We have just heard in the news today that Supo has received funding to hire 50 more personnel this year to fight terrorism.
The above would lead one to think terrorism is a major problem in Finland. The only known case of possible terrorism in recent memory in this country relates to a knife attack in Turku this summer where a young Moroccan asylum seeker attacked people randomly in the street, killing two women and wounding 9 people with a knife.
Although this murderer is now charged with terrorism the proof of this which has been made public is rather sketchy. He apparently published a statement on a private site on the net which has not been made public. Witnesses say he also expressed support for radical ideas of jihadist groups and read their postings on the internet. So far no violent group has come out saying he is a member or even supporter. It is not at all certain that when the case goes to court there will be a terrorist conviction.
Beyond this case there was a very interesting case reported in Iltalehti 16/17.9. with the front page headline “Poliisi esti Suomessa iskun poliitisiin päättäjiin”. The story inside names none of the possibly arrested “terrorists” nor does in name any politicians who might have been threatened. The only sources named in the story are high-ranking police officers. Nothing more has come out in over a week after this story was published. One explanation may be that the police have investigative reasons for not mentioning anyone involved. The other explanation might be that nothing like what was described even happened.
Now why would the police make something like this up? Other stories from police sources have been saying that they need more automatic weapons and even armored cars. At a time when the government is continuing its auterity policy such a wish list might be a hard sell. So are demands for more personnel. I was recently killing time at the cottage in bad weather by looking at Finnish homicide statistics. I noticed that since the 50s there have been more than 150 unsolved homicides in Finland, That means there are over 100 homicidal individuals running around in our midst.
If you add uncaught rapists, pedofiles, and muggers to that you are probably looking at a couple of thousand very dangerous people running loose around the country all the time. Of course, I am concerned that if a real terrorist ever shows up in Finland that the police nab him asp. But I am sure if most people thought for a moment about all those other dangerous criminals walking the streets with us daily, they would be as concerned as I am that the police would put more resources and effort into catching them rather than catching a terrorist who may never step foot in the country.