The sentencing of a respected scholar on racism of aggravated defamation by a Turku Court is more of a warning to others who may protest against ethnic profiling by security guards and the police. The verdict raises a lot of answered questions. One of these is why was the seventeen-year-old put in handcuffs for not…
Tag: ethnic profiling
Yahya Rouissi: Finnish government’s plans to ethnically profile racialized youths
Recent discussions by the Finnish government have raised concerns among human rights groups about the possibility of copying Denmark to carry out random spot checks on people in certain neighborhoods. If such a measure were ever implemented, it could lead to France’s controversial Article 24 which restricts videoing the police with the intention of “threatening…
Finland is backpedaling to the dark corners of nationalism and xenophobia
The impact of National Coalition Party (NCP) Prime Minister Petteri Orpo’s government (Perussuomalaiset PS*, Swedish People’s Party and Christian Democrats) on Finland will be devastating. It will be a regression into the darkest corners of nationalism, xenophobia, chest-thumping, and bravado. With the help of these social ills, there are plans to displace Finland’s liberal roots…
Exposing white Finnish privilege #90: A crime by “people of foreign background” offers more political mileage than one committed by white Finns
We read about the tragic death of a woman at Espoo’s Iso Omena shopping center on Saturday. The woman died while being escorted by four Securitas security guards out of the shopping center. The altercation ended with the woman on the floor, handcuffed, and eventually lifeless. The police announced Sunday that the security guards in…
Media Monitoring Group of Finland*: The Avarn Security scandal reveals a lot about how the media frames minorities
THE STORY WAS UPDATED After reading 77 stories published by Yle (9 stories), Helsingin Sanomat (19), Iltalehti (6), Ilta-Sanomat (30), and MTV (13) about the Avarn Security scandal, only one story alleges racism as a factor in the working culture of security guards. Another story by Ilta-Sanomat, which wrote about excessive force, only mentioned once…
The Musta Barbari and Fares Al-Abaidi cases deal a further blow to police credibility in Finland
Two rulings in two important cases involving ethnic profiling and suspected hate crime are a further stain on the credibility of the Finnish police. One of these took over six years to get a just ruling by the Supreme Administrative Court, and another one just slapped the hand of the suspect lightly. Ethnic profiling, which…
Two stories that reveal a lot about racism in Finland
Two stories that expose injustice and denial in Finland became public this week: First, the Supreme Administrative Court of Finland ruled Thursday that the police ethnically profiled singer Musta Barbari’s mother and sister in July 2016. The other news is about an Iraqi youth who white Finns violently attacked in July 2020. Both cases are not only…
Racism is treated lightly by the Finnish police, according to Yle
Racist treatment and ethnic profiling are a stain on the police. Worse yet, denial and playing down such serious problems ensure a bigger stain on the police. If you want to know about racism in the Finnish police, why not ask Finland’s Romany minority and other visible minorities like blacks. The headline by Yle News,…
Do you trust the Finnish police?
A 2020 survey showed that 91% trusted the police, down from 95% in 2018, according to the Police University College. Other studies have pointed out that trust in the police is high, even among migrants. Despite the high amount of trust, the police service has not been immune to scandals. The latest one involved a…
The Pekka Kataja account of his attackers’ identity changes again
THIS STORY WAS UPDATED The Pekka Kataja story, the Perussuomnalaiset (PS) councilor of Jämsänkoski, is constantly changing. First, he claims that “Arab-looking” men assaulted him. That has now morphed into “possibly” it was the far right or far left. Kataja even claimed that he was attacked due to his opinions of an asylum reception center,…