Brickbat: Mein Gott

Sven Hüber, the deputy chairman of Germany's largest police union and a high-ranking government official with the Federal Police, has resigned after media reports brought up accusations of abuse and misconduct. While serving as an officer in the East German border troops in the late 1980s, Hüber allegedly mistreated a man trying to escape by pushing a pistol into his mouth and kicking him in the face, according to a sworn statement from someone who worked with him at the time. It further claims that he told soldiers to follow a shoot-to-kill order against people crossing the border, and when a post leader failed to shoot escapees, Hüber called him a traitor and publicly demoted him. Hüber denied the accusations as false and damaging, saying he stepped down so the legal fight does not hurt the union.