Tag: hate crime

Pakistani immigrant stabbed in Vantaa: What constitutes a hate crime?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

On Friday night, a Pakistani was brutally attacked by a group of youths and stabbed at least twenty times and repeatedly hit with ax causing, among other injuries, a fractured skull. The police are quiet until Tuesday when it puts out a statement, which does not mention that this may be a hate crime.

If the attack is a hate crime, it is without a doubt one of the worst ever reported in Finland.

But that is not what the police thinks. Detective Chief Inspector Mikko Minkkinen is quoted as saying in Tuesday’s Helsingin Sanomat that it is not a hate crime.

One problem that some see with Minkkinen’s statement is that it is unconvincing and raises questions like if the police have the proper training to deal with hate crimes.

By ruling out that the crime against the Pakistani immigrant didn’t have “racist motives” is a shallow response and raises more concern among migrants and minorities about their safety in this country.

Read the full story here.

Miro del Gaudio, a lawyer at Lex Gaudius, said that the vital matter to establish concerning the crime is the motive.

“Establishing the motive is important,” he said.

A way of establishing motive is to look at Bias, according to a comprehensive OSCE ODIHR Hate Crime Reporting manual.

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Could the police tell us why stabbing a Pakistani 20-30 times does not qualify as a suspected hate crime?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

There are already some questions concerning the terrible stabbing of a Pakistani in the city of Vantaa on Friday night. One of these is why it took until Tuesday for the police to release a statement? 

Another matter is a quote in Tuesday’s Helsingin Sanomat detective chief inspector, Mikko Minkkinen, who was quoted as saying that it doesn’t believe it is a hate crime.

Fair enough. A Pakistani, who is a visible migrant gets asked for cigarettes by a group of people. Both don’t know each other but the victim ends up stabbed 20-30 times.

I’d be interested in knowing why the detective chief inspector doesn’t believe it was a suspected hate crime.

 

 

Read the full story here.

Finland: Retreating into a shell and fuelling xenophobia and racism

Posted on by Migrant Tales

As Finland retreats deeper into its shell and ethnocentrism, it feeds the beast of xenophobia and racism. Apart from Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MP Laura Huhtasaari, who openly encourages direct violence and hatred against migrants and minorities, there are others that are just as guilty. 

Who are they?

Interior Minister Paula Risikko and former Interior Ministry official Päivi Nerg have warned us over and over how undocumented migrants threaten our security. If Risikko and Nerg told us with gusto about the threats, Prime Minister Juha Sipilä’s government has done little to nothing to challenge such xenophobic statements.

See the full tweet here.

Volker Türk, UNHCR assistant high commissioner for refugees, said last year that labelling refugees as security threats “risks opening the door to xenophobic and racist rhetoric and can even lead to physical attacks directed against refugees.”

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For some asylum seekers Kemi, Finland, is a dangerous place after 8 pm on Saturdays

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Some asylum seekers in the northern Finnish city of Kemi claim that they do not leave their homes after eight pm on Saturdays because it’s too dangerous. One asylum seeker, who got a residence permit, said that this was advice that he received from the Red Cross.

“There are many drunks on Saturday night, and this could lead to problems,” the former asylum seeker of Kemi, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Migrant Tales. “We still get a lot of mean looks from strangers [in the city] and sometimes they give us the finger as they drive past in cars. I would say that 5%-10% of the inhabitants [of Kemi] don’t like us.”

Feelings of insecurity in Kemi was fueled by the 2016 shooting of an asylum seeker and by the Soldiers of Odin, who harass and broke another asylum seeker’s finger.

The city of Kemi is located in northern Finland near the Swedish border. Source: MTV.
Read the full story here.

Virpi Pakisjärvi, the head of the Kemi asylum reception center, denied that the Red Cross gives instructions to asylum seekers about leaving their homes on Saturday evenings.

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YLE News: What Prosecutor General Raija Toiviainen forgets to tell us about growing hate speech in Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

There’s a lot of evidence of how Finland denies an issue like racism and near-constantly plays down its impact on migrants, minorities, and society in general. Prosecutor General Raija Toivainen claims in a YLE News story that racist statement lead to bitterness, radicalization, and terrorism. 

Fine. I agree, but then states:

“Racism’s targets are driven into a corner, where it is easy to become bitter. This creates the perfect breeding ground for organised crime or even terrorism… People who have been chased to the fringes of our society are easy to manipulate and cajole into extremist groups. Do people that spread racist hate speech realize the effects of what they are doing?” she wonders.

So hate speech and hate crime drives “victims” into a corner and from there they become radicalized and terrorists.

While this may be the case, Toivianen forgets to tell us about the danger of terrorism by white Finns. Why didn’t she mention Anders Breivik, the Norwegian who murdered in cold blood 77 people in 22/7?

And what about the complicity of the politicians and public officials who should know better?

Hate speech is the soil from where violence breeds. It is indiscriminate and emboldens white Finns to commit crimes, even terrorist acts. Hate speech and racism affect everyone in society.

Hate speech and racism affect everyone in society and not just one group.

We should never forget this fact, but it’s convenient and allows us to “condemn racism” and never leave our racialized comfort zones.

Read the full story here.

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Double standards by the Finnish police. Who can insult whom?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

These two videos speak volumes about the differential treatment of asylum seekers and white Finns by the police. In the first video, the Finnish police handcuff two Finnish-speaking asylum seekers at the immigration detention center of Joutseno. One of them apparently for saying something inappropriate.

UPDATED One of the many matters that are interesting to watch in the video below is how well two asylum seekers speak Finnish. It is ironic that they are at an immigration detention center showing off their good Finnish-language skills.

Learning Finnish is important but it isn’t a panacea for your integration problems in this country. Migrants are, however, near-constantly fed this simplistic myth.

The video below (see 2:88-3:40 min) the first one, a white Finnish anti-immigration protestor is videotaping the police at a demonstration and openly insulting them by stating in their faces that they are “traitors,” “pigs, shit, and dickheads.”

The Finn continues to insult the police, but nothing happens to him.

What would happen if an asylum seeker did the same?

You wouldn’t hear the sound of silence but the door of a police cell shutting.

 

In this video (in Finnish) taken at the immigration detention center of Joutseno in eastern Finland, the police enter to detain and handcuff two asylum seekers who speak Finnish and who are apparently awaiting deportation. They detain and handcuff a second one who said something that the police didn’t like.

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PS’ Third Vice President Juho Eerola is suspected of ethnic agitation in Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Perussuomalaiset (PS)* third vice president Juho Eerola is suspected of ethnic agitation, according to YLE News. If convicted, only PS First Vice President Laura Huhtasaari would be the only board member of the party that doesn’t have a conviction for ethnic agitation. Chairman Jussi Halla-aho was convicted in 2012 and MP Teuvo Hakkarainen, the second vice president, convicted in January. 

Eerola, who is an anti-immigration politician who said Benito Mussolini’s fascism attracted him, got in legal hot water when he wrote in Facebook this summer that he spat at Roma beggars and asked them if they accepted Visa.

Eerola chairs the parliamentary administration committee that, among other things, oversees immigration policy.

Migrant Tales had the opportunity to speak by phone to Rikhard Blomerus, a Savonlinna deputy councilperson, who filed ethnic agitation charges to the police and brought the matter to the attention of the chancellor of justice.

“I filed charges not because I am a Roma, but I would have done it irrespective if the victim were Saami or any other minority like the Swedish Finns,” he said, stating that he knew Eerola when he was a member of the PS. “I think he made the [Facebook] posting to score brownie points [with the voters].”

UPDATED: Blomerus said that he had received a lot of comments about what he did.

“A lot of them are angry with me,” he continued. “One was even angry because he considered it an insult that a Roma would bring charges against a white Finn.”

Blomerus used to be a member of the PS but left the party after Halla-aho was elected chair in June. The Savonlinna deputy councilperson has complained previously about the anti-Roma sentiment in the PS.

“I don’t belong to any party these days,” he said. “I’m an independent.”

Read the full story here.

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As Finland heals from Friday it must address homegrown extremism and violence against migrants and minorities

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Today more than ever Finland needs leadership to heal from what happened on Friday but also condemn openly all forms of violence in this country. The greatest fear that some migrants and minorities have n Finland after the terrorist attack in Turku are reprisals against Muslims and migrants.

We already saw three business establishments run by foreigners being attacked over the weekend. In one of them, there is a man giving a Nazi salute from the shattered window. A business establishment selling Arabic pastries and a barbershop in Helsinki were attacked as well.

Instead of just speaking about terrorism, politicians must show leadership and condemn as well all forms of violence, especially against the migrant community that is as grieved as the rest of the country after the terrorist attack.

The fear that some migrants and minorities feel in Finland is very real.

“What scares me the most is that Turku will be a platform for Islamophobic groups [in Finland and elsewhere],” said Roxana Crisólogo Correa Saturday, a Peruvian poet who has lived a number of years in Finland. “Moreover it will encourage us as a society to find simple solutions to complex problems and be reinforcing and dividing more our society by stressing ‘us’ and ‘them.’”

 

Read the full story (in Finnish) here. A man giving a Nazi salute on Friday.

Below is another business that sells baklava in Itäkeskus in Helsinki was attacked as well.

 Another business establishment’s window is smashed in Itäkeskus, Helsinki.

A barber shop in Helsinki suffered a similar fate on Friday. The owner of the barbershop is a naturalized Finn who moved from Iraq in 2009.

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The PS steers further right exposing its shameless Islamophobia, racism, bigotry and ultranationalism

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Like rubbing salt on Finland’s wound, Perussuomalaiset (PS)* newly elected chairman Jussi Halla-aho’s far-right anti-immigration policy got reinforcement after three Islamophobes were elected to lead the PS: Laura Huuhtasaari, Teuvo Hakkarainen and Juho Eerola were elected first, second and third vice-president, respectively.

Center Party Prime Minister Juha Sipilä stated Saturday that the election of Halla-aho meant that the PS is a different party when led by former chairman Timo Soini. ”The Perussuomalaiset is a completely new party with new policies now,” Sipilä was quoted as saying Saturday in YLE News.

 


The new chairman of the PS refusing to resign in 2012 because the sentence handed to him by the Supreme Court on ethnic agitation and breaching the sanctity of religion was “a personal interpretation.” Source: Migrant Tales.

 

The most interesting issue to watch isn’t what the next move of the newly elected board of the PS will be, but what will be the reaction of the party’s coalition partners, the Center Party and National Coalition Party. Will the PS exit or remain in government?

Will they let Halla-aho and his band of Islamophobes slide and will we see something politically toxic like in Denmark emerging? The PS has always had a semi-secret love affair with the Danish People’s Party (DPP). They have now come as close as ever to being that type of party in Finland.

The DPP thrives as we can see below on Islamophobia and spreading anti-immigration rhetoric in Denmark.

Source: Migrant Tales.

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