Meiner police reform is not to blame for violence against police – NRK Vestland

After the anti-Islamic organization Stop the Islamization of Norway (Sian) held demonstrations in Oslo and Bergen in August, violent clashes broke out between the police and some counter-protesters.

In Oslo, some counter-protesters attacked police cars, and in Bergen, some threw stones and eggs at police officers. Later, the Bergen police station was surrounded by counter-protesters.

The incidents prompted Morten Ørn, head of the operations unit in the West Police District, to fire directly at the local police reform. He said the reform had made the police too invisible in the districts. Less visible police is again one reason why respect for the police is low among some young people, he said.

She was supported by police investigator Christin Thea Wathne at OsloMet. She believes that police reform is changing the relationship with the public in big cities and that it tends to American conditions.

Now Police Director Benedicte Bjørnland is fighting back.

– We need to clarify. Police reform is used as a reason to have seen violence against the police in recent times. We mean there is no evidence to claim that, she says.

Three other conditions

Bjørnland says they have intelligence that points to other reasons why violence against the police has degenerated. Bjørnland wins the following three moments that he thinks are behind:

• Lack of understanding of freedom of expression.
• Lack of understanding of the role of the police in protecting freedom of expression
• Black Lives Matter-rørsla

– Some young people are furious when they see a violation of the Quran. It is not prohibited, but for these young people it is difficult to understand. That we put up barricades and take charge of the demonstrations from Sian, is interpreted as a support to Sian and his labeling. That is not the case. Some young people perceive that when we protect Sian, the police support hate speech. Then we become a goal, he explains.

– Isn’t the connection here that the relationship between the police and this part of the youth is too weak?

– We see the need to make some adjustments to reach out to the local community in the future. We are open to that. But we are present on platforms where young people move, he says, noting that they reach young people through online patrols.

– Some establish signs of similarity between the American and Norwegian police

Among other things, the West Police District has 200,000 followers on Tiktok, he emphasizes.

– That we are not in a shopping center enough, it will be too simple an explanation for a rather complex subject, Bjørnland continued.

On the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States, he thinks that the movement itself is peaceful, but that it has had a violent element.

– You have our violent demonstrations in the United States in response to illegitimate police violence. There are some left-wing extremists who incite young people, and some young people in Norway who have seen signs of equality between the American and Norwegian police and feel that they also use force against us, he says.

Many reasons

When NRK interviewed COO Morten Ørn about the events in Bergen in August, he pointed to more reasons besides police reform why respect for the police is too low.

At the same time, he said that this entered a complex and larger social problem. Passive parents and how politicians have chosen to expand the city are other reasons, according to him.

But the police form assured that the police are in a tension between the heavy professional departments and the police officers who are among the public, according to Ørn.

This summer’s police report confirms that the police have gone further in creating a stronger professional environment, but that it is unclear whether the reform means that the police provide good enough services at the local level.

– I think Ørn is right that one can experience that he is in tension. It may be necessary to examine the distribution of resources, without making major changes, says Bjørnland.

She emphasizes that she does not attack Ørn, but that she wants to qualify what she believes to be a skewed image of the situation.

– I must say that I have great respect for Morten Ørn and the work that he and his team do, he adds.

NRK has been in contact with Police Chief Kaare Songstad in the West Police District. He will not comment on the case.