Detective Chief Inspector Jari-Matti Marttala confirmed to Migrant Tales today that investigations are still ongoing concerning the assault by residents of Teuva of a Muslim and his four passengers.
“We are still interviewing people, and we have not ruled out the possibility of a hate crime,” said Marttala. “Everything is still at hand…let’s say that it will take at least weeks [before we conclude our investigation] so we can get a full picture [of what happened] and all the parties heard.”
Migrant Tales spoke with the victim, who ended up in the hospital after being attacked and beaten by locals.
“The police have come to my home three times and once in the hospital,” he said. “One older man said while they were beating me that I should ask Allah for help.”
The victim said that he and his friends were insulted because of their ethnic background.
“I told them [in Teuva] that is wasn’t nice what they were doing,” the victim said earlier. “I asked them why do you speak in [a racist manner] that way to us because we don’t want any problems.”
Teuva is a small town located in the southern Ostrobothnian region close to the city of Seinäjoki 80km away. Despite the welcomes and tourist information, Teuva showed its ugly racist face against five people. The driver, who is a Muslim, was rushed to the hospital after he was beaten by the locals.Read the full document here.
Below are the ugly footprints of a suspected hate crime.
“Mamu” is a derrogatory word for foreigner in Finland. Source: Facebook. The interior of the car that was attacied by Teuva locals. Source: Facebook.Soure: Facebook.
As the dust settles over this tumultuous week for the far-right Perussuomalaiset (PS) party, the question to ask if business will be back to “normal” in the PS?
The first scandal was MP Ano Turtiainen’s tweet that mocked George Floyd’s death at the hands of a Minneapolis police.
Apart from ending Turtianen’s short-lived career as a dark humor comedian, the MP got expelled from the PS parliamentary group until the end of the year, his racist tweet made him “famous” outside of Finland, and two weightlifting groups in the United States and Canada terminated their business relationship with his company.
Turtiainen’s tweet was even noticed by George Floyd’s family in the US.
“The message glorifies police violence and criminal behavior,” said Goerge Floyd’s family lawyer in Teller Report. “It seems that this not the first time MP Turiainen has published racist messages on social media. We believe that Turtiainen’s colleagues in parliament should be held accountable.”
Moreover, Prosecutor General Raija Toiviainen is planning to carry out an investigation concerning Turtiainen’s tweet, according to Demokraatti. The police announced earlier that it would not carry out an inquiry about the former PS MP’s tweet.
Equally disturbing but not surprising was PS chairperson Jussi Halla-aho’s excuses. He stated that spreading controversial opinions is “a team sport that requires certain table manners.”
I suspect that “table manners” in Halla-aho’s vocabulary means being racist without sounding racist, speaking in code so your followers can decipher your message’s racism, and avoid ethnic agitation charges.
Halla-aho’s and the PS’ hand has been exposed many times in the racist and misogynist cookie jar.
This week, Suomen Perusta, a PS-funded think tank, published a racist and misogynist book called “Truth incites” authored by Jukka Hankamäki. The book, which claims to be a serious philosophical study “of the information and truth crisis of the left-wing populist mainstream media,” is an embarrassment and insulting joke.
Hankamäki’s book was taken down from the Internet after two days of its publication leaving a lot of red faces and the PS pointing the finger at each other. One of the questions was who was responsible for the book’s publication? It appears that nobody or very few read the book before it was published.
Even Halla-aho had to step in and take responsibility even if the party attempted to distance itself from Hankamäki’s work. “This was our mistake, period,” he said. “We did not know that the book contained the kind of material that it did.”
Apart from its racist-eugenicist views on racial purity, Hankamäki did not spare any nice words for Finnish women. One of the claims he made was that Finnish women choose foreign men as partners because they are rejected by Finnish men.
Minister of Science and Culture Hanna Kosonen described Hankamäki’s views of women as “cruel and disturbing.”
The ministry had granted 120,000 euros to Suomen Perusta for the publication of Hankamäki’s book. It is presently reviewing whether to ask the think tank to return the money because of the book’s contents and views on gender and social equality.
Finnish Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MP Ano Turtiainen’s tweet mocking George Floyd’s death is a disgrace. Still, even a worse shame is that he has not apologized to George Floyd’s family, #BlackLivesMatter movement, and also People of African Descent in Europe and Finland for the tweet.
The only matter that appears to have concerned Turtiainen is that his tweet wasn’t good for the PS’ image and that his career as a dark humor comedian and politician came down in flames.
People like you are a threat to society and an even greater one in parliament.
Meanwhile, Prosecutor General Raija Toiviainen is planning to investigate Turtiainen’s tweet, according to Demokraatti. The police announced earlier that it would not carry out an investigation about the former PS MP’s tweet.
George Floyd’s death could be compared with a modern-day lynching. Politicians, like Ano Turtiainen, who attempt to show their “dark humor” are members of the social media lynch mob. Source: Migrant Tales.
[1] ”Ano” is a real name in Finland. The equivalent name for women is Anna. The translation of “ano” in Spanish is the anus.
A group of white Finnish men and women attacked on Saturday, a New Finn and his four friends in the Southern Ostrobotnian town of Teuva in western Finland. The police, which is treating the incident as suspected aggravated assault, has not ruled out a hate crime.
The big question is not if what happened wasn’t a hate crime, but will the police see it that way.
The interior ministry defines hate crime in the following way: “A hate crime is generally taken to mean any criminal act which is motivated by prejudice or hostility against groups of people that the victim represents.”
One of the matters that becomes crystal clear when I spoke to the victim was that his ethnic background was what motivated the suspects to act in such a hostile way.
At one point in the interview, the victim was at a loss of words trying to catch his breath from the horrible incident.
The victim’s car ended up in a ditch. The term mamu, which is the migrant’s n-word, was written over the car after the incident took place, according to the police. Source: Facebook.
“When they dragged me out of the car, one held me by the neck and another hit me yelled ‘let’s kill this foreigner (mamu),'” he said. “They hit me really hard. I still suffer from headaches and my body aches.”
In Teuva, where the attackers had notice and approached the victim and his friends, they started to pick a fight.
“I told them that is wasn’t nice what they were doing,” the victim continued. “I asked them why do you speak in that way to us because we don’t want any problems.”
The victim and the passengers decided to leave, but the attackers jumped on the hood of the care and would not get off until later.
“After that incident [in Teuva], I noticed that 4-5 cars were following us [on a country road],” he said. “They sped up and kept harassing us on the road until we noticed that they had blocked the road with another car. It was then when our car veered off the road That is when they attacked us.”
A friend of the victim had uploaded a Facebook posting of what had happened and started getting threats.
“The person who posted the comment said that we know your address and names,” he said. “I asked him if he is going to break the windows and spray [hate] graffiti on the wall. In the morning, he took down the post.”
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Former Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party MP Ano Turtiainen suffered some big blows last week: he was expelled from the far-right PS (quite a feat for a person who is multiculturally/interculturally challenged), two powerlifting groups in the United States and Canada terminated their business relationship with his company, Metal Sport & Ger (GoMetal). Let’s not forget all the negative publicity he gotover a racist tweet that mocked George Floyd’s death.
The fallout continues. Apart from the Finnish Powerlifting Association distancing itself from Turtiainen’s company, which it says it has only had an indirect business relationship, the International Powerlifting Federation and the European Powerlifting Federation are reviewing their relationship with Turtiainen.
The former PS MP’s short-lived career as a racist “dark comedian” and MP came down rapidly in flames.
After Turtiainen was ejected from the PS parliamentary group, he formed his single-MP party called Parliamentary Group Ano Turtiainen (Eduskuntaryhmä Ano Turtiainen). The secretary of the party is James Hirvisaari, who was convicted of ethnic agitation and expelled from the PS in 2013 for posting a picture of a friend doing a Nazi salute in parliament.
Seppo Lehto, who was sentenced to a 2.5-year prison sentence in 2008 for ethnic agitation, gave a Nazi salute in parliament in October 2013. He was PS MP James Hirvisaari guest. Source: Migrant Tales.
For those who still have doubts about Turtiainen’s views, Migrant Tales is publishing below some of his most racist postings. Would you do business with such a man?
1. George Floyd and Pink Floyd
Turtiainen, who lives in a small village called Juva in Eastern Finland, thought he could get away with a racist post about George Floyd, who has galvanized the #BlackLivesMatter movement in the United States. The MP’s “dark humor” faced a shit storm that stained his political career, and business.
The “joke?” George Floyd’s face is colored pink just before he died with the name of the 1960s rock band Pink Floyd. In the same tweet, he wrote that as blacks get more rights, the more unruly they become.
Some have described George Floyd’s death as a modern-day lynching.
Turtianen tried a social media lynching of George Floyd but failed miserably.
2. I love Tampere because Tampere is racist
Turtiainen does not hide his racist views as he does in the posting below, where someone had posted that the Tampere social welfare office is racist because it is against Muslims. Turtiainen responds: “My faith in Tampere was greatly strengthened by this picture [below].”
3. Public swimming pool in East Helsinki
Turtiainen tries a bit of his racist sarcasm with the posting below. He writes that he recommended to the white man in the picture, who is called Arska, to go to a public swimming pool in East Helsinki, where a lot of people of color live. Arska learns that a lot of his tax euros go to Africa and just for the hell of it he plans to swim in East Helsinki in the future as well.
I don’t know if this is a joke but it is pretty racist.
4. God damn it! They are building a mosque in Mikkeli.
One of Ano Turtiainen’s favorite targets is Muslims. A number of Syrians in Mikkeli built a small mosque in 2019. Religious freedom and diversity are guaranteed in Finland but Turtiainen and his followers believe that it only applies to white Christians. He writes: “God damn it. Now the atmosphere in Savo is ruined.”
5. The Caribbean is always near you when it’s Green-generated electricity
It’s pretty clear that Turtiainen does not like black people and even less, members of the Green Party. In the posting below, he states that with Green-generated electricity you can get a feel of the Caribbean in the living room.
Pretty bad and racist.
6. Tank baby carriages for imaginary no-go zones in Sweden
Not losing the chance to take a swipe at people of color and spread lies about imaginary no-go zones like Rosengård in Mälmö, Sweden, Turtiainen’s “dark humor” shows a tank baby carriage because Rosengård is such a dangerous place to live.
He writes in the posting that the Swedes have started to integrate into the daily life of the New Swedes.
7. Everything takes getting used to like your wife in a pandemic
Sexism forms a big part of Turtiainen’s repertoire. In the posting below, he states that it’s understandable that everything takes time getting used to during the Convid-19 pandemic.
8. Asylum seekers liar, liar age on fire
Turtiainen has so much suspicion and hatred for people of color that none of them should be trusted because they are liars. In the posting below, he sarcastically (his dark humor again?) states that it is a school picture taken with teenagers in Sweden.
9. Free speech means you can say anything you want, even racist things
Turtiainen tries to project and justify his racism by using the free-speech card. If his racist postings and statements have caused him to cross swords with a lot of people and groups, one of them was Chief Inspector Jari Taponen, whom he called a “castrated wimp” for telling him that freedom of expression carries responsibilities. Taponen has filed defamation charges against Turtiainen.
Turtiainen comments on Facebook: “They know how to make things up.”
10 Is it Ano or Año?
This is nothing racist published by Turtiainen, but an observation that may fit in with his dark comedian humor.
Ano in Spanish means anus. So if he were to market his products in a Spanish-speaking country, his first name would raise a lot of eyebrows and chuckles. Some words in Finnish don’t sit well in Spanish. Another one of these is Mitsubishi Pajero. Pajero means masturbator. The name of the car in Spanish-speaking countries was changed to Montero.
I spoke to a distraught Iraqi mother who told me how she was harassed, even shoved and pushed by six people who threatened to kill her in the Helsinki neighborhood of Malminkartano. Why? Because she and her daughters are Muslims.
“I was traveling with my nine-year-old daughter on the train from Vantaa and got off at the Malminkartano station,” she said. “The same people who were speaking loudly and yelling at us on the train got off in the same station. They kept on acting aggressively, cussing, and even surrounding us, telling us to go back to where we came from and yelling Allahu Akbar.”
The mother said that her daughter was very frightened by the incident and tried to distance herself from the attackers.
“We walked to our home about 500 meters away but the six persons, who were about 25 years old, three of them were men and three women, followed us to where we live,” she continued. “When we got home, I called the police, but they told me that they didn’t need to come since I was now safe at home.”
“The incident scared my daughter pretty badly, who is even afraid to go to the bathroom,” she said. “I don’t allow her to go out and play with her friends because I am afraid that something can happen to her.”
“My daughter does not understand why people are sometimes so mean,” she concluded. “She said that she was born in Finland and did not understand why some act in such a racist manner even if she is a Finn.”
Racism against People of African Descent in Finland occurs every day at the workplace, school, and public spaces, according to a report by the Non-Discrimination Ombudsman. The findings reinforce a study by the European Agency of Fundamental Rights that showed that perceived racist harassment of PAD respondents was the highest in Finland (63%),
The report stated that 67% of the respondents faced discrimination or harassment at school. The corresponding figure for the workplace was 60%. As many as 61% who face racist discrimination don’t report it.
Rainer Hiltunen, the acting Non-Discrimination Ombudsman, said that the findings of the report confirm that racism is deeply rooted in Finnish society.
“Our ways of thinking and our modes of action are, to a large extent, racist even if we do not notice it or are unwilling to admit it,” he said. “Individual racist acts and aggressive behavior are the easiest to identify, but the most dangerous are attitudes and structures which deprive those of African descent of the same opportunities that others have.”
The majority (67%) of the respondents said they had experienced discrimination in education. Racism arises from the actions of other students and teaching staff and other personnel such as guidance counselors and school nurses.
The highest amount of discrimination was experienced by other students when teachers or other staff are present. Racialized guidance takes place in guidance counseling and Finnish as a second language and literature courses.
Michaela Moua, non-discrimination ombudsman senior officer, stated that the treatment of PAD in the education sector has a significant impact on their career paths and social position in society.
“Deviating from the white norm affects how a person is seen and treated in school,” she said. “Racialized guidance which takes place in educational structures needs to be confronted and fixed, as it leads to the differentiation of life paths and social positions.”
High (61%) of respondents stated that they preferred to remain quiet if they were targets of racist discrimination and harassment. PAD respondents believe that reporting such an incident would not lead anywhere.
Moreover, respondents said that they experienced racism by employers, colleagues, and customers in the workplace. Job recruitment is one area where the respondents had experienced discrimination.
A study published in October by Akhlaq Ahmad reinforced how prevalent labor market discrimination is in Finland. The results of the study showed that out of 5,000 job applications, those with Finnish names got way more requests for interviews by the employer.
The report by the non-discrimination ombudsman and other ones should give politicians, policymakers, and people enough fuel not only to tackle but begin dismantling for good structural racism in Finland.
While what we see in the United States with nationwide protests is remarkable, what happened last week with former Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party MP Ano Turtainen was equally significant.
Before mocking the death of George Floyd in a racist tweet, Turtiainen should have understood that there is a lot of sensitivity and support for black people who are constant victims of police violence and brutality in the US and elsewhere.
While Turtiainen has made racist remarks about blacks like in his infamous Ebola Facebook posting in which he claimed that Ebola is nature’s way of keeping overpopulation under control in Africa, Muslims are his usual targets of choice.
Apart from getting kicked out of the PS parliamentary group, further damage for his racism was handed by US-based Elitefts, a bodybuilding equipment company, which terminated its business relationship with Turtiainen’s company, Metal Sport & Gear.
The vast majority of the 240 comments (8.6) are by Finns, who thank the company for its action.
Source: Facebook.Another company in Canada has cut all ties with Turtiainen’s company. Source: CPU.
There is a troublesome question that arises from Turtiainen’s clash with the #BlackLivesMovement. What if George Floyd were a Muslim?
Would our collective reaction and outrage be as forceful?
Hopefully, the #BlackLivesMatter movement and our rebuke of US President Donald Trump and his policies will encourage us to condemn and take action against all types of racism wherever it may appear.
Thanks to the United States, Latin America has suffered human rights abuses, poverty, exploitation, and a long line of dictators. The latest coup we saw in that part of the world was in Bolivia when Jeanine Áñez usurped power and named herself president.
I lived under a ruthless dictatorship in Argentina. Memories from those times were so harrowing that I can never forget them even if I wished. Indeed, the military rulers who gave us the dirty war (1976-83) caused terrible scars on the country.
Argentina’s bloodiest coup in 1976 had the blessings of US President Gerald Ford and executed by his faithful henchman, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.
Some generals, like former Secretary of Defence James Mattis, rebuked President Donald Trump this week by stating that he is a danger to the constitution and that USAmericans in uniforms serve USAmericans, not a political agenda.
Mattis added: “We can unite without him [Trump], drawing on the strengths inherent in our civil society. This will not be easy, as the past few days have shown, but we owe it to our fellow citizens; to past generations that bled to defend our promise; and to our children.”
Even if some have hailed Mattis for speaking out against Trump, his military career raises a lot of questions. The Marine Corps general fought in the Perian Gulf War, War in Afghanistan, and the Iraq War.
Amnesty International had questions about Mattis before his confirmation as Trump’s secretary of defense in 2017-2019.
“If confirmed, General Mattis would wield tremendous power, including the ability to order torture and flood Guantanamo with new detainees held without charge. General Mattis has said that those at Guantanamo should be held indefinitely – even though nearly all have been held without charge for more than a decade. However, he is reported to have rejected torture as a useful method of interrogation in conversations with [then] President-elect Trump.”
Mattis, who admitted that the Iraq War was a mistake, led the 1st Marine Division during the invasion and later oversaw the bloody retaking of Fallujah from insurgents in 2004. Some estimates claim that 90% of the people that the Marines killed in Fallujah were civilians.
Is General Mattis a war criminal, and is he an honorable broker with so much war history and blood on his hands?
Other high-ranking military leaders like John Kelly, John Allen, Mike Mullen, Richard Myers, Martin Dempsey, and others have also rebuked Trump. Even former President George W Bush, who condoned torture and invaded Iraq, is giving the thumbs down to Trump.
Remember formerWhite House chief of staff and general, John Kelly, who defended the practice of separating immigrant parents from their children at the border.
Kelly is now making money off caged children. He is currently the board member of Caliburn International, the parent company of Comprehensive Health Services, which operates four massive for-profit shelters that have government contracts to house unaccompanied migrant children from south of the border.
It all sounds like a Hollywood movie with an unsure ending and a list of actors who may have committed war crimes and human rights violations. In all of this, we lose sight of the real issue: #BlackLivesMatter, social justice, and change.
In Argentina, the last military dictatorship that overthrew the democratically elected government of Isabel Martínez de Perón did so to restore “law and order.” They did this with presidential elections nine months away.
Coups in countries like Argentina usually kick off with a communiqué. The first one stated that “The country finds itself under the operational control of the armed forces…”
President Isabel Martínez de Perón being flown off by a helicopter from the presidential palace.
Even if Communiqué 1 asked for calm from the civilian population and not to intervene, it hid its most sinister plan, which was to unleash the suffering and death of tens of thousands of Argentineans.
If the end of democracy is near in the United States, I suspect it will kick off with an announcement like in Argentina in 1976. Contrary to Latin America, which is crude, even vulgar, in handling public relations with its population, the coup in the United States will not look like one but appear sugar-coated with deceitful lies.
The transition from an imperfect democracy that serves mostly whites at the cost and exploitation of blacks and other minorities won’t be hard. The United States has a lot of experience in Latin America, where its support for military and civilian dictatorships, domination, and torture are the trademarks.
The demise of the Soviet Union in 1991 not only brought down a superpower without firing a shot but started the deterioration of another one called the United States.
The social chaos in the United States could end if the country were honestly interested in turning a new leaf and change its ways.
In the next few months, we will see the direction the country is heading on its wayward and perilous path.
