Update on Finnish Pride

[bofoddity]

Yesterday, the news were saying that the attack was just a thoughtless attack and there was probably no hate behind it (WTF), but today people have come to their senses and it's being investigated as a hate crime. At least twenty people were affected, including children, and it was the first attack of its kind in Finland. All info from this article (in Finnish again), which includes a picture. About which I have this to say: That much smoke and the attack was just a thoughtless one-time thing? Please!

I've been reading news about what's been going on at Prides this year, and maybe I just haven't paid enough attention to things (very possible since I tend to stick my head in the sand), but it seems like there was a lot more violence going on this year than the last, and I wondered if that was going to show in Finland too. How sad that I was proved right.

ETA: It's actually over thirty victims, including a 1-year old child, and at least five more people yet have to be caught. The police describe it as carefully planned attack now, though really, gas in the face. How can an attack like that not be deliberately done?

Comments

[rosehiptea.livejournal.com]

People sometimes bend over backwards trying to say something isn't a hate crime. I notice this often in the U.S. too.

I'm glad at least it's being investigated as one now.

[bofoddity.livejournal.com]

Yeah, a lot of people seem to rather jump through a hundred or more loops rather than admit that something could be motivated by hatred, and I guess the rationale behind it is that.. I don't know, people couldn't possibly do horrible things because of hatred? I don't understand it, but I'm glad they stopped pretending it was anything else.

[rosehiptea.livejournal.com]

In the U.S. I think it comes from dominant groups (in society) not wanting to admit oppressed groups are oppressed. If hate crimes can be explained away as just random crimes then that feeds into that idea.

[bofoddity.livejournal.com]

Yeah, because if you admit that something is not right, then you would have to do something about it, but for a lot of people that and admitting that something is not right in the first place is just too much. So away with the evidence, I guess.