We are sorry to hear about what happened to you. Abdirisak Ahmed (@HerraAhmed) Tweets: This is what it looks when you are assaulted at a restaurant because of the color of your skin. Thank you #apolloliveclub bouncers for your quick response. I never thought I’d be in this situation being over 30 years old. This
Read on »Posts Tagged: police
The Finnish police’s racism problem and ties with far-right groups like Kansallismielisten liittouma
THIS STORY WAS UPDATED Yle revealed in a story today that the far-right Kansallismielisten liittouma has distributed Green League Minister of the Interior Maria Ohisalo’s and Prosecutor General Raija Toiviainen’s home address for harassment purposes. Moreover, Kansallismielisten liittouma chairperson, Tero Ala-Tuuhonen, has been in touch with “a Helsinki police sergeant” who has advised the far-right
Read on »Exposing white Finnish privilege #72: False police reporting is an example of violence and open hostility
White Finnish privilege is powerful since you can use the police to project the need for defense and protection. In the United States, we saw two viral examples (see below) involving Amy Cooper and Lisa Alexander. For those who don’t remember, Cooper is the “Central Park Karen” for false reporting to the police. She falsely
Read on »Finland should wake up to its hate speech, hate crime and racism problem
Green League MP Iris Suomela raised an essential question in parliament on Wednesday about rape. She said that there are “hundreds of thousands” rape cases in Finland of which 50,000 are reported annually to Victim Support Finland (RIKU). “The end result of all this is that the police record about 1,200 [rape] cases [annually] of
Read on »How the police, National Border Guards and white Finnish institutions keep visible migrants and minorities on a short leash
What would you say if the police, the National Border Guards, Regional State Administrative Agencies (AVI), Customs, Rescue Department, and City of Helsinki health inspectors came knocking on your door on a Saturday afternoon? Such a thing happened yesterday at the Puhos shopping center of Easter Helsinki, where the majority of customers are visible migrants and minorities.
Read on »Police and other authorities carry out identification checks at the Puhos shopping center of Eastern Helsinki
On Saturday about 3 pm, the police, the National Border Guards, Regional State Administrative Agencies (AVI), Customs, Rescue Department, and City of Helsinki health inspectors started to ask foreign-looking people for their identification in Puhos, a shopping center in Eastern Helsinki frequented by migrants. The big question that emerges is if this operation by the police
Read on »The Finnish police’s lame excuse for disbanding the #RightToLive demonstration in Helsinki
Let’s go back a day and recall one of the most incredible excuses to shut down the #RighToLive demonstration in downtown Helsinki. Deputy police chief Heikki Kopperaoinen told YLE News that the demonstration after 140 days could no longer be held in the Helsinki Railway Square because of security issues.
Read on »A dramatic Monday when demonstrators almost halted a deportation to Afghanistan
Today was a dramatic evening when protestors tried to stop a deportation of Afghans from Helsinki-Vantaa Airport. Apart from the protestors, ST1 allegedly refused to tank the plane that was going to deport the asylum seekers back to Afghanistan.
Read on »UPDATED (7:32 am): Iraqi asylum seeker MS’ deportation from Oulu Airport in Finland postponed due to diorderly behavior
Migrant Tales has access to a video published in the Facebook group called Suomi ja Pakolaiset where MS is awaiting deportation inside a police van at Oulu Airport in northern Finland. MS was detained by the police on Friday.
Read on »Our image of Finland to asylum seekers is too rosy and full of myths that expose ethnocentrism and hypocrisy
As a sociologist, it’s interesting to note how Finland portrays itself to outsiders. One of these presentations is a three-volume Beginners guide to Finland published by the Finnish Immigration Service (FIS). Just like the populist catchphrase maassa maan tavalla, in Rome do as the Romans do, asylum seekers and migrants are being fed myths about ourselves.
Read on »Watch out for the Finnish police “pizza squad!”
Two policewomen who are looking for tax evaders have their eyes set on pizzerias, which are, surprise, surprise, mostly owned by migrants. If this isn’t an example of ethnic profiling then what is?
Read on »Defining white Finnish privilege #23: Greater police powers to monitor migrants and minorities
Finnish white privilege, like any majority culture’s privilege, not only permeates in our institutions but marks the pace of how those with no privilege will be treated in this society. Granting the police greater monitoring power to carry out arbitrary checks on migrants, and subsequently non-white Finns, is a case in point in white Finnish privilege.
Read on »Muslim woman wasn’t admitted to the Finnish police training school because she would refuse to take off her headscarf
A Muslim woman, 38, was not admitted to the police training school because she would not take off her headscarf during working hours, reports YLE in English. The woman was so disappointed with the rejection that she even contemplated leaving Finland. Read full story here. “In the [police] interviewer’s opinion it was not possible
Read on »Suspected hate crimes in Finland fall by 20.6% in 2012
Suspected hate crimes in 2012 totaled 732, which is a 20.6% fall from 918 cases in the previous year, according to YLE in English. Of the total hate crimes reported to the police last year, 641 cases were classified as racist. Read full story here. According to YLE in English, the most common offense investigated
Read on »Internal security secretariat head: Many racist crimes go unreported in Finland
Some migrants may not report a racist crime in Finland because of mistrust of the police, poor Finnish-language skills and ignorance of one’s rights, according to Tarja Mankkinen, director of the ministry of the interior’s internal security secretariat. The Police College of Finland reported 918 suspected hate crimes in 2011, which is a 7% rise from
Read on »Council of Europe concerned about ethnic profiling by police in Finland
Is it a surprise that the Council of Europe’s anti-racism body expressed concern in a report that Finnish police ask people’s ID based on ethnic appearance? No need to get an official answer to find out because ethnic profiling doesn’t happen in Finland. Why not ask immigrants and visible minorities instead if you went a candid
Read on »Finnish police to have new anti-ethnic profiling guidelines in force in 2013
Rainer Hiltunen, Ombudsman for Minorities head of office, told Migrant Tales that talks have taken place with the Finnish police to draft new guidelines and more effective monitoring to ensure that ethnic profiling doesn’t happen. The new guidelines are expected to be in force in 2013. The Ombudsman for Minorities office expressed concern in spring about higher-than-average complaints from
Read on »Finnish police accused of ethnic profiling
A day after the police released a Somali who was under police custody for about seven months, the Ombudsman for Minorities expressed concern about ethnic profiling by the police, according to YLE.
Read on »A new view of our diversity as a society is needed by the Finnish police
The violence we have witnessed recently against immigrants in cities like Oulu and Espoo Leppävaara put into question the claim that hate crimes fell by 15% in 2010, according to the Police College of Finland. Apart from raising worrisome questions about the present direction of our society it looks at the role of the police.
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