Police will investigate hate speech sent to AUF

Seven years after the terrorist attack against Utøya, survivors and AUF summits receive death threats and hot spots. In this week's A magazine, there are several survivors from Utøya. Everyone has experienced hatred or harassment. Nevertheless, only a few things have been reported.

– Among AUFs, there is a general opinion that "cases are abandoned, so we do not bother to report". It's a pity, says Frode Elgesem at magazine A. He was coordinator of assistance during the trial against Anders Behring Breivik in 2012.

Because few cases have been reported, the police have read the content of some of the hate messages for the first time while reading Aftenposten. The police react to what they read

– Many of these messages are very harsh and pure death threats, "says Police Commissioner Monica Lillebakken in the police district. Oslo.

Listen to the AUF read some of the messages they received:

Want to know if the messages are punishable

Lillebakken leads the hate group to the police in the capital. Every year since the group's inception in 2014, they have been concerned about the big black numbers

This is one of the reasons why the hate crime group now reaches the AUF. and asks to receive the hate speech received by the members. ]

– The police are working to bring down the black numbers, which we suppose to be big in terms of hate crime. We want to know if there are criminal offenses that have not been reported and that should be reported, says Lillebakken.

– A Democratic Question

Survivors and UFOs from Utøya told A magazine that they had not reported much hate speech, among other things, because they assume that the police leave the cases. Lillebakken says he wants those who are victims of hate speech or threats to report it to the police

– It is important to emphasize the magnitude of this type of crime

She says the messages contain threats and / or are discriminatory and hateful. The content has nothing to do with freedom of expression.

– It must be a huge burden to receive such messages. This will create a sense of insecurity among individuals, while the price of being politically active may be so high that some people withdraw. Then we have a democratic problem.

Up to this year, the Oslo Police District has registered 51 cases involving hate speech. In 2017, they had 198 articles.