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The clip from last Friday showing 40-year-old Benjamin Antwi sitting on the Öresund train from Copenhagen to Malmö has had a wide circulation. You just showed your ID to a passport controller when they call the police and tell you to get out.
But Benjamin refused.
– It is not my duty to accompany a policeman just because he says so. It must have a reason, a reason. Should all dark-skinned people continue on the train for no reason? he told Kvällposten.
“One hundred percent racial profiling”
Mushtak Awad was sitting in the same train car with a friend. Both filmed the police intervention.
– The passport controller told her several times to look at her so that she could see that the identity document was correct. But we saw that he was already looking at her, and he said “I’m looking at you.” He then claimed that he had an attitude towards her. He didn’t have that, but I understand if it bothered him that she asked for the same thing multiple times, he says.
After seeing his identity card, the passport controller called the border police and the situation got worse.
It ended with Benjamin Antwi being dragged away by the police, who was also captured on film.
Mushtak’s video and testimonials have been widely circulated on social media and a collection of digital names has been started in Benjamin’s name, where more than 25,000 people have signed up to demand that the police apologize and be investigated for misconduct.
Witness Mushtak Awad believes that Benjamin Antwi’s treatment was due to the color of his skin.
– It was a one hundred percent racial profiling, he says.
Don’t you dare carry a bag on the train
Subsequently, Benjamin Antwi was denounced by the police for violent resistance, and he himself has denounced the police for misconduct and assault.
– What I react to in the video is that they do not explain at all why you have to get off the train. She asks what she’s done and yet people keep saying she’s leaving, says attorney Eva Bazo, who has commented on the film on Twitter.
Eva Bazo tells Kvällsposten that she previously had a client who was searched by Swedish Customs officials and dragged off the train. She later denounced the people for rape and assault, but the investigation was dropped.
– He was also a black man, who was not wearing anything either. He has told me that he has friends who do not dare to sleep on the train so as not to arouse suspicion. And my client no longer has a purse when he goes to work. You have to ask yourself why this is the case, without my saying that it has to do with skin color.
“Difficult to objectively investigate”
The case has been assigned to a prosecutor of the Special Prosecutor’s Office, who, without the intervention of the police, will decide either to initiate a preliminary investigation or to close it.
Lawyer Kristoffer Ståhl, who also commented on the film on Twitter, believes that from the video that was released, it is not possible to establish that neither the police nor Benjamin are guilty of a crime.
– The interesting and important thing here is why the police suspect this particular passenger. Does it have to do with their behavior or does it have to do with the color of their skin? If it’s the latter, it’s extremely serious, he says.
How often are investigations into this type of alleged misconduct?
– In general, it can be difficult to investigate objectively. If the police officer in question can develop and explain what particular circumstance there was for a police check, the investigation will probably stop there. Information from the police about how he thought is often decisive and it is difficult for the individual to prove otherwise.
Police response: “Totally reprehensible”
Ewa-Gun Westford, a press spokesman for the police in the southern region, does not want to comment on what the police were looking for in Benjamin Antwi’s bag, in light of the ongoing investigation.
He also says he cannot answer why the police suspected him from everyone in the train car.
How do you see the accusation that you are being subjected to this because of the color of your skin?
– We often receive opinions based on different forms of emotions. Our mission is to work in a legally safe and secure manner. We should not and should not select people by skin color. In fact, we don’t. It’s completely reprehensible, we have a strong set of values, he says.
Do you rule out that there are such problems within the police?
– I cannot rule out anything because we are the highest authority in Sweden and nobody is completely perfect. But I have worked in the police for 50 years and I know that we work completely against that principle and that our values are strong.
TV: Watch how the police got Benjamin Antwi off the train
Benjamin Antwi was dragged off the train – see the controversial incident
