Smörgåsbord of Vigilantism in Finland: Motivations, Competition and Strategies

In the autumn 2015 in Finland as elsewhere in Europe vigilantism was on the rise. This was much due to the so called refugee crisis, and citizens claiming to be worried about local security started to organize street patrols in order to protect their nearby environment. At the first stage, informal “jogging groups” started to patrol around refugee reception centers observing the activities of the refugees. Soon Facebook groups calling for local activists to join together in their efforts were started, and simultaneously some Finnish far right groups pondered how to benefit from this grass root phenomenon. Groups attracted far right activists and party politicians from the very early on, but mobilized also ordinary citizens without any previous ties to far right groups or political parties. Following typical life cycle of social movements, initial and seemingly spontaneous activities were later developed into more coordinated forms of activities, but soon, within months, the movement started to decline. Out of more than ten different street patrol initiatives created in 2015–2016 only couple are still active or even exist. This paper explores the birth of the patrolling movement in Finland in the autumn 2015, and subsequent disappearance of the most of the patrols in early 2016. Drawing data from interviews, media reports, police files and online observation, movement will be analyzed from the perspective of street patrol activists and organizers. Focus of the paper is on motivational factors, competition between and inside the patrol groups, and different strategies used by these groups.