Tag: hate crime

Race Council Cymru: “Under-reporting” racism in Wales (and Finland)

Posted on by Migrant Tales

The Police College of Finland may soon publish its hate crime statistics for 2011. Considering that hate crimes reported to the police in 2010 fell by 15% to 860 versus 1,007 cases from the previous year, one could ask how reliable such statistics are. Do they reveal hate crime cases in Finland or police attitudes towards hate crime? 

I would draw the attention of the Finnish police authorities to a Race Council Cymru study published by the BBC, which reveals how racism goes “under-reported” in Wales.

Ignorance of one’s rights, language barriers, fear of reprisals and lack of trust are some reasons why black and visible minorities don’t report racist harassment to the police, according to the study.

Heaven Crawley, director of the Centre for Migration Policy Research at Swansea University, said that not only did people endure “everyday racism,” they adapted to such abuse.  Adapting to such harassment could encourage one to not use public transport, cover up one’s skin so people cannot tell a person belongs to a minority, young women may prefer not to wear the hijab because it targets them for racist abuse.

People with ethnic minority backgrounds account for about 4% of Wales’ 3 million population, which is in percentage terms quite similar to the amount of immigrants (3.4%) living in Finland.

As I listened to the report, I could not avoid some parallels with what some immigrants had reported to me in Finland.

Below are some important findings of the “everyday racism” immigrants and visible minorities suffer in Wales:

  • When they get on the bus they may suffer verbal abuse;
  • They may be walking down the street and people may be shouting at them;
  • Racist abuse of minorities is pervasive at the workplace and school;
  • Instead of complaining, minorities don’t complain to the police but adapt their behavior;
  • Only a minority (one in five) report such incidents to the police.

Crawley cited the following factors why such cases weren’t reported to the authorities:

  • They didn’t know they could;
  • If they reported their incident they wouldn’t be taken seriously by the police;
  • Those that reported these incidents said no action had been taken.

Since it is possible that the “low” number of hate crimes reported to the police in Finland may reveal the tip of the iceberg of a more serious problem, such statistics may sadly reveal how little the police are doing to address the issue.

Add to the latter the negative debate in Finland concerning immigrants as well as Minister Päivi Räsänen’s tacit approval of ethnic profiling by the police, it’s pretty clear that there is a serious issue that needs addressing by society.

 

How rape statistics reveal a serious problem: racism and prejudice

Posted on by Migrant Tales

You know there is something fishy whenever any person starts to use percentages to drive home the point that immigrants are rapists. If anything, rape statistics do reveal a problem: racism and prejudice. 

One blogger on Uusi Suomi writes: ”In April, Finns were told that men from xxxx  are guilty of committing rape alarmingly often.” Using a tabloid story as a source, he states that in 2006-09 34% of all convicted rapes were by foreigners.

There are some serious problems with the conclusions of the tabloid never mind the writer:

  • How many foreigners were convicted of rape?
  • Are we speaking of an ”alarmingly high” amount?

In the Uusi Suomi blog entry, Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP James Hirvisaari, who was fined in December for inciting ethnic hatred, believes that 25 rape convictions during the first five months of the year is enough proof to close our borders.

Hirvisaari writes:  “We don’t need ‘free movement’ since it only brings too many problems and forms part of the left-wing agenda to undermine the nation-state.  ’Let’s do away with borders and mix different nationalities.’ Border control and immigration policy should be contrarily tightened.”

Here is some of Hirvisaari’s latest double-talk on his latest blog entry:  “Multiculturalism is a destroying politicial ideology, which does not fit in a [culturally] diverse society.”*

Yes, that’s right, such a comment was made by a Finnish MP based on 25 rape convictions during the first five months of the year!

If anything, rape statistics reveal a serious problem: a society’s racism and prejudice.

Sweden convicts Peter Mangs for Malmö immigrant murders

Posted on by Migrant Tales

A Malmö District Court convicted Peter Mangs, 40, of two counts of murder and four attempted murders, according to the Guardian. The man, who is a Swede of Finnish descent, killed his first victim in 2003 and terrorized Malmö during 2009-10. All of his victims were immigrants.

Mangs will undergo psychiatric evaluation before his sentencing in early September.

Writes the New York Times in May: “And although the scale of the accusations are nothing like the charges against Anders Behring Breivik, the Norwegian on trial in Oslo for the systematic killings of 77 people last year in a crusade against multiculturalism, the parallels have not been lost on residents here in Malmö, Sweden’s third-largest city and one of its most diverse.”

Prosecutor Solveig Wollstad was quoted as saying on Iltalehti that Mangs destroyed many people’s lives.

“He carried out his crimes in a cold-hearted manner without feelings [for the victims],” he said. “His aim was to shoot immigrants.”

The Halla-aho scandal raises disturbing questions

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Disquieting questions emerge in light of the Jussi Halla-aho scandal: Is pressure on the Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP to resign as chairman of the administration committee due to his dismissive reaction to the Supreme Court sentence or because of what he wrote about Muslims and Somalis, which got him in trouble in the first place?

When the PS won the April 2011 elections, it was well-known by many that the PS was an anti-EU, anti-immigration and especially anti-Islam party.  The question, however, at the time was how many politicians were ready to admit the latter about the PS.

Another important fact that Finland’s political establishment knew last year was that there were a few problem cases in the PS like Halla-aho, who was charged in 2009 by a lower court for defaming a religion.

In light of these facts, why was Halla-aho approved unanimously to chair the administration committee, which, among other matters, is in charge of immigration policy?

Would political parties be demanding the MP’s head today if he’d remained quiet and taken the Supreme Court decision with a drop of humility?

Legal scholars have reacted to Halla-aho’s provocative statements after the Supreme Court decision, who considered the ruling as “a personal interpretation by a few people.”

Halla-aho’s and the PS’ view of our judicial system is odd coming from a party that claims immigrants don’t follow and respect our laws.

Writes Husein Muhammed on Migrant Tales: “Now I grasp what the Perussuomalaiset actually mean when they demand that immigrants should respect the country’s laws. They don’t themselves respect Finnish laws/judicial system.”

If Halla-aho’s arrogant stand has surprised many, PS chairman Timo Soini’s decision to not do anything hasn’t helped matters either.

Soini said in 2009 that any person would get sacked from the party if that person were charged for a racist crime.

Soini has been forced to eat his words on a number of occasions. With a poker face, he claimed right after last year’s election that there wasn’t one racist among the PS and that if Halla-aho got  criminally charged he’d get the boot from the party.

Halla-aho plans to take up the matter before the European Court of Human Rights.

If there is anything positive about the scandal, it may be that political parties in Finland are starting to take a social issue  like racism more seriously.

Finland’s parliament may be making history tomorrow if the PS does not force Halla-aho to resign.  Parliament may decide Wednesday to dissolve the administration committee and appoint new members, which in turn would choose a new chairman.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finland’s police service: see no, hear no, speak no hate crimes

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

Migrant Tales reported since the end of January some gruesome violent crimes against Muslims in Finland with the most recent one happening Wednesday. Two of these led directly to the violent deaths of a Somali and Moroccan native, both Finnish citizens.  None of these were hate crimes, according to the police. 

What is a hate crime and why do some visible immigrants disagree flatly with the police’s conclusions?

A Police College of Finland report states the following:  “The traditional definition of hate crime also entails the notion that there is no prior relationship between the offender and the victim. Hate motivation is easier to understand in connection with crimes committed by extremist groups; i.e. in instances where the suspect and victim do not know each other and the suspect’s agenda is to harm the victim on the basis of his or her membership of a specific [ethnic]group.”

And continues: “This traditional definition, however,  is not suitable for describing all crimes committed against minorities that include prejudice against a group. Crimes or harassment can also occur between people who already know one another, and such acts are not always based on one particular hate motivation.”

One matter that sheds a dubious light on the Finnish police is their claim that hate crimes fell  by 15% to 860 cases in 2010 compared with the previous year.

While we don’t have the competence nor the resources like the police to investigate a hate crime, we are members of the community that the police serves.

Even so, the ever-growing discrepancies between some immigrant and visible minority groups versus the police show a distressing trend: lack of credibility.  This can never be a good matter for the police never mind the immigrant community because the effectiveness of the police service hinges on trust.

Trust in the police service can be hindered by many factors. One of these can be the immigrant, who may came from a country where the police are more feared than criminals. In light of this fact the police in Finland must do more work to win over the trust of these groups.

A recent statement by a policeman investigating the death of the adolescent in Espoo show that credibility between the police and the Somali community are significant to say the least.

Instead of reassuring the Somali community that Finland’s streets are safe and that the police are out there to protect them, the police investigator blamed the Somalis for planting racial hatred by spreading false rumors about the murder, according to YLE.

Alan Bruce wrote recently (26.2.2012) on Migrant Tales the following:   ” For far too long many police services have been reactive and cut off from the needs of all they are supposed to serve – through inertia, sloppy standards, poor levels of training or [as in the stated findings of the Macpherson Commission in London] sheer ‘institutional racism.’”

Bruce continued: ” Tackling these problems by a radical program of training, policy and pro-active engagement with [and support for] immigrant communities, ethnic minorities, migrants, women and other minorities is not just protecting the rights of citizens [and non-citizens] but it is also about creating a professional police service that sets standards and proclaims values.”

The tragic deaths and attacks that we have witnessed so far this year should be a wakeup call.  In the present political climate in Finland, matters will unfortunately get worse before they improve.

The police must stop treating crimes against immigrants as routine matters.

Update: Older woman assaulted at Myllypuro metro station in Helsinki

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

Thanks to a tip off, Migrant Tales correctly reported that the  older woman who was attacked and beaten, allegedly by a group of white Finns, at Myllypuro metro station in Helsinki on Wednesday was a Somali. The woman suffered injuries to the face and was taken to hospital by ambulance.

These types of attacks, now apparently made by young men on older women, are an indication of the violence that some immigrants suffer in Finland.

Migrant Tales earlier reported three deaths of Muslims over a span of about three weeks. A Perussuomalaiset (PS) councilman, Tommi Rautio, boasted on Facebook that he would decorate the white Finnish male who killed the third victim and seriously wounded another before taking his own life in a pizzeria in Oulu.

Migrant Tales believes that attacks of the kind seen in Helsinki are the tip of the iceberg, even though the police reported that hate crimes had fallen by 15% in 2010 compared with the previous year.

The low number of reported hate crimes could be interpreted as a vote of little to no confidence in the police from certain immigrant groups.

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.