> Beyond fear, the killing has stirred other resentments. “German retirees who have worked hard for 45 years get less than the refugees,” said Knoll Pede, 64, a town maintenance worker. He is no fan of President Trump, he said, “but I wouldn’t mind our politicians to do a bit of ‘Germany First.’”

Believe it or not, that paragraph appears in a New York Times piece under the title, “A Girl’s Killing Puts Germany’s Migration Policy on Trial.” The article, to our great surprise, delves into an overlooked imbroglio that appears to be alienating many Germans. There, refugee violence is prodding swells of residents to question more and more the wisdom of accepting foreigners through a system considerably devoid of security protocols.

The killing to which the Times refers transpired just two days after Christmas in Kandel, Germany, a tiny town in the nation’s southwest. The incident involved an allegedly 15-year-old Afghani migrant (his actual age is being debated) who had been reported to the police less than two weeks earlier. Nevertheless, on Dec. 27, he brandished a knife and murdered his ex-girlfriend, a German national of the same age, inside of a drugstore.

According to the Times, “From the moment Germany opened its doors to more than a million migrants two years ago, prominent episodes like the Berlin Christmas market attack and the New Year’s molestation and rapes in Cologne have stoked German insecurities.” But what’s adding more urgency to the situation in Germans’ minds is the fact that Kandel barely registers on a map. Its population is just 10,000. This suggests the refugee violence issue is more widespread than most lawmakers will dare to admit.

Understandably, residents are yearning for change, and that could at least partially come in the form of a pending coalition agreement being negotiated between Angela Merkel and the Social Democrats. But it’s safe to assume that whatever they ultimately agree on won’t be enough to substantially quell the German people’s fears. As the Times explains, “Something has shifted in Germany. Not so long ago, the logistical challenge and cost of integrating new migrants still dominated the public debate. These days, the growing unease with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s migration policy has reached a new and febrile stage.”

When you hear Germans say stuff like, “I wouldn’t mind our politicians to do a bit of ‘Germany First,’” you know things have run afoul in a nation that’s under the influence of leftist ideology. It also proves that behind much of Donald Trump’s rhetoric is a great deal of substance. Or as John Adams said: “Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclination, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.” No matter what some leftist lawmakers say — whether here or in Germany — there are many people who inwardly if not outwardly contain a healthy fear. It’s directed not at immigrants, per say, but the violence-is-acceptable culture some bring with them. Sadly, more innocent lives will be lost because of those who lack discernment.