Helsinki railway station at 4am

[username321xx]

Firstly, Happy new years to everyone and all the best for the new year.

Something has been bothering me the whole day and I would just like to hear anyone’s opinion.

On the 1st, we left a bar when it closed at 4am. Walking around, we found that all the taxi queues were extremely long and it was quite cold. We eventually decided to stand in the 100m long queue in front of the railway station. After an hour we found that the queue had only moved 10m forward, so once the railway station had opened we went to go sit in the railway station and wait for the first train. I wasn’t drunk so I was quite aware of my surroundings, what really concerns me are the really shady and dodgy people that hang around the railway station. Now, I am not referring to the usual drunk Finnish men shouting ‘vi**u’ and neither the “pummi’s”.
I am referring to the groups of men that stand around, who are definitely not inebriated, and who suddenly disappear when the police van drives past. I am referring to cars parked outside the railway station and every so often you see a different person enter in on the passenger side and leave after a few minutes. I am referring to a neatly dressed gentleman trying to pick up, harass the teenagers in the railway station.

From a police point of view these people might not be doing anything wrong, but my question is, why are these men hanging around railway station at 4 in the morning, looking very inconspicuous, and definitely not interested in any of the trains that are available? Surely what I saw and witnessed is a breeding ground for criminal activity.

Am I just being overly aware, or is this a normal morning at the railway station? Has this got worse over the years? Is there anything that can be done about this?

[Matula]

From a police point of view these people might not be doing anything wrong, but my question is, why are these men hanging around railway station at 4 in the morning, looking very inconspicuous, and definitely not interested in any of the trains that are available?

It's a free country.

[sinikala]

From a police point of view these people might not be doing anything wrong, but my question is, why are these men hanging around railway station at 4 in the morning, looking very inconspicuous, and definitely not interested in any of the trains that are available?

Did you mean they are conspicuous?

Can I ask are these gentlemen of the kind that Constable Savage might try and arrest?

[Hank W.]

what really concerns me are the really shady and dodgy people that hang around the railway station

You mean all the foreigners?

Has this got worse over the years?

Cleaned up, and less youth gangs.

[Hank W.]

I, too, was mystified by the use of the word 'inconspicuous.' If they were so, how were they so 'visible?'

Well daaaah... anyone not drunk and waiting the first train to nowheremäki just "being peacefully" is conspicuous in their inconspicuousity.

You people from some small village and never been to a big city before? Never seen a dope pusher or a candy man?

And inasmuch a lot of effort went into addressing the issue some years ago, I would be surprised if the police just let it revert so easily.

This is from last April, the Railway Station is apparently the "seediest" feeling place.

Dunno, I was there on the 31st in the daytime, and didn't even pay attention to the "loiterers"...not as much of "eau de wino" ... they had the securitas guys looking like a swat-team there looking to jump on someone in orbit, but I didn't stay for the show, really just looked "business as usual". Statistically they're going to do a crackdown in a while, so the flower-hatted aunties can cry racism and the ecohippies cry of their violated animal rights.

Still, more detail would be welcome re the original question (has anyone seen anything 'wrong' really happening there?).

I think the drug squad is trying to get the "upstairs" caught (as it has recently) instead of the small-time fiends, they need to have solid evidence for the cases and thus harrassing the pushers is basically a waste of time, as they all play stupid in court and the flower-hatted judges give them a slap on the wrist. Besides which when they "round the usual suspects" they just need to go to the train station and not run around half town.

And the trainstation has *always* been "like that"... or where does people think the juvenile delinquent outreach program got its name off?

[Hank W.]

From a police point of view these people might not be doing anything wrong, but my question is, why are these men hanging around railway station at 4 in the morning, looking very inconspicuous, and definitely not interested in any of the trains that are available?

It's a free country.

I'd said "selling dope and scoring some fresh chicken" but I guess the first one can be "free" and chicken is definitely "country"

[suominizator]

hei username321x,
I'd say you'd be a great cop in north korea, cuba, stalin's times, or why not? in the US, robocop style.. your plus is the ability of reading other people's minds, and now exactly what they're thinking, and what they're gonna do next, really conspicuous, watson!