A number of people who participated in the 'Helsinki without Nazis' (Helsinki ilman natseja in Finnish) demonstration in the capital on Independence Day have criticised police for excessive use of force.
Protester Kristian Wallgren told Yle that the police's actions were "unnecessarily harsh" when clearing the Töölöntori Square area of demonstrators, noting that police in riot gear surrounded the protesters while mounted officers rode into the crowd to disperse them.
The situation was "frightening", he recalled.
"The mounted police moved back and forth. The police on foot took the space the mounted police had made, created an alleyway through the street, and then they pushed us along it," Wallgren said.
"It was pretty rough. There were obstacles like bike racks. I was pushed against a bike once and fell over. And I was also pushed into a tree," he continued, but added that he was not injured in the incident.
Wallgren further noted that, in his view, the demonstrators could have been dispersed with a lot less force.
"I thought it was a bit unreasonable. It seems that the police also had problems with the coordination of the use of force," he said.
Yle has not been able to independently verify the events reported by the eyewitnesses.
This week's All Points Noth examines the Independence Day celebrations and surrounding protests. Listen to the episode via this embedded player, on Yle Areena via Apple or Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
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Protest organisers publish videos
The police had earlier banned the 'Helsinki without Nazis' protesters from gathering at Töölöntori, as another demonstration — a march by the nationalist 612 group — had already been arranged for that area.
Police said they asked the organisers of the Helsinki without Nazis event to move on, but they were reluctant to do so, and officers detained a total of 54 demonstrators who did not obey the order to leave.
Videos circulated on the Helsinki without Nazis Telegram channel as well as on Instagram appear to show a mounted police officer colliding with a protester.
"I was about to pass out"
Kimmo Godtfredsen told Yle that he attended the protest with his teenage child. He recounted how the police surrounded the protesters and shouted orders to leave the area.
"People were pretty good at following the orders and moving where the police told them to. But there were a lot of people and the movement was quite slow," Godtfredsen said.
He added that one police officer pushed him in the chest because he was deemed to not be moving fast enough.
Godtfredsen also noted that the presence of mounted police officers on horseback was "concerning".
"I nearly got hit by one of them [the horses]. It was a pretty scary situation," he said, but noted that the situation calmed down after the protesters moved to Runeberginkatu.
In Godtfredsen's view, the police's behaviour was aggressive and deliberate, adding that he has participated in demonstrations with his children in previous years without anything like this happening.
"We have not set out to find situations of conflict," he said.
Police: Difficult to comment on personal experiences
Yle put the experiences of the protesters to Helsinki Police Chief Inspector Patrik Karlsson, who said he also noticed a discussion about the topic on social media.
Karlsson said that it was very difficult to comment on the personal experiences of the protesters, but noted that the police gave clear instructions to the demonstrators to move out of the Töölöntori Square area.
"The choice of mthods in such situations can always be discussed," he said, adding that the police's behaviour can be discussed and assessed at a later date.
Majority of detained protesters now released
As of Thursday morning, the majority of the protesters detained by police on Wednesday had been released from custody.
In a statement to the Finnish news agency STT, Helsinki police said that only a handful of demonstrators remained in police custody by 8am on Thursday morning.
The protesters were detained on suspicion of disobedience towards a police officer and will face fines, the statement said.
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