Black boots with white laces or black and yellow boots are not just fashion accessories. It can also serve as a reason for harassment, attacks and even death threats. This is how a mother told about what happened to her underage son, whose identity is not being made public by LTV for the purpose of the investigation.
“The attacks took place in broad daylight in the very center of Old Riga. I find it incomprehensible that someone comes with a knife in broad daylight in Old Riga and threatens you and forces you to do nasty things,” said the young man’s mother.
The attacks were carried out by skinheads with Nazi ideology and hatred for other races. Among their victims are also opponents of beliefs, such as punks.
“Representatives of the skinhead subculture did not like the fact that in the center of Riga there was a person who adheres to the representatives of the punk subculture and who at that moment had yellow laces on his long black boots, which according to the ideology of the punk subculture means that this person is against Nazism. Therefore representatives of the skinhead culture did not like it, and he threatened this man, used violence against him. All this was filmed and published on social networks,” said Inspector Linda Mocebeker of the Criminal Police Department of the State Police.
The group, who have now been arrested, all wore white bootlaces. It is a symbol to skinheads that the wearer has either beaten or even killed a black person. A popular place for skinheads to stay – Station square around “Origo”, where they look for their victims.
“He didn’t do anything, he just walked. They followed him from “Origo” to Old Riga. They followed him from behind. And then this attack happened. And another time it was because he had makeup on because he’s a fan of heavy metal . And this is something that skinheads think is unacceptable. All must be white, and men do not have to paint,” said the victim’s mother.
She is especially angry about the non-reaction of the people around her: “One incident happened in a supermarket, and people didn’t react, nor did the security guard approach. The people around her should react anyway!
Well, don’t take it as some kind of mutual conflict that they deal with themselves, that it’s just friends having an argument.
Any threat to human life or health is something that society must respond to.”
The “Galerija Centrs” shopping center, where skinheads could operate unhindered, is located near the “Depo” club, popular with punks, where the young man who experienced the attacks often goes to music concerts.
The victim is neither a piper nor a drinker, he just likes punk music and style. He did not tell his parents about his persecutors for more than two months. “That there were such cases at all, that it was filmed, as he said afterwards, he was ashamed. And he was afraid that I wouldn’t let him go to those concerts either. And he had only discussed it with his psychologist,” said his mother.
However, the psychologist had not informed either the police or the parents.
Then the law enforcement officers noticed the videos posted by skinheads on social networks and contacted the victim’s family.
The police hope that other victims will also come forward. “I invite everyone to contact the State Police about these possible violations and criminal activities,” urged Mocebekere.
The police have established that there are also minors among the attackers, and also clarify their previously provided information about the age of the youngest detainee – he is 17 years old, not 15, as previously reported.
Although there are now calls to pay more attention to the symptoms of radicalization, such as clothing style, communication researcher Ilva Skulte urges not to exaggerate.
“The subculture is also fairly open-ended, and basically anyone who wants to play with that symbol can go in there. And so it would also be very important not to treat everyone who has, for example, black boots with white laces, which is one of the subcultures I think that modern fashion integrates a lot of these elements. That’s why I think it’s important to treat it rationally.” said Skulte.
The communication specialist admitted that there are no studies in Latvia that would allow us to judge how widespread the spread of hateful ideologies is in our country.
CONTEXT:
The State Security Service (VDD) warns of the tendency for the risks of right-wing extremism to grow in society, especially among young people. At the same time, the VDD emphasizes that the threat posed by right-wing extremists to Latvia’s democratic system is currently assessed as low.
In mid-April, the State Police, in cooperation with the VDD, arrested several representatives of the subculture of shaved heads, or so-called “skinheads”, who are suspected of publicly glorifying the genocide, crimes against humanity, crimes against peace and war crimes committed by Nazi Germany, as well as for carrying out actions that aimed at inciting racial hatred. The information obtained during the investigation shows that the detained persons had used physical violence against other persons under the influence of their radical views.
