence then, right?
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First, nobody already knew enough about German history or the German language to see “Adlerhorst” and know what it meant. Second, nobody had the political savvy, given the presence of neo-Nazis and white supremacists in law enforcement, to see a German name and wonder if it had Nazi associations.
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That’s pretty much what I’m saying, but I’m not really sure if you’re agreeing or disagreeing with what I wrote.
You seem to accept as normal the massive lack of historical and political awareness among the dozens or even hundreds of officals at different agencies who have had dealings with Adlerhorst International over the years. It’s a blatant Nazi shoutout, not an obscure or subtle one.
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I think you’re overestimating the number of people who either noticed this and said nothing, or who should have noticed it. Most bureaucrats are paper-pushers: when a bid comes in from a vendor, the last thing bureaucrats scrutinize is the origins of the vendor’s name. Even less so when it’s a vendor known to be working with affiliated agencies.
Combine that with a name that prima facie seems pretty innocuous until you know the back story (hindsight is always 20/20), and I can see why this reference would slip past most people.
What’s less excusable is that there seems to be nobody responsible at most agencies for investigating these things to begin with, and even less excusable that this connection was widely reported years ago and yet the LAPD (and presumably other agencies) is still doing business with them.
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