Tag: police

Watch out for the Finnish police “pizza squad!”

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Two policewomen who are looking for tax evaders have their eyes set on pizzerias, which are, surprise, surprise, mostly owned by migrants. If this isn’t an example of ethnic profiling then what is? 

But where do you complain?

Thanks to this post on Facebook by the policewomen, the whole suggestion that cheap pizza automatically means tax evasion has become a sad joke on social media, especially for the pizzeria owners who work 12-16 hours a day.

Not only is this a clear example of how ignorant the police service is of migrant entrepreneur but once again shows the ugly side of ethnic profiling.

Imagine the police service asks customers to report to them if they can buy pizza for less than 6 euros!

I wonder if these policewoman have ever gone to the market and asked why frozen pizza costs less than two euros? What about multinational companies like McDonalds that find tax loopholes to stash their money in offshore accounts?

Näyttökuva 2015-10-13 kello 11.27.18

If Lidl sells pizza at 1.39 euros are they evading taxes? Thank you Ossi Mäntyniemi for the heads-up.

Why not write about these companies? Or why not ask what law gives the police the right to determine at what price should pizzas be sold in Finland, according to Taloussanomat.

“It’s not the first time this has happened,” a pizzeria owner, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Migrant Tales. “The police like health authorities too often target restaurants owned by foreigners.”

Now here’s the million-euro question: To whom are you going to complain if you believe that your restaurant has been ethnically profiled?

Continue reading “Watch out for the Finnish police “pizza squad!””

Defining white Finnish privilege #23: Greater police powers to monitor migrants and minorities

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Finnish white privilege, like any majority culture’s privilege, not only permeates in our institutions but marks the pace of how those with no privilege are treated in this society. Granting the police greater monitoring powers [1] to carry out arbitrary checks on migrants, and subsequently on non-white Finns, is a case in point in white Finnish privilege. 

Writes YLE in English:

New legislative changes came into force in May allowing police and border guard officials to perform immigration checks as part of their everyday duties, without any prior suspicion of crime. The wider powers will allow officers to conduct thorough inspections of business premises as part of their work.

The goal of the legal reform is to clarify the jurisdiction of police and border guards. Previously police were only able to investigate business premises for possible immigration offences if they suspected a crime had been committed.

The Council of Europe, and other anti-racism activists in Finland and abroad, have expressed concern about ethnic profiling by the police.

Continue reading “Defining white Finnish privilege #23: Greater police powers to monitor migrants and minorities”

Muslim woman wasn’t admitted to the Finnish police training school because she would refuse to take off her headscarf

Posted on by Migrant Tales

A Muslim woman, 38, was not admitted to the police training school because she would not take off her headscarf during working hours, reports YLE in English. The woman was so disappointed with the rejection that she even contemplated leaving Finland.

 Näyttökuva 2014-4-3 kello 20.29.48

Read full story here.

“In the [police] interviewer’s opinion it was not possible to negotiate, and I didn’t get in to the school,” said the Muslim woman. “I have always wanted to join the police and now I’ve been forced to give up on my dream. The scarf is my identity and religion; I cannot give it up during working hours.”

Conservative Christian Democrat Interior Minister Päivi Räsänen, who mixes too often religion with matters of the state, added salt to injury by claiming that the police should “represent official power, not certain religious convictions.”

Räsänen doesn’t believe that the restriction to wear a headscarf has anything to do with religion and our cultural norms.

In neighboring Sweden matters are done differently.

“Scarves, turbans and Jewish kippahs are allowed because the Swedish police want people from different backgrounds to become police,” said Carolina Ekéus of the Swedish police. “In addition, allowing headscarves was seen as an equality measure.”

The point by Ekéus is key: Do people who come from different religions and cultural backgrounds in Finland have equal rights? Is this another example of how we speak of two-way integration but it’s actually ethnocentric one-way adaption?

The headscarf case shows clearly that Finland’s police still believes that it doesn’t have to change and adjust to our ever-growing ethnic and cultural diversity.

Migrant Tales reported recently about a Sikh busman’s struggle right to wear a turban at work and there was a even a case where a Muslim woman was fired on the first day of work for wearing a headscarf.

Finland’s Constitution and non-discrimination act state clearly that a person cannot be discriminated because of his or her background. Such laws have little meaning if a public employer like the police interpret the law to suit themselves.

Moreover, it shows a total disregard for the fact that Finland is today a culturally diverse country. It is a visible thumbs down by the police to this fact.

 

Suspected hate crimes in Finland fall by 20.6% in 2012

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Suspected hate crimes in 2012 totaled 732, which is a 20.6% fall from 918 cases in the previous year, according to YLE in English. Of the total hate crimes reported to the police last year, 641 cases were classified as racist. 

Kuvankaappaus 2013-10-13 kello 21.15.38

Read full story here.

According to YLE in English, the most common offense investigated by the police was “inciting ethnic hatred.” 

The majority of the suspects were white Finns, but there were three cases where the suspect belonged to a minority. 

While it is welcome news that hate crimes are on the retreat in Finland, how credible are these figures? Should we accept them at face value or treat them with tweezers? 

Last month, Tarja Mankkinen, internal security secretariat head, said that many racist crimes in Finland go unreported.

As long as Finland gives political space to intolerance in any shape or form, which encourages hate crimes to happen, these types of statistics should be taken with a grain of salt. At the best, the police should encourage immigrants and visible minorities to report hate crimes.

As Migrant Tales has written previously, reporting racist harassment to the police is easier said than done.

Kuvankaappaus 2013-11-7 kello 8.53.04
 The first line reads “racist crimes” (rasistiset rikokset) and the second one “other hate crimes” (muut viharikokset). This table has two discrepancies with earlier figures published by the Police College of Finland. In 2008 the corresponding figure was 859 and in 2011 918. Source: Police College of Finland.

Like in other parts of Europe, a Race Council Cymru study of Wales revealed how racism goes  “underreported,” according to a story published by the BBC,

Factors like language barriers, fear of reprisals and lack of trust in the police are some reasons why racist crimes continue to be underreported in Wales.

The same factors must play a role in Finland as well.

Internal security secretariat head: Many racist crimes go unreported in Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Some migrants may not report a racist crime in Finland because of mistrust of the police, poor Finnish-language skills and ignorance of one’s rights, according to Tarja Mankkinen, director of the ministry of the interior’s internal security secretariat. 

The Police College of Finland reported 918 suspected hate crimes in 2011, which is a 7% rise from 860 in the previous year.

For obvious reasons, Perussuomalaiset (PS) chairman Timo Soini is the only politician who has used these statistics to show that hate crime and intolerance aren’t a problem in Finland.

Kuvankaappaus 2013-9-1 kello 13.54.56

Read full story (in Finnish) here.

Without providing any sources to back her claim and that YLE doesn’t cite any migrant or visible minority in the story, Mankkinen states that relations between the police and migrant community are ”very good” when compared with other countries. She is, however,”pretty certain” that many racist crimes go unreported.

How can relations between the migrant community and the police be “very good” if the majority of racist crimes go unreported?

Some reasons why some migrants are inhibited from reporting racist crimes to the police is language, difficulty in filling out forms, and ignorance of one’s rights never mind knowing what a hate crime is.

So what’s the problem? Is it that the migrant community and police have little contact or is their mistrust on both sides?

We have a lot of reason to doubt that matters are ok on the tolerance front.

An internal investigation  revealed last month that judges of the Helsinki Court of Appeal use racist and sexist language and constant denials that the police do not ethnically profile anyone shed light on a much bigger problem that we’re not addressing.

It is a good matter that little by little such issues are brought to light. There are good examples of cooperation in cities like Joensuu, where the police, anti-racist organizations, municipalities and migrants work together, according to YLE.

We need more proactive solutions to move forward rather than the usual denials by officials.

Council of Europe concerned about ethnic profiling by police in Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Is it a surprise that the Council of Europe’s anti-racism body expressed concern in a report that Finnish police ask people’s ID based on ethnic appearance? No need to get an official answer to find out because ethnic profiling doesn’t happen in Finland. Why not ask immigrants and visible minorities instead if you went a candid answer?

The Council of Europe anti-racism body, the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI), published its fourth report Tuesday where it expressed concern over ethnic profiling by the police in Finland, reports YLE in English.

The ECRI report said that the police in Finland have the right to question foreign-looking people in places where they are believed to be causing problems.

Kuvankaappaus 2013-7-9 kello 15.42.05

“There is one [regulation] which increases the risk of racial profiling by the police, so this is the police singling out people based simply on the basis of their visible appearance,” Council of Europe communications officer Andrew Cutting told Yle. “Another issue [the report] raises is that foreigners can be detained whilst their identity can be ascertained in certain situations, and that this too is discriminatory.”

Ethnic profiling is part of the the wider problem of institutional racism in this country.

The fact that the police and Christian Democrat interior minister, Päivi Räsänen, deny any wrongdoing concerning ethnic profiling is highly revealing in itself. Such denials suggest that the contrary does take place and that it is a much wider problem than the authorities want to admit.

The police and the interior minister are, however, adamant: No ethnic profiling goes on in Finland by the police.

But is this the case?

The Ombudsman for Minorities has been in negotiations with the police to have in force this year new anti-ethnic profiling guidelines.

Rainer Hiltunen, the Minority Ombudsman’s head of office, told Migrant Tales last year that he receives calls from foreigners who say they have been repeatedly questioned in the street by police. Some of those stopped are naturalized Finns and visible minorities.

Even if the police and Räsänen claim that foreign-looking people aren’t stopped by the police,  Migrant Tales  understands that the problem is far more common than officials want to admit.

It is, however, a good matter that European organizations like the ECRI are looking into the matter.

Read full ECRI report here.

 

 

 

Finnish police to have new anti-ethnic profiling guidelines in force in 2013

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Rainer Hiltunen, Ombudsman for Minorities head of office, told Migrant Tales that talks have taken place with the Finnish police to draft new guidelines and more effective monitoring to ensure that ethnic profiling doesn’t happen. The new guidelines are expected to be in force in 2013. 

Kuva 106

The Ombudsman for Minorities office expressed concern in spring about higher-than-average complaints from foreigners that they were being indiscriminately stopped by the police for spot checks.

Interior Minister Päivi Räsänen confirmed in April that the Finnish police doesn’t ethnically profile anyone.

Foreigners are sometimes stopped in Finland by the police when looking for undocumented immigrants, according to Räsänen.

“One of the problems [concerning ethnic profiling] is that when the police stop a person, they sometimes forget to tell them clearly why they have been stopped,” he said. “Better monitoring of the police in this respect is crucial to discourage ethnic profiling from happening.”

The Ombudsman for Minorities official saw England as a good example for the Finnish police to follow.

“The Stephen Lawrence case is a good case in point that shows how institutional racism can undermine the effectiveness of the Metropolitan Police of London,” he said.

 

 

Finnish police accused of ethnic profiling

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

A day after the police released a Somali who was under police custody for about seven months, the Ombudsman for Minorities expressed concern about ethnic profiling by the police, according to YLE. 

Rainer Hiltunen, the Minority Ombudsman’s head of office, said that he receives calls from foreigners who say they have been repeatedly questioned in the street by police. Some of those stopped are naturalized Finns and visible minorities.

The police deny any wrongdoing.

“If a person is stopped, they’re told why,” said Helsinki police inspector Jari Taponen, who denied hearing of any cases where people were not told why they were questioned by the police.

Helena Eronen, Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP James Hirvisaari’s new aide, suggested in a column today that a good way to help the police to distinguish immigrants from Finns would be to oblige people to wear sleeve badges.

This kind of “satire” coming especially from a Hirvisaari aide is in pretty bad taste.

Hirvisaari was fined for hate speech in December.

I remember being stopped a long time ago by the Finnish police on the freeway from Porvoo to Helsinki. We were three “foreign-looking” men inside a Skoda driving home when Czechoslovakian President Vaclav Pavel visited Finland in 1991.

One of the questions that surprised me by the policeman when we were pulled over was if I was a Finnish citizen. I refused to answer the policeman’s question because I thought it had nothing to do with whatever I was being stopped.

After a semi-long tug-of-war with the policeman, I told him that I was a Finnish citizen. He then told me that I had been pulled over because one of my headlamps was out.

If that was the reason why he stopped me, what did that have to do with me being a Finnish citizen or not?

A new view of our diversity as a society is needed by the Finnish police

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

The violence we have witnessed recently against immigrants in cities like Oulu and Espoo Leppävaara put into question the claim that hate crimes fell by 15%  in 2010, according to the Police College of Finland. Apart from raising worrisome questions about the present direction of our society it looks at the role of the police in answering this threat.

Reporting a hate crime to the authorities can be easier said than done, according to a Migrant Tales blog entry.  The low hate-crime figure in 2010 could reveal a worrisome reality:  Mistrust of the police by some immigrants.

It is nothing new that Finland’s society is becoming more culturally and ethnically diverse. The rise of some parties like the anti-immigration Perussuomalaiset (PS), and the ongoing heated debate on some anti-immigration forums, reveal that some Finns, and even immigrants, are either in denial or ignorant about such an ever-growing group.

This reality can be seen in our police force, where you’ll find dear little representation of that ever-growing “Other” Finland.

Migrant Tales got in touch with the police and asked how many non-white police there were in Finland. According to the present law, the police are not required to reveal the ethnic identity of its employees. While steps are being taken to diversify Finland’s police force and change the law in order to recruit more non-white Finns to the force, it is still unclear when this will happen, according to the police.

While I am certain that there are many service-community minded policemen and policewomen in Finland, there appears to be at present a lack of political will to do so.

The apparent lack of will to change matters on this front could explain why the immigrant community has mixed feeling about the police.  Some claim that the police do a fine job while others express mistrust and accuse them of racial profiling.

One good way to undermine mistrust and bolster credibility of the police force is by diversifying it and ensuring immigrants and visible minorities in the process that they are equally protected, not persecuted.  Being colorblind, or arguing that ethnicity has no bearing on a crime, does more harm to the integrity of the police force and its assurances that it serves each member of the community equally.

Changing Finland’s police force to represent “Other” Finns and immigrants may be easier said than done.  As with the rest of society, many still find it difficult to accept immigrants and Finns who are visible minorities as equals. The recent warning by the police about hate speech and racism on the Internet reinforce the latter perception and should concern us all.