Prevention of Right-Wing Extremism, Xenophobia and Racism in ...

tive police offi cers. Preventive Policing has played a major role in intervening in violent and
extreme groups in Norway. One important tool in the preventive police-offi cer’s tool-bag is the
empowerment conversation. Both the young person (below 18 years) and his or her parents
are obliged to meet at the police-station (warranted by an article in the Police law) if the police
are informed that the young person is engaged in unlawful activity or becoming involved with
a problematic and criminal youth group. The purpose is partly to warn the youngster and
his/her parents about the consequences of committing crime and/or being associated with
a destructive group, and partly to discuss what can be done to prevent the youngster from
sliding deeper into the group or into a criminal career. If the young boy or girl and his/her
parents are motivated towards positive change, the police can also call for assistance from the
municipal services to help the young person onto a more positive track.
For some youth this warning and access to help is a suffi cient means to get them out of a vivi- olent group or scene. But for others the problems are so deeply rooted and complex, that such
a conversation is of limited use. Such a cheap and simple measure is of course no panacea.
In 2003 the Police Security Service ran a nationwide campaign against the Vigrid organizaorganiza- tion. At the the time the the organization was attracting young people, including young girls, with its
mystic rituals (baptism, confi rmation-rituals and even marriage in the name of the old Nordic
God Odin). In collaboration with the local preventive police, 95 youth known to have contact
with the the organization were called to the local police station for an empowerment conversa-
tion. They were informed about what Vigrid really was, and about the consequences of further
involvement in the organization. Half of them expressed an immediate intention to break with
the organization.
Public demonstrations and informal social control
Public demonstrations are of course not part of a uniform state strategy, they are more a sponspon- taneous way for communities to react to violent attacks on immigrants or to the presence of
local racist racist and right-wing extremist groups.
In Brumunddal in 1991, 4.000 persons (out of a population of 8.000) attended a public
meeting at which which a prominent right-wing extremist leader, who wanted to add fuel to a local
fi re, was going to speak. When he started to speak, they all turned their backs without saying
a word; fi rst those in the front directly in front of the speaker’s platform, then those in the second
row and so on. This demonstration was carefully planned and it was preceded by a mas-
sive “mouth-to mouth” mobilization mobilization campaign in the community. Oslo’s autonomous anti-racist
movement had been told to leave the confrontation to the local population, and they complied.
As a result, this silent and non-violent protest spread to other parts of Norway, and has since
become an important alternative both to protest marches and more militant confrontations.
In 2001, after the racist murder of a 15-year-old boy of mixed African and Norwegian origin,
40.000 persons marched through the streets of Oslo in silent protest against racism and neo-
Nazism. Marches were held in other Norwegian cities and towns, and even in Copenhagen
where 1.000 persons took part in a local demonstration.
Violent Right-Wing Extremism in Norway
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