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It was on Friday night that Benjamin Antwi was driving home to Malmö from his job in Copenhagen. After first showing your ID to the passport controller, you are asked to identify yourself once more. Benjamin then replies that his ID has already been verified.
– After that comes the police. She asked me to remove my headphones, so I turn the volume down and say I hear what she’s saying. But she keeps asking me to remove my headphones. Then they say “I should go on.”
Benjamin says that he does not intend to follow him because he believes that he did nothing wrong. After some discussion, the police grab him and take him off the train. Police go through his bag, Benjamin says, and then he is taken to a separate room at the station where he is questioned by police and later released. The police are now reporting Benjamin as suspected of violent resistance.
When the police come and ask you to get off, what do you think? Why don’t you follow
– I think I have done what I should do, they should check the passports and I have shown them my passport. It has cleared customs. I just stopped work, I’m hungry, I’m tired, and I just want to go home. So they say I should get off. Nothing that they suspected he was wearing anything.
According to Benjamin, the police never said he was suspected of any crime and has now reported the police for misconduct and because he believes they were violent towards him.
Why do you think they controlled it?
– I feel like I have a special look, I’m black. I may be a bit arrogant, but I don’t like talking to others that much. But this is not the first time my ID has been checked. It often happens and then it may be enough to just put the card on the table, sometimes you don’t even have to check. I go around ten times a week, says Benjamin Antwi, who works as a salesman in a shopping center in Copenhagen.
A video of the event has been widely disseminated on social media and has been shared more than 17,000 times on Facebook. And a petition in support of Benjamin Antwi has received nearly 20,000 signatures.
Eva-Gun Westford, a police spokeswoman in the southern region, tells DN that it was all based on the fact that the police suspected Benjamin’s bag and therefore wanted to do a so-called in-depth check.
– We have an agreement with Öresundstrafiken. In order for the traffic flow to work, we perform an in-depth check on a so-called second line. Then, take the person away from the train and do an in-depth check outside the train.
Why should they do this in-depth check?
– To check the bag. I’ve seen the movie but it doesn’t show the whole event. They work in teams with passport controllers and the police, where the police are the foreman. The passport controller gets a little thoughtful and calls his foreman and then the police arrive. I heard the police say “PL19” and that you “get off the train.” He is then arrested for violent resistance and a report is made about it.
Article 19 of the Police Act, which is often abbreviated as PL19, gives the police the right to visit a person suspected of carrying weapons, dangerous objects or objects that can be used in a crime. Regarding the current incident, Eva-Gun Westford says that the police in relation to the investigation into violent resistance should also seek answers to the question why they wanted to do an in-depth verification.
– Our task includes taking care of safety and security. But it may not be that good, from somewhere.
Thommy Brännström, The head of the Border Police of the Southern Region, says in a press release that he “understands that the clip of the film that was broadcast on social networks about the incident arouses emotions, but there may be circumstances behind the actions of the police who do not come off the film. “
– We have clear guidelines on how inspections should be carried out. Making an intervention based on a person’s ethnicity and appearance is not compatible with the values of the police, says Brännström, who also notes that the police have “the right to conduct body searches, but they should not be used routinely.”
