Thank you for the video but where is the black police officer, the Muslim police wearing hijab like in the UK? Does the Finnish police service reflect the cultural and ethnic mix of the communities they serve? The Finnish police service is big on gender equality but lags far behind in cultural diversity.
The video below is a step in the right direction but in all truthfulness, it is only a band-aid for a serious problem in the police service and Finnish society.
The police have done little to nothing to ensure non-white Finns and visible migrants that they have changed their ways. There is no mea culpa about how to challenge structural racism as happened in the UK with the Macpherson report.
One of the main recommendations of that report was that it will encompass “any incident which is perceived to be racist by the victim or any other person.” The overwhelmingly white Finnish police won’t make that call.
A terrible example of the need of the latter is the brutal stabbing and attack of a Pakistani migrant in Vantaa on February 23. The police maintain that it wasn’t a hate crime while the victim disagrees. Without any tests, the police can decide if the attackers are racists or not.
In Finland, the victim of a hate crime has to prove that he was a victim of such a crime. This is wrong, and we should take on board recommendations in the Macpherson report that challenge structural racism in the police service.
Below are a few cases that have been a blow to confidence in the Finnish police when it comes to ethnic relations:
- The national police commissioner, Seppo Kolehmainen, wants more funds for future no-go zones in Finland;
- About a third of Finland’s police force were allegedly members of a secret racist Facebook group;
- Their support and wishy-washy stand on vigilante gangs at the beginning of 2016;
- The police’s suspicion without proof that asylum seekers are organized rapists and criminals;
- A poll showed that close to 80% of the police in a survey considered the asylum seeker crisis as the most serious* threat to Finnish security;
- The same poll revealed that 25.1% of those polled voted for the National Coalition Party (NCP) and 24.4% for the Perussuomalaiset (PS) [1]. The PS and NCP parties are the most anti-immigration parties in parliament;
- Ethnic profiling continues to be a serious issue among the Finnish police service;
- The Council of Europe has expressed concern about ethnic profiling in Finland.
[1] The Perussuomalaiset (PS) party imploded on June 13 into two factions, the PS and New Alternative, which is now called Blue Reform. Despite the name changes, we believe that it is the same party in different clothing. Both factions are hostile to cultural diversity. One is more open about it while the other is more diplomatic.
A direct translation of Perussuomalaiset in English would be something like “basic” or “fundamental Finn.” Official translations of the Finnish name of the party, such as Finns Party or True Finns, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and racism. We, therefore, at Migrant Tales prefer to use in our postings the Finnish name of the party once and after that the acronym PS.
* The first take of the story stated that it was the “most” serious threat to Finnish society. That was apparently changed in a new take of the story.
It wasnt secret group and there were few messages what could be seem racist, calling spade a spade like “trying to hang himself” as bad acting isnt one and that was most serious.
And police doesnt decide if crime is racist, they do decide initial crime but its prosecutor who decides what crime is. This is only clearly racist crime prosecuted as such https://www.is.fi/kotimaa/art-2000001038851.html
Hatred you spread is reason for that.
Even case where people were assaulted because they were finns werent prosecuted as racist crime.
And immigration from radical areas is security threat, as we saw first terrorist strike in finland. Its not kids who flee, its ISIS.