Kemi youths say end-of-summer celebrations felt safe despite police alarm

Young people in Kemi said the city’s end-of-summer celebrations were enjoyable and generally safe, despite police concerns about heavily intoxicated minors and disruptive behaviour, Yle reports.

Police appealed to parents on social media to collect their children after a crowd of around 100 young people gathered in the city centre. Many were underage and visibly intoxicated.

Police said young people had fired fireworks, played loud music and caused various disturbances. Officers removed the most intoxicated youths from the streets, taking some home and asking parents to collect others from the police station. Some were held in a police detention cell.

Police also filed more than 10 child welfare notifications during the night. Assaults, vandalism and traffic offences were reported in the area.

Most of the young people interviewed by Yle said the celebrations had not been unusually rowdy compared with previous end-of-summer events or school-leaving celebrations.

“Everyone was in a good spirit. I did not even notice any fights,” Tuomas Takanen said.

Nuppu Peltonen said the atmosphere had been good and that police intervention was useful when someone was in poor condition.

“The atmosphere was fine. I did not notice it being too chaotic. The police went around from time to time, and it was good that someone in a bad state was taken away,” Peltonen said.

Ranushi Shenaya and Kosar Hassani said they had met many new people and felt safe, although there had been some minor fights.

“It was really wonderful, and we got to know many new people. There were a few small fights, but we were not involved in them,” they said.

Youth centre received 50 visitors

Tanja Paaso-Rantala, Kemi’s youth affairs secretary, said the police response had been appropriate from a youth work perspective.

“A social media post is visible when it comes from the police. Previously, young people’s celebrations have not received attention on this scale,” she said.

Young people have celebrated the event in Kemi before, Paaso-Rantala said. Earlier, they had gathered at Meripuisto, a park on the edge of the city centre beside the sea.

Youth workers were not out during the celebrations. Instead, 50 young people visited a substance-free youth centre in the city centre during the evening.

Paaso-Rantala said the event’s popularity as an adult celebration had grown, and that an increasing number of young people had also found a reason to celebrate.