THE STORY WAS UPDATED
Finland’s fascination with hardline nationalists and bigots continues unabated. Police official Marianne Kiukkunen was interviewed on the Enbuske, Veitola and Salminen (EVS-ohjelma) talk show and introduced by the host as an “Amazon” superwoman, the very embodiment of white privilege. Her appearance on the show and her comments are examples of how low the police has lowered the bar.
Instead of introducing her as “an Amazon hero of white Finns,” I would introduce her as a sad example of the nationalism and bigotry that is found in the police service. Her views and persona are the same ones that are opening the door to xenophobia and fascism in Finland today.
The EVS-ohjelma is a talk show for white Finns, about white Finns and their privileged views of Others.
One of the many revealing matters about the short interview is that she is a member of the racist MV-lehti online publication’s closed Facebook page. According to her, the closed group has some 3,000 members, many of them police officials.
At present, the editor of MV-lehti, Ilja Janitskin is at large. His online publication commonly steals stories from other publications like Migrant Tales and spins them to fit with their own far-right worldview.
The online publication is facing a number of charges like ethnic agitation and defamation of character.
MV-lehti is a favorite of many Perussuomalaiset (PS)* politicians like MP Teuvo Hakkarianen and councilwoman Terhi Kiemunki.
Both are facing charges of ethnic agitation.
See the full story here.
When asked on the whow what she’s doing in such a Facebook closed group, Kiukkonen plays down and speaks fondly of the MV-lehti editor.
“Ilja certainly has such a style that he says things pretty harshly but maybe more in the language of the people,” she said, adding that the issue at hand is that “there should be freedom of expression in Finland.”
One of the hosts sitting and listening to the interview commented that freedom of expression doesn’t mean spreading false information.
“Not everything [published in MV-lehti] is false information I can vouch for that…” she responded.
A recent poll about the Finnish police service showed that 25.1% voted for the National Coalition Party and 24.4% for the PS. All in all, close to 80% of those polled considered asylum seekers to be the biggest threat to security in Finland.
Some of the reasons for getting the boot were his racist fear-mongering, Islamophobic comments like suggesting a pig blood spray repellent for Muslims and forced castration of African males who have more than three children.
It’s clear with from these few examples we can say that one of the biggest challenges facing the Finnish police service is too little cultural and ethnic diversity. As long as it continues to be an institution that houses and defends a white Finland that excludes Other Finns, the more their credibility will be undermined.
The police service, like other public officials, serve the everyone in this country irrespective of their background.
If the police service disagrees, they should be sent back to school to learn again what are our fundamental rights.
Section 6 of the Constitution would be good place to start:
* 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.”