Tag: hate crime

The toothless response of the police and society to human trafficking is similar to other social ills like racism

Posted on by Migrant Tales

A column by Helsingin Sanomat gave a realistic view of human trafficking and why there it continues unhinged. One problem that the column cites, and which is a problem concerning other racist crimes committed against migrants and minorities, is fear of the police.

The column, which exposed some of the shortcomings of protecting victims of human trafficking and exploitation at work, sheds light on a more significant problem: Indifference fed by prejudice and racism.

The Finnish police have a questionable history when dealing with racism. Migrant Tales wrote some of these issues in 2018 that persist to this date:

  • The police’s suspicion without proof that asylum seekers are rapists and criminals;
  •  A poll showed that close to 80% of the police in a survey considered the asylum seeker crisis as the most severe threat to Finnish security;
  • The same poll revealed that 25.1% of those polled voted for the National Coalition Party (NCP) and 24.4% for the Perussuomalaiset (PS)*. The PS and NCP parties are the most anti-immigration parties in parliament;
  • Ethnic profiling continues to be a serious issue among the Finnish police service;
  • The Council of Europe has expressed concern about ethnic profiling in Finland;
  • A study by the European Agency of Fundamental Rights (FRA) claims that a third of people of African descent (PAD) surveyed have experienced racial harassment in the last five years. The highest harassment took place in Finland.

Paavo Teittinen’s column hits it right on the nail: “The source of human trafficking and similar type of exploitation in Finland is not inevitable. It has been allowed to happen. Criminals can run their [businesses] fairly freely due to the lack of information, resources, and [police] interest.”

Read the full story (in Finnish) here.

Some of the main points of Teittinen’s column:

  • Employers are not worried about being reported to the police because of lack of interest;
  • An employer can commit human trafficking with few to no consequences;
  • Few human trafficking victims turn to the police because they fear deportation. They continue to fear the police like in their former home country;
  • The police and authorities don’t actively seek to curtail human trafficking;
  • The powers granted to the Regional State Administrative Agencies (AVI) is negligibly coupled with a shortage of staff;
  • Interior ministry has shown little interest in the problem;
  • Few police resources allocated to fighting human trafficking;
  • Some police play down the problem because they are suspicion of asylum seekers and their motives;
  • The police justify their inaction by stating that even if a person was underpaid, it is more money than he ever made in his home country;
  • Victim Support (Riku) said in a statement that laws to protect human trafficking victims are inadequate in Finland. The victim usually ends up holding the short end of the stick.

So what does the inadequate tratement of human trafficking expose?

It tells us that the police are not only ill-equipped to serve Finland’s ever-growing culturally diverse community, but many continue to allow prejudice, racist attitudes, and structural racism to continue.

The assault that happened in Teuva against a Muslim should be treated as a hate crime

Posted on by Migrant Tales

THIS STORY WAS UPDATED

The mayor of Teuva Veli Nummela, the town’s newspaper Tejuka were straightforward about the attack against a Muslim in early June in the western Finnish town of Teuva.

Nummela wrote in a blog about the anti-racism work done at the town’s schools. “We will evaluate these practices [anti-racism] at the beginning of the new school year. We want to do our best in the fight against racism and violence and respect for human rights.”

Tejukka‘s June 17 editorial, “Measuring civility,” where it not only openly condemns what happened to the Muslim, but that “racism should not be accepted in any shape or form.”

The town newspaper published an editorial and several stories about the incident interviewing the victim, the police, and a foreigner living in Teuva.

If we look at the motive of the attack (bias indicators), there is a strong case to charge the perpetrators with a hate crime.

The police are not ruling out a hate crime but appear not to be in any rush to do so.

The police state: “For now there is no information that points to a hate crime but we are not ruling out such a possibility.” No evidence of a hate crime (bias indicator)? For one, check out the victim’s car. Source: Poliisi

So what makes what happened on June 7 to a young Muslim a hate crime?

A hate crime is a criminal offense that has a bias motivation targeting a particular group that could be based on real or perceived gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, age, or disability.

Even if crimes are serious offenses, a hate crime can have a lasting impact on the victim and the community.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PDz123cRT8

If we look at some possible bias indicators of the Muslim in Teuva in early June, they could be victim perception (white Finns versus a Muslim), intense violence (the victim ended going to the hospital), his property (a car) was damaged. Later there was graffiti written on it.

According to the Criminal Code of Finland (766/2015), Section 5, there are grounds for increasing the punishment if the crime “was based on race, skin color, birth status, national of ethnic origin, religion or belief, sexual orientation or disability of another corresponding grounds.”

I spoke with the Muslim today and he is recovering from what happened.

“I will move [from Kristiinankaupunki] to Helsinki at the end of this month,” he said. “I cannot live here because I am afraid to go outside.”

The reaction and impact of the crime have all the characteristics of how hate crimes affect the victim and community.

While hate speech is not a hate crime, in this case, it is a strong case for bias motivation. The suspects threatened to kill him, and while assaulted, an older man asked him to “ask Allah for help.”

I would be very surprised if the police do not charge the suspects for committing a hate crime. Contrarily, it would be another blow to police credibility and reinforce that the police are not interested in protecting minorities.

The bias indicators speak for themselves and suggest that what happened was no ordinary crime.

Racist harassment of a mother and daughter in Helsinki’s Malminkartano

Posted on by Migrant Tales

I spoke to a distraught Iraqi mother who told me how she was harassed, even shoved and pushed by six people who threatened to kill her in the Helsinki neighborhood of Malminkartano. Why? Because she and her daughters are Muslims.

“I was traveling with my nine-year-old daughter on the train from Vantaa and got off at the Malminkartano station,” she said. “The same people who were speaking loudly and yelling at us on the train got off in the same station. They kept on acting aggressively, cussing, and even surrounding us, telling us to go back to where we came from and yelling Allahu Akbar.”

Source: The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) 

The mother said that her daughter was very frightened by the incident and tried to distance herself from the attackers.

“We walked to our home about 500 meters away but the six persons, who were about 25 years old, three of them were men and three women, followed us to where we live,” she continued. “When we got home, I called the police, but they told me that they didn’t need to come since I was now safe at home.”

“The incident scared my daughter pretty badly, who is even afraid to go to the bathroom,” she said. “I don’t allow her to go out and play with her friends because I am afraid that something can happen to her.”

“My daughter does not understand why people are sometimes so mean,” she concluded. “She said that she was born in Finland and did not understand why some act in such a racist manner even if she is a Finn.”

What happened and led to the death of a Somali Finn? Where do we go from here?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

How would we tell the events that led to the death of an eighteen-year-old Somali Finn youth last Sunday at the Kannelmäki railway station?

According to one account, supposedly the victim’s witness that experienced the whole horrific event, which has shocked many, especially Somalis and other black people.

According to one account, the victim and his friend walked down the stairs when they encountered the two suspects. The witness says that they weren’t acquaintances.

The victim was an eighteen-year old Somali Finn. Why was his life cut so short?

Something was said to the two that walked down the stairs. The witness didn’t answer back, but the suspect did. The stabbing happened so rapidly that the witness though the victim was joking when he said he was stabbed.

The blood gave away the gravity of the situation and the witness called 112.

The witness believed that the two young men were drunk. Even so, being drunk or having a criminal record does not absolve you from committing a hate crime.

Was it a hate crime? Do the suspects belong to a hate group like the Skinheads? These are some of the questions debated on social media forums right after the death of the victim.

Apart from investigating the crime like seeking the testimony of other witnesses, the police have also at their disposal CCTV cameras.

One of the questions that some Somalis and other black people are asking is if what happened was a hate crime, or that the attack and death of the Somali Finn youth were due to his ethnic background.

While such questions need to be thoroughly investigated by the police, some white Finns may not consider them to be necessary even if the opposite is true of some visible minorities and migrants. Why? Because many of them face racist harassment and microaggressions daily.

Many feel that they live in a racist society and have the psychological, some even physical wounds, to prove it. Too many believe that the police and society aren’t serious about tackling a social ill like racism.

Disagree?

What about if the crime at Kannelmäki were committed by two blacks and the victim was a white Finn? We have seen a lot of social media lynch mobs during the years, especially when sexual assault cases come to public light, as was the case recently in Oulu.

If one remembers what happened in Oulu, the police, the media, and politicians – all-white – were fueling the fires of suspicion and labeling the whole Muslim community in the process.

Since we strive to live in a society that solves problems, one matter that the police should show now is leadership by contacting the Somali community and hold a meeting to calm down fears. Present at such a meeting should be representatives of Victim Support (Riku), the police hate crime unit, sociologists, NGOs, and others.

The usual answer, “this was not a hate crime” with no further explanation will not do. It is not enough and will only increase suspicion of the police’s credibility in resolving such crimes.

One Somali Finn put it in the following words: “Is the police going to sweep the issue of racism under the rug? Are they going to conclude that the suspects had mental issues? Were they [the suspects] under the influence of alcohol or drugs? Are they hardened criminals? Or did they grow up in broken homes?”

Distrust of the police shows that such a public service still has a way to go before winning the trust of Finland’s culturally diverse communities.

The death of the Somali youth could be a good place to start.

Abdisalam Mohamed Abdulah: Returning to Finland’s Black February 2012

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Migrant Tales insight: The story below was one that was published in February 2012 about “Black February,” when three Muslims died and a Finn committed suicide after killing one Muslim and wounding another. As with the Pakistani who was viciously attacked in February 2018, there were a lot of question marks about how the police carried out the investigations.

Today we talk openly about instigating civil war and about politicians admitting they are fascists. The party? Guess.

This artricle below is to raise our consciousness about how Islamophobia is a cancer spreading in our society at this moment.

______________________________________________________________________________

Remember Black February? Over about three weeks we read about the deaths of three Muslims , a suicide and a Perussuomalaiset (PS) councilman who offered to give a medal to a white Finn for killing one of these victims in cold blood. On Monday Migrant Tales had the opportunity to meet the father and a family friend of one of the victims, Abdisalam Mohamed Abdulah. 

The first thing that you notice when you meet Abdisalam’s father is his grief.  Anguish inhabits all of  Mursal Abdulah: It’s in his eyes, in his face, in his posture, in his voice,  in his persona.

The death of his eighteen-year-old son was such a strong blow that he is still recovering from the shock when two policemen broke the tragic news to him and his wife on a Friday February 17 at 10am.

“I couldn’t believe what I was hearing,” he said returning to that terrible moment of his life. “My wife fainted.”

See also:

Abdisalam’s father and wife were in the first group of Somali refugees that came to Finland in August 1990 by train from the former Soviet Union. Their son was born in Finland. Abdisalam was a good athlete,  student, and son, according to his father.

“He [Abdisalam] planned to study medicine,” he continued. “I was ready to send him abroad so he could become a doctor.”

Abdisalam Mohamed Abdulahi was a Manchester United fan. In August he would have turned nineteen.

The last time that Abdisalam’s father saw his son was on Thursday night. “His last words were that he was going to take a shower, go to a [high school] party and return,” he said. “He never did.”

Abdulah isn’t at all happy with how the police have handled the case.  Apart from not expressing any empathy for the parents’ grief, it was difficult to get any information from them about the crime.

“We were treated coldly and felt like we were the criminals,” he said. “The police appeared to be more concerned about keeping the case under wraps because they feared a revenge attack by Somalis.”

Abdulah says that if a crime were committed by a Somali it would have received a lot of  media attention.

“The thing that struck us the most was when we went to the police station,” he said. “The same information that they wouldn’t give us, we then read in the tabloids right after we left the police station. How is it possible that the papers knew more about Abdisalam’s death than us?”

Abdisalam’s death happened between midnight and 7am.  The suspect and the victim were school acquaintances.  Abdulahi says that his son died from a mortal blow to the head.  The suspect’s father was present at the crime scene as well.

I asked Abdulahi if he feels that justice will be done? “I don’t know,” he said trying to be diplomatic. “I’m not sure that I trust the police.”

One of the matters that the father has a big question mark is the complicity of the father in the whole affair. He doesn’t believe the police that the father was not an accomplice in the crime. “Abdisalam was big and physical compared with the attacker,” Abdulah said. “There must have been somebody else helping him [that could have been the father].”

A friend of the family present at the interview speaks.

“The worst thing in Finland is that if you have a different religion, culture and language, you are left on the  fringes of society,” he said. “No matter how much you try to integrate you are always left outside.”

Abdulah concludes: “Those Somalis that went to Australia and Canada are living better lives than I in Finland. All I have to show for over twenty years in Finland is a cold country with long winters and the death of my son.”

Migrant Tales expresses to the parents, relatives and friends its condolences for Abdisalam.

Kuopio tragedy: The Muslim “terrorist” and the “mentally troubled” lone wolf white guy

Posted on by Migrant Tales

The tragedy that took place Tuesday in Kuopio, which claimed the life of a person and left ten injured, including the suspect, raises a lot of questions. One of these is if we should treat what happened as a terrorist act or just some mentally troubled lone wolf?

The National Board of Investigation (Keskusrikospoliisi) Detective Chief Inspector Olli Töyräs was quoted as saying in Yle that the motive of the crime is still unknown and under investigation. According to the latest information, the police believe that the suspect acted alone and had no ties to organized crime.

The suspect, who was a student at the Savo Vocational School, did not know any of the victims. He allegedly set a fire in the building that was quickly put out.

Helsingin Sanomat reported today that the suspect was not in a relationship with any of the victims.

Speculation was rife on social media that the suspect was a foreigner.

The reaction of some Finns on social media was disgraceful. Some blamed the attack on a foreigner and appeared to be disappointed when it was confirmed that the suspect was a white Finn.

The Perussuomalaiset*, which specializes in fear-mongering and spreading racist hatred of groups like Muslims, were strangely quiet on Tuesday.

Green Party Interior Minister Maria Ohisalo said that despite what happened in Kuopio, Finland is still one of the safest countries in the world.

True, Minister Ohisalo, but for whom? Remember what happened after the Turku stabbings in August 2017? Migrants and especially Muslims were harassed and attacked and blamed by white Finns for the stabbings. If the attacker in Kuopio were a Muslim, what type of violence would be unleashed against non-white Finns and migrants?

Would Ohisalo reassure us then that Finland is one of the safest counties in the world?

Even without these types of crimes, Finland is not a safe country for too many migrants, especially people of color.

* The far-right Perussuomalaiset (PS) party imploded on June 13, 2017, into two factions, the PS and New Alternative, which is now called Blue Reform. In the last parliamentary election, Blue Reform has wiped off the Finnish political map when they saw their numbers in parliament plummet from 18 MPs to none. A direct translation of Perussuomalaiset in English would be something like “basic” or “fundamental Finn.” Official translations of the Finnish name of the party, such as Finns Party or True Finns, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and racism. We, therefore, at Migrant Tales prefer to use in our postings the Finnish name of the party once and after that the acronym PS.

Finland should wake up to its hate speech, hate crime and racism problem

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Green League MP Iris Suomela raised an essential question in parliament on Wednesday about rape. She said that there are “hundreds of thousands” rape cases in Finland of which 50,000 are reported annually to Victim Support Finland (RIKU).

“The end result of all this is that the police record about 1,200 [rape] cases [annually] of which around 200 get sentenced,” she said.

It is a very good matter that the government is not only changing sexual abuse laws, which include consent but aims to essentially improve how the police handle such cases.

One question that arises when looking at Finland’s present sexual abuse laws is if hate crime and hate speech are also underreported in the same way. If Suomela speaks of annually of about 50,000 rape cases that are reported to RIKU, what kind of ballpark figures are we looking at for hate speech and hate crime?

According to the latest figures, hate crimes in Finland during 2017 rose by 7.97% to 1,165 cases compared with 1,079 the previous year, according to the Finnish Police University College. 

The report states that only 21% of harassment and hate-speech cases in 2016 were not reported by the victims, according to the ministry of justice. If this is the case, we are talking about thousands, possibly tens of thousands of cases annually.


Ethnic agitation cases that were taken to court in 2018. Even if such cases rose by 138.5% last year to 31, it is still a tiny amount. Source: Justice Ministry.

Even if Finland has very good hate speech laws and laws that promote social equality, the question these above figures bring up is what MP Suomela raised: Few victims report such crimes to the police. We need a change in culture and to listen to the victim.

The latter claim is supported by some of the conclusions of a recent European Network Against Racism (ENAR) shadow report. “Most EU Member States [like Finland in the report] have hate crime laws, as well as policies and guidance in place to respond to racist crime, but they are not enforced because of a context of deeply rooted institutional racism within law enforcement authorities,” ENAR said.

See shadow report here.

Apart from institutional racism issues, another practical matter we should ask if there are enough police monitoring hate speech and hate crime in Finland and enforcing the law vigorously.

The Finnish police have at the most 10 Internet police officers who monitor hate speech, reports Yle, citing police inspector Måns Enqvist of the National Board of Police of Finland.

Ten is too few in light of the ever-growing hate speech and hate crime problem in Finland.

European Network Against Racism Shadow Report on Racist Crime and Institutional Racism in Europe

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Brussels, 12 September 2019 – Institutional racism prevails in criminal justice systems across the EU and impacts how racist crimes are (not) recorded, investigated and prosecuted, according to a new report published by ENAR today.

“Twenty years after the Macpherson Report revealed that the British police was institutionally racist, we now find that criminal justice systems across the European Union fail to protect victims of racist crimes – this despite the increase in violent racially motivated crimes”, said Karen Taylor, Chair of the European Network Against Racism.

ENAR’s report, covering 24 EU Member States, provides data on racist crimes between 2014 and 2018, and documents institutional practice during the recording, investigation and prosecution of hate crimes with a racial bias. It reveals how subtle forms of racism persistently appear in the criminal justice system from the moment a victim reports a racially motivated crime to the police, through to investigation and prosecution. This leads to a ‘justice gap’: a significant number of hate crime cases end up being dropped as a hate crime.

Read the full report here.

Data over the period 2014-2018 suggest that racially motivated crimes are on the rise in many EU Member States. In addition, major events such as terrorist acts – and the political rhetoric and responses to these attacks – can cause spikes in the numbers of recorded racist crimes.

The shadow reported one case of Finland on page 39.

Most EU Member States have hate crime laws, as well as policies and guidance in place to respond to racist crime, but they are not enforced because of a context of deeply rooted institutional racism within law enforcement authorities.

The mishandling of racially motivated crimes by the authorities, and in particular the police, starts with the recording of racist crimes. Evidence suggests that the police do not take reports of racist crime seriously or they do not believe victims of such crimes. This practice appears to be especially true if certain groups, such as Roma and black people, report these crimes. Racial stereotyping is pervasive in policing at all levels.

In addition, the lack of institutional response and negative experiences of victims with the police mean that civil society organisations have to fill in the gap to ensure racially motivated crimes are properly recorded.

The racial bias can ‘disappear’ in the course of the police recording and investigating the crime. The police find it more straightforward to investigate crimes, such as violation of public order or crimes against property, than uncovering the evidence of the bias motivation.

There are also several factors that hinder the successful prosecution and sentencing of a hate crime with a racial bias, including lack of clear definitions of hate crimes with a racial bias; lack of training and limited capacity; and under-use of the aggravated ‘hate’ clause.

“We need a significant change within the criminal justice system, if racial justice is to prevail for victims of racist crime in Europe. Governments and institutions can better respond to hate crimes if they commit to review the practice, policies and procedures that disadvantage certain groups,” said Karen Taylor. “People’s safety is at stake and justice must be served – for all members of society.”

For further information, contact:

Georgina Siklossy, Senior Communication and Press Officer
Tel: +32 (0)2 229 35 70 – Mobile: +32 (0)473 490 531 – Email: [email protected] – Web: www.enar-eu.org

Notes to the editor:

1. ENAR’s 2014-18 Shadow Report on racist crime and institutional racism is based on data and information from 24 EU Member States: Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain and the United Kingdom.
2. The report and key findings are available here: https://www.enar-eu.org/Shadow-Reports-on-racism-in-Europe. The report also includes case studies and testimonies highlighting the experiences of victims of racially motivated crime, the lack of protection and failure of measures for justice for these victims.
3. The Macpherson Report, ordered by the British government and published in 1999, is the report of a public inquiry into the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence, a black teenager, and the ensuing police investigation. It concluded that the Metropolitan Police was “institutionally racist” and made 70 recommendations for reform, covering both policing and criminal law.
4. The European Network Against Racism (ENAR aisbl) stands against racism and discrimination and advocates equality and solidarity for all in Europe. We connect local and national anti-racist NGOs throughout Europe and voice the concerns of ethnic and religious minorities in European and national policy debates.

Selected case studies:

Lenient sentence for murderer of Nigerian refugee (Italy)
The main perpetrator of the racially motivated murder of a Nigerian man, affiliated with a far-right group, was arrested on charges of manslaughter, aggravated by racist motives. However, his lawyer, together with part of the local and national media, pleaded legitimate defence. The man later received a reduced sentence of four years in house arrest.

Police fails victim of racist and homophobic attack (Netherlands)
“I have to be on watch 24/7 just because of who I am, it drains me. I’m just not important”.
Omair was harassed on grounds of his origin and sexual orientation on a bus in Utrecht. The police officer did not want to document witnesses’ statements or check the bus camera images. Four months later, Omair received a statement by the police that the case could not be pursued due to lack of evidence. Omair requested a meeting at his police office to discuss the statement with a member of the Pink in Blue Network, a network of LGBTQI police officers. The officer acknowledged the case should have been investigated as a hate crime and that the incident was wrongly recorded.

Police mistreatment of Roma people (Slovakia)
More than 60 police officers physically attacked 30 Roma people, including women and children, during a police raid. The police entered the houses without permission and caused material damage. Several complaints were submitted to the police inspection for investigation. The police inspection found that the police had acted in accordance with the law. The inspection was based only on investigating information from police officers. No other witness was included in the inspection. One victim filed a criminal complaint, but this was dismissed as unfounded.

Council of Europe: Mayday, Mayday, Finland must get a grip on rising hate speech, racism, and implement trans rights

Posted on by Migrant Tales

THIS STORY WAS UPDATED

In the face of rising hate speech, racism and the lack of trans rights, the Council of Europe Commission Against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) called today on Finland to tackle such social issues.

ECRI added: “[t]o tackle growing racist and intolerant hate speech, better coordinate integration activities for immigrants and review the law requiring transgender people to be sterilized before they can have their new gender legally recognized.”

Finland’s hostile environment against migrants and minorities is a Mayday call to do something.

Read the full ECRI statement here.

But how can anything effective be done if Finland’s second-largest political party in parliament, the Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, are spreading ethnic hatred and demanding to do away with hate speech laws?

How much harm and fuel to the fire of racism is spread when politicians like PS First Vice-President Riikka Purra near-constantly attacks people of color by labeling them “human scum.”

Adding to the problem are mainstream parties like the National Coalition Party and Center Party that give mixed messages on accepting the PS as a future partner in government.

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to understand that one of the big problems in Finland is enforcement of hate speech laws. For some, the police are seen as part of the problem.

Even so, ECRI said that “it welcomes the adoption of a new anti-discrimination law and the prohibition of ethnic profiling, as well as measures taken to combat hate speech, including the setting-up of Hate Speech Investigation Teams in every Police Department.”

Some 900 Finnish police officers have received training on preventing and combating hate crimes.

* The far-right Perussuomalaiset (PS) party imploded on June 13, 2017, into two factions, the PS and New Alternative, which is now called Blue Reform. In the last parliamentary election, Blue Reform has wiped off the Finnish political map when they saw their numbers in parliament plummet from 18 MPs to none. A direct translation of Perussuomalaiset in English would be something like “basic” or “fundamental Finn.” Official translations of the Finnish name of the party, such as Finns Party or True Finns, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and racism. We, therefore, at Migrant Tales prefer to use in our postings the Finnish name of the party once and after that the acronym PS.

Milliklubi night club makes the headlines and for all the wrong reasons. Is it a coincidence?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

For some foreigners or Finns who are not white, Milliklubi (Kaivonkatu 12, 00100 Helsinki) is not the top night club on their list. In 2013, a Yle documentary on discrimination showed how the bouncers at the night club denied entry due to ethnic background.

Daniel Malpica, an artist who lives in Finland, states in a posting published by Migrant Tales the poor treatment he received from an older bouncer.

Read the original posting here.

Malpica said that sometimes the rough and racist treatment of the bouncers incite customers to make racist statements against non-Finnish customers.

The same bar was filmed by a Yle crew in 2013 of not letting people in due to their ethnic background.

Read the full story here.

On August 11 there was another incident at Milliklubi. A black man ended up in hospital after being allegedly beaten with a brass knuckle and sprayed with tear gas.

Moreover, the incident appears to have gotten wide attention in the media and published by Finland’s largest daily, Helsingin Sanomat. Even prominent members of the far-right Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party have commented on the incident, claiming that what happened was another false racism alarm by a person of color.

The interesting question about this incident and whatever may have led to the black person being hospitalized, is if this is a hate crime? Even the police came out rapidly to absolve the doorman and basically place the blame on the black man.

Writes Christian Thibault: “Some things don’t add up here: Was he beaten first and then gassed? Or was he first gassed and then beaten? In both cases very wrong and the doorman would have had to care for the victim. Was he beaten twice, once before the gassing and once after?”

“In Finland 2019 and in downtown Helsinki is a [night] club where the bouncers choose the customers based on the color of their skin. Last weekend [August 11], my big brother wanted to spend the evening at the Milliclub but he was stopped at the door and told he cannot enter because he was black. The evening ended at the Töölö hospital emergency department with a fractured jawbone, nose and eye socket. Note: The posting claims that the doorman had beaten him with a brass knuckle and sprayed him with tear gas. The police, however, denies that it was the doorman but another person who attacked the black man.”

The black person who is in the hospital will take a year to recover from his wounds, according to a source.

* The far-right Perussuomalaiset (PS) party imploded on June 13, 2017, into two factions, the PS and New Alternative, which is now called Blue Reform. In the last parliamentary election, Blue Reform has wiped off the Finnish political map when they saw their numbers in parliament plummet from 18 MPs to none. A direct translation of Perussuomalaiset in English would be something like “basic” or “fundamental Finn.” Official translations of the Finnish name of the party, such as Finns Party or True Finns, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and racism. We, therefore, at Migrant Tales prefer to use in our postings the Finnish name of the party once and after that the acronym PS.