How is it possible that a man is beaten up in broad daylight next to the Helsinki Railway Station next to a gathering of Neo-Nazis? How is it possible that this far-right group, which calls itself Kansallinen vastarintaliike (SVL), allegedly beat up the person, who is sent unconscious to the hospital to die six days later from cerebral hemorrhages?
How is it possible that a group like the SVL posts a video below and boasts about what on that day?
The victim lying on the street unconscious in a video posted by neo-Nazis.
What kind of a message does the death of Jimi Joonas Karttunen send to migrants, minorities and other people who are against SVL’s hateful ideology?
Will Karttunen’s death encourage the usual wishy-washy near-silence of the government and even of the police service towards far-right violence?
We shouldn’t look surprised by what happened because the man lying on the street unconscious is only an image of our society looking back at us.
Our beloved son Jimi Joonas Karttunen was assaulted Saturday 10.9 around 1pm at the Eillinaukio Square next to a vastarintaliikkeen.fi organized happening when a skinhead Nazi member attacked my son and caused him to have a serious head wound. And yesterday (16.9) Jimi Joonas died at the Meilahti Hospital due to entirely unnecessary violence. Peace to his soul! The police know what happened.
One political party that comes immediately to mind when looking at our ever-polarized society is the Perussuomalaiset (PS), which have made far-right neo-Nazi ideology and spread hatred of migrants and minorities the new norm in Finland. The PS share power in government with the Center Party and National Coalition Party.
Disagree about my take on the PS?
Remember PS MP Olli Immonen’s declaration of war against cultural diversity in July 2015?
Remember when the PS MP posed the previous month with some Neo-Nazis of the same group that allegedly killed Karttunen?
Remember the present chairman of the administration committee, Juho Eerola, who admitted he was attracted by Benito Mussolini’s fascism?
Remember Eerola’s aide Ulla Pyysalo and how her name ended up on an SVL membership list?
Remember Eerola’s advice to SVL thugs that tried to disrupt in Jyväskylä the launching of a book on fascism in Finland? He didn’t condemn what happened.
Remember PS’ Matti Putkonen, who claimed that all the racists and fascists were purged from the party?
Remember Teemu Lahtinen, a PS councilman of the city of Espoo, who allegedly “liked” the neo-Nazi group’s Facebook page?
Remember who is PS MEP Jussi Halla-aho?
I could go and on…
* The Finnish name for the Finns Party is the Perussuomalaiset (PS). The English names of the party adopted by the PS, like True Finns or Finns Party, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and xenophobia. We, therefore, prefer to use the Finnish name of the party on our postings. The direct translation of “Perussuomalaiset” is “basic” or “fundamental Finn.”