Police unlikely to pin hate crime on the death of a Somali in Oulu, Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

The police announced Wednesday that the eighteen-year-old Somali national who died in hospital Tuesday slipped from the sixth floor while trying to escape three people who barged into his home Monday night, according to tabloid Iltalehti. Migrant Tales spoke with Seppo Leinonen of the Oulu police, who said it was unlikely that the death of the young man was a hate crime. 

The police will announce at noon Thursday whether they will imprison the three suspects.

One of the three persons, a woman, knew the victim. She apparently had a disagreement with the man and told her brother about it, who then went with a metal pipe to resolve the matter, reports Ilalehti. Since the victim did not open door, the brother kicked a whole in the door and opened it from the inside.

Both the brother and sister were under the influence of alcohol.

The victim tried to escape but fell to his death from the sixth floor.

JusticeDemon makes a good point on one of his threads by asking if what happened was a “Finnish honor crime?” Below are a list of sad examples of Finnish men mending their broken family with a shotgun, service revolver or knife:

November 2011, Tyrnävä
October 2011, Varkaus
April 2011, Ikaalinen
February 2010, Lappeenranta (fortunately nobody was killed)
December 2008, Lohja (that was a retired police officer)
November 2008, Hattula
October 2008, Helsinki
October 2008, Oulu
June 2008, Ylitornio
March 2008, Pori

Migrant Tales had got in touch with residents and acquaintances of the victim in Oulu. While they claimed the three entered that had apartment the victim’s home with a chainsaw, the police could not confirm this.

Somali victim of Oulu, Finland: The tragedy that brings us closer to the problem

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

The reaction and threads concerning the tragic death of a Somali national in Oulu, Finland, Tuesday after three white Finnish suspects barged into his home reveals the strong divide between “us” and “them.”We still have a long ways to go as a society to deal with social ills like discrimination. Paradoxically, tragedies like what happened in Oulu bring us ever-closer to the issue. 

While we should give the Finnish police the benefit of doubt and trust their professionalism, there are many cases that show the opposite and undermine the credibility of law enforcement officials. Some that come to mind immediately are the decade-long coverup by the German police of hate crimes by neo-Nazi groups, and the infamous L.A. riots, when three policemen were acquitted in 1992 after being videotaped beating a black motorist.

The L.A. riots caused the death of 53 people and as many as 2,000 were injured. The cost of the riots was between $800 million and $1 billion.

While the work of the police should reveal fairness and abiding duty to the cause of justice, factors like politics and prejudice do unfortunately get in the way.

If there are police credibility issues among Finland’s immigrant community, the police should find ways to increase trust.

While we believe in the professionalism of our law officers, we at Migrant Tales are concerned about the ever-worsening atmosphere for immigrants in Finland.  What happened in Oulu Monday night does not assure us that matters are getting better.

We do not have to venture far from Migrant Tales to grasp what is wrong with Finland today when it comes to the attitudes of some Finns. Here is one thread by Allan that is especially worrying: “Now if it so happens to be some gluesniffers on bad acid after drinking kärpässienikilju, where exactly are you blaming *them* ? No, you are blaming all Finns for having that as their social norm.”

Another blogger, Depressed N Worried Immigrant, writes: “I went to read iltalehti chatting room and i was shocked literally, there is no one single person condemning the death of this young man theye’re giving all kind of excuses…”

The police is one important source in resolving the tragedy that took place in Oulu Monday night.

It is the second incident so far in Oulu in a month where a person has fled perceived danger by jumping off the balcony. You can read the story (in Finnish) here.

 

Let’s wait for their verdict.

UPDATE 2: Somali young man leaps to his death in Oulu, Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

The Oulu police have now admitted as Migrant Tales did first in Finland that the victim who leaped to his death from a sixth floor was a Somali.  Kaleva, the Oulu daily, quotes Antti Räsänen of the police stating that “nothing points to racism [hate crime] but we haven’t ruled out that possibility.” 

What next?

The interesting matter to watch is how long it take the police to announce the motive of the crime.

We know from a police statement on Tuesday that three people barged into the home of the Somali before he leaped from the sixth floor.

 

UPDATE: Somali young man leaps to his death in Oulu, Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

The cause of the death of a Somali male in Oulu on Tuesday appears to be as Migrant Tales correctly reported a hate crime involving three Finns who entered the man’s home by force and caused him to leap from his sixth-floor apartment balcony.  The young man died the same day after taken to hospital. 

Police have not yet confirmed the nationality of the victim but Migrant Tales understands the person to be Somali.

Here is a statement by police statement stating that they have detained three suspects in the crime.

“We don’t have that much information [about the causes or whether he was assaulted],” the police told Migrant Tales earlier.

A resident of the neighborhood claimed that the Somali was attacked by a group of Finns who forced their way into his home with a chainsaw.

“They [the Finns] entered the [Somali’s] home and fearing for his life he tried escaping by leaping from the balcony,” said a Somali resident of the neighborhood  who knew the victim.

The apartment, located in the neighborhood of Toppila, houses many immigrants.

Somali young man leaps to his death in Oulu, Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

The cause of the death of a Somali male in Oulu on Monday night is still unresolved after he leaped to his death from his sixth-floor apartment balcony.  Police have not confirmed the cause of death but neighbors contacted by Migrant Tales claim that the eighteen-year-old was attacked by a group of Finns who had entered his home by force

“We don’t have that much information [about the causes or whether he was assaulted],” the police told Migrant Tales.

A resident of the neighborhood claimed that the Somali was attacked by a group of Finns who forced their way into his home with a chainsaw.

“They [the Finns] entered the [Somali’s] home and fearing for his life he tried escaping by leaping from the balcony,” said a Somali resident of the neighborhood  who knew the victim.

The apartment, located in the neighborhood of Toppila, houses many immigrants.

Adolescent says visible minorities get attacked "several times a week" in Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

Rebecka Holm, the fourteen-year-old who rallied enough courage to write a letter to  HBL, asks in an interview on Monday on the Swedish-speaking daily an important question: “If Finland is now the most secure and stable country [in the world], why do people of [different] ethnic backgrounds get attacked every day?”

Holm said that she wrote the letter to the editor because her friends and herself were being harassed too often in public.  When asked how often by HBL, she responds: ” I see it happen several times a week and it happens to me personally.  I am subjected to [those types of] attacks maybe once a week.”

Like many others in Finland, even an adolescent understands that there is too little debated publicly in society about racism.

We have heard it too often from the you-know-whom politicians: Racism isn’t a problem in Finland. It’s a media fabrication.

As long as adolescents, children and adults get harassed openly in public in Finland because of their ethnic background, the further we will venture from those values that make us proud of those noble values that unite us as a society. In those values racism and prejudice have no place.

Even if they are a minority carrying out these attacks, it is the the apathy and silence of the majority that gives them a tap on the back and whispers: Go ahead.

LiveScience: Low IQ & Conservative Beliefs Linked to Prejudice

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Comment: Before you jump to any conclusions, the story does not claim that liberals are smart and conservative-minded people lack intelligence. What the findings of the study claim is that low-intelligence adults tend to gravitate towards conservative ideologies. 

Here is a link to another blog entry in February 2011 that showed a correlation between low self-esteem and racism. 

If there is a link between low IQ and prejudice, what would we call a politician, who appears to have a head on his or her shoulder,  but uses racism to get more votes and popularity?  

“Those ideologies, in turn, stress hierarchy and resistance to change, attitudes that can contribute to prejudice,” lead researcher Gordon Hodson wrote in an email to LiveScience. “Prejudice is extremely complex and multifaceted, making it critical that any factors contributing to bias are uncovered and understood.” 

 Here is an important point that should be highlighted from the story: “People with lower cognitive abilities also had less contact with people of other races [in Europe we call them ethnic groups].”

Finding the causes of racism are important because such a social ill is the cause of a lot of hardship and is one of the main culprits behind most if not all wars. Hodson said that many anti-prejudice programs encourage participants to see the world from another group’s view. 

“That mental exercise may be too taxing for people of low IQ,” he said.

__________________

Stephanie Pappas

There’s no gentle way to put it: People who give in to racism and prejudice may simply be dumb, according to a new study that is bound to stir public controversy. The research finds that children with low intelligence are more likely to hold prejudiced attitudes as adults. 

Read whole story.

Finland's growing image abroad now hinges on racism and intolerance

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

The lead story in Sunday’s Helsingin Sanomat is about how racism and intolerance at home have tarnished Finland’s image abroad, according to a survey of Finnish expats living in different countries. Even if the daily blames the rise of the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party for our country’s questionable image, the real culprits are none other than us.

What Helsingin Sanomat forgets to tell its readers is that such a negative international image will cost us dearly, especially during a time when we need more skilled immigrants and foreign investment in our country.

The economic damage caused to Finland by our near-silence and the vacillating stance of our media and too many politicians to racism and populism is a big one. The longer we remain quiet on this front and flirt with our silence with parties like the PS, the more we will continue to destroy our good image abroad.

Before Finland’s entry into the European Union in 1995, the foreign ministry worked hard to improve our negative international image caused by Finlandization. While our refugee policy and draconian treatment of immigrants before 1983, when Finland’s first Aliens’ Act came into force, officials ran the Aliens’ Office like a state within a state.

Issues like racism took backstage in the international media because of Finlandization and due to the size of our underwhelming immigrant population, which totaled about 7,000 in the 1970s. Most of these “foreigners” were native Finns who were naturalized citizens of other countries.

The experiment by 19.1% of the population in the April election to seek the help of a populist, anti-EU, anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim party to lead us in this decade is proving to be a mistake.

There are positive signs, however, that voters have had enough of the PS’ political shenanigans as the presidential election showed.

Apart from voters giving the thumbs down to anti-EU presidential hopefuls like Center Party’s Paavo Väyrynen and PS’ Timo Soini, the party has been damaged by numerous scandals in the media that have exposed the racism, homophobia and anti-democratic credentials of some of its MPs.

The Migrant Tales Manifesto (for Finland and Europe)

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

Thanks to the growing number of supporters, Migrant Tales has become that “voice for those whose views and situation are understood poorly and heard faintly by the media, politicians and public.” During these past years we have read and debated many points of views and have complied some recommendations on how to move forward. 

The list is far from being a final one. We can add and change parts of it but the overriding message should be mutual acceptance, respect and equal opportunities. All these three terms add up to social equality, or tasa-arvo.

Migrant Tales Manifesto 

  • An effective way to make cultural diversity work is by heralding mutual acceptance, respect and equal opportunities
  • We like the term tolerance, or suvaitsevaisuus in Finnish, but acceptance, hyväksyntä, is an even better term that describes how we build bridges between different ethnic groups and minorities in our society
  • New studies should bring out — not hide — how Finns have been, are and will be a culturally diverse society
  • The first step in that acceptance of our cultural diversity are the children, grandchildren and great grandchildren of the 1.2 million Finns that migrated between 1860 and 1999
  • Cultural management/diversity should be mandatory and started at elementary school
  • We must learn to forgive those countries and people that put us in harm’s way
  • When we advance the rights of minorities we advance those of all
  • A member of society can never learn mutual acceptance and respect if he has low self-esteem
  • Empowering all members of society, especially minorities, helps build self-esteem
  • Inclusion means asking people their opinion, empowering and encouraging them to take part especially in the decision-making process that affects their lives and future in the community
  • Racism, prejudice and all type of discrimination that excludes individuals and groups should be strongly discouraged
  • Discrimination should be seen as a threat to our values and community because it hinders  inclusion
  •  The biggest excluder in society is apathy and silence
  • Politicians that do not speak out against racism and prejudice when given the opportunity are just as responsible as those who encourage such a social ill
  • Inclusion does not only mirror one of our most important values of our society like social equality, it costs the tax payer less and is a more effective pathway to integration
  • In order to free up tax resources for more projects that strengthen inclusion in our society, we should strongly discourage building walls of hate in our society
  • Mutual acceptance means people in our society can make lifestyle choices. These are not only ensured in our laws, but are protected on an individual and group level
  • We treat people with the same respect we treat our own group
  • Equal opportunities are a key component to building a successful, dynamic and content society
  • The more opportunities we offer the more pathways we create to our culturally diverse community
  • Everyone should strive to learn the best Finnish and/or Swedish he or she can.  This is as important as speaking other languages, like the one we learned at home
  • Since we are all different, we learn languages at different paces. Language should, however, never be a tool to discriminate
  • We should strive to keep politicians, policy makers and officials focused on our goal during this century as a country: mutual acceptance, respect and equal opportunities
  • The sum total of these terms is social equality
  • Finland is our home because we are a part of a wonderful country that has accepted and empowered us.

guardian.co.uk: Stephen Lawrence's mother says No 10 must do more on race

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Comment:  Here is a follow up by the guardian.co.uk on the Stephen Lawrence murder in England and how the police fumbled the case and allowed the killers to walk away from the murder with impunity for 18 years. The case has raised serious questions about racism in the London police force. 

Some of the matters that disturbed me most about the story were: 

• “While the police were failing to catch her son’s murderers, they managed to stop his brother 20 times as a criminal suspect.

• Police also managed to stop Mrs Lawrence the year after the murder and told her she was suspected of driving a stolen car. She says continuing racist stereotyping by officers explains why African-Caribbeans are more likely to be stopped.

• She was told she should be “ashamed to show our faces” by a police employee, during a visit to Scotland Yard in 2009 to discuss her son’s murder.

• The trust she set up in Stephen’s name to help youngsters from deprived backgrounds to realise their ambitions is in financial trouble.”

One of the questions raised in England naturally reflects on the police all over Europe. Is racism and racial profiling an issue in the Finnish police force? 

The following case reported on MTV3 suggests that there could be some problems.  

Here is a good a case reported by HBL on alleged racial profiling by Finnish customs.  

_________________

By Vikram Dodd

Doreen Lawrence has said David Cameron’s government is not doing enough to tackle racial prejudice, which continues to blight society, and has warned that spending cuts will hit working-class and black Britons the hardest.

Read whole story.