The police room's record is racial profiling

A social anthropologist and one of the two behind the podcast Svart og hvitt

Latest posts by Philip Renning Coker (show all)

On March 5, Aftenposten newspaper published an article covering The police register with an overview of Norwegian Roma. The news comes after the UMF Associate Professor recorded a meeting she had with the Police Academy where Police Superintendent Per Gladman Sorheim was quoted as saying, among other things: “The house to do it over there, is at best in a bit of a gray area.” . Without attacking the police too harshly, it might seem as if the police do not properly understand the reasons why the Norwegian Roma react the way they do, and that the police themselves, unfortunately, do not recognize the racial record when they see it.

Anti-Gypsyism is widespread in Norway

Anti-Gypsyism, or racism against Roma people, is widespread in Norway. Both historically and in today's society. Already at the end of the 1920s, it was stated in the Aliens Act that Roma and other foreign vagabonds could not reach Norway, and as early as 1924, a separate registry of Roma was created with the aim of deporting as many as possible.

Even Norwegian-born Roma with Norwegian passports received special reservations that ensured they became second-class citizens, among other things, in the form of the inability to renew passports. We deported 66 Norwegian Roma to so-called extermination camps, and rejected requests from Norwegian Roma to return to Norway in the 1950s. Until 1956, the “Gypsy section” was used in the Aliens Law. She said that the Norwegian police are working with law enforcement and preventing Roma from entering Norway. (https://snl.no/rom_i_Norge)

In other words, there is a very ugly history of space from the point of view of the Norwegian state. It is therefore striking that the police chose to create a register containing a general profile of Norwegian Roma, not least because of the inability to take responsibility in such a situation. The Norwegian police are the long arm of the law, but for some minorities the arm has been extended and pushed into private arenas, domains and channels in a way that has broken the relationship of trust.

Learn about national minorities at school now

As happened with a fair number of Norwegian rooms, past and present. Presumably neither Gladman Sorheim nor any of the police have any hidden agenda against Norwegian space, but sometimes it doesn't help much when you continue to treat a group of minorities without reference to the past. In other words, the police themselves do not see a problem with creating registers for national minorities, specifically in light of the above-mentioned history. Perhaps the best way to resolve this item is that more hours should be allocated to the history of national minorities in Norway in the primary school timetable.

It is time for our national minorities to be taken seriously whether in the police, by politicians or by the general population.

We simply have to learn more about space Norwegians, forest Finns, taters, jews, and vins. Taterners Landsforbund constantly talks about the lack of knowledge of the majority of the population about their history and not least the anti-Romaism that is prevalent in today's society. How many people know, for example, that until 1973 there was a law prohibiting Gypsies and Tatars from keeping horses, which made it practically impossible for these people to practice their culture and way of life.

“Those who do not know their history are doomed to repeat it,” is an old saying that fits this case almost like a glove. It is time for our national minorities to be taken seriously whether in the police, by politicians or by the general population. Blank pages in history books are usually of no use to minorities or nationalism.