| Rosengård police in racist insults outrage |
| Skrivet av urbanlife.se |
| 2009-02-05 09:56 |
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The Local reports today that Riot police in Malmö used obscene and racist language during trouble in the city’s Rosengård district in December. Riot police called young people in the predominantly immigrant district “blattejävlar”, an ethnic slur which translates roughly into “damn coloured people” or “damn immigrants”. On its own, “blatte” is a derogatory Swedish term often used in reference to an immigrant. What police who uttered the comments didn’t know was that their statements had been caught on the police’s own video recordings, the Sydsvenskan newspaper reports. Of course the actions of those involved in any social disturbances are totally and utterly unacceptable but the outburst by these officers is unpleasantly revealing. On the tape, listeners can hear internal chatter between police discussing the suspect. “You little ape son of a bitch. Should I make him sterile when I catch him?” said one police officer on the tape. “Yeah, he’s going to get beat so well that he won’t be able to stand on his own legs,” answered a colleague. Later another officer chimes in, referencing a figure from an ad campaign for the Ica grocery store chain and adding his own racist twist. “Yeah, I agree with that guy from Ica, ‘You’ve come to the wrong city, damn immigrant’,” he said. Malmös’ highest ranking police chief, Ulf Sempert, is distraught over his colleagues’ comments. “I can only apologize to these young people,” Sempert told Sydsvenskan. “I obviously don’t accept that they threw rocks, if they were involved in throwing rocks at police officers, but just because of that they don’t deserve to be treated this way by Swedish police.” “There may be something in these statements, which is punishable. Otherwise, an internal report will be drawn up because it violates our internal policies,” he said. Sempert is considering filing a police report on Thursday. |