8 ms·

It’s pretty wild, although if I were Mr. Kato I might be somewhat more grumpy about being jailed for 3 weeks in South Sudan, apparently on the authorities’ opin

by alwa 2y ago

It’s pretty wild, although if I were Mr. Kato I might be somewhat more grumpy about being jailed for 3 weeks in South Sudan, apparently on the authorities’ opinion that their immigration laws required ministry approval for his run [0]. I have to say I don’t find myself too surprised that anybody non-local doing extreme-long-distance running through insular Croatian towns might arouse the interest of the local constabularies—and I imagine the runner being a Ugandan guy would be an especially surprising sight to people in Croatia (91% Croat, 3.2% Serb, officially recognize 22 other ethnic minorities, none of them from Africa) [1]. Which I suppose is the point he was trying to raise. What an astonishing extreme of human endeavor. [0] https://archive.is/4T13g https://archive.is/4T13g [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Croatia#:~:text=Ethnic%20groups https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Croatia#:~:t...

aprilthird2021 2y ago
> I have to say I don’t find myself too surprised that anybody doing extreme-long-distance running through insular Croatian towns might arouse the interest of the local constabularies I don't live in Europe, but just help me out, why call the cops on a guy running down the road, in running gear, even if he's an ethnicity you rarely ever see?
- em-bee 2y ago
  exactly this, and add to that, the demographics are similar in all eastern european countries. so what's special about croatia? https://brilliantmaps.com/european-black-population-by-country/ https://brilliantmaps.com/european-black-population-by-count... after reading the article i found the links to other articles on the guardian site linked to this: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/oct/10/photos-croatia-police-phones-passports-asylum-seekers https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/oct/10/p... "Croatian police accused of burning asylum seekers’ phones and passports". the problem seems to be more than just never having seen a black person.
  - grujicd 2y ago
    > so what's special about croatia To add relevant context Croatia is at the edge of the Schengen zone. On the other side of the border are Serbia and Bosnia with less strict border controls and visa rules, so this is one of the roads for illegal immigrants to reach rich western countries. This and Hungarian borders are what's between them and their goals. Connect that with the fact that Croatia doesn't have non-white minorities, there were probably zero cases before this of black person wondering down the roads who was not an illegal migrant.
  - throw73848788 2y ago
    Passport are also needed for deportation. I can not see any reason, why police would burn their documents. It creates a lot of extra paperwork and headaches. Destroying passports is a normal practice for illegal immigrants. It extends their stay in EU by several years. Most countries are considered safe, and it is hard to claim you are from Syria with Egyptian passport.
    - mr_toad 2y ago
      The police aren’t burning passports because it’s procedure, or even legal. It makes it harder for asylum seekers to prove where they’re from.
- poincaredisk 2y ago
  I'm not from Croatia, but for context >ethnicity you rarely ever see? Rarely... I was 20 years old when I first saw a black person in real life. This was in a center of a big city, and it surprised me so much that I remember exactly where and when it was. Nowadays times have changed and it's not that rare in my country - at least in big cities. But I imagine a Croatian farmer seeing a black person - running! - and calling the police to investigate what the hell is going on.
  - aprilthird2021 2y ago
    > But I imagine a Croatian farmer seeing a black person - running! - and calling the police to investigate what the hell is going on. So is this common? I would not call the police immediately among seeing something odd or unusual that isn't threatening...
    - bombcar 2y ago
      You wouldn't, but someone would. Cops get called all the time for out-of-the-ordinary things that you'd not even think of calling for. Power failures, parked cars, loose animals, strange kids, balloons, weather, etc.
      - dudeinjapan 2y ago
        For a laugh I used to read the local paper which published a log of police calls, they were along the lines of "A dead racoon was reported on Oxbow Rd. When officers investigated they found it was a hat."
      - Symbiote 2y ago
        Loose animals can be a danger to traffic, and the police should be called. I've done this when a horse had escaped from a field at the edge of a village.
        k1kingy 2y ago
        And as unfortunate as it is, some people see black people running in their neighborhood as a danger to society and will call the police (or in some cases will just hunt them down and kill the person themselves https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/federal-judge-sentences-three-men-convicted-racially-motivated-hate-crimes-connection-killing https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/federal-judge-sentences-three...)
- sjducb 2y ago
  It’s racism. I’m guessing you’re from the US, the least racist country in the world. People see he’s a different race so they treat him badly because of it. No one is worried about being called racist. He was arrested several times a day for being black. No one in the whole chain of events viewed this as a problem.
  - throw73848788 2y ago
    [flagged]
    - sjducb 2y ago
      South Africa is a very racist country. You’re not really replying to my comment please re read it.
      - throw73848788 2y ago
        [flagged]
        bigpeopleareold 2y ago
        I think you should look up what the history of jaywalking laws actually are. They were lobbied by the automobile industry in the early 20th century.
        tmountain 2y ago
        People do run in the United States (tons of people). It is not a crime.
        devilbunny 2y ago
        I believe this is an example of a “joke”. Perhaps a “troll”. You may have heard of them.
  - wholinator2 2y ago
- llm_trw 2y ago
  He's doing something weird hence the police calls. I'm from that part of the world and had the same thing happen when I went camping. The police officer asked if I lived in the west, then left me alone with a warning about bears and gypsies.
  - sabbaticaldev 2y ago
    [dead]
- lpapez 2y ago
  Most of the comments here are missing the mark IMO. The primary reason why he got so much police harassment is because Croatia is a EU Schengen border country, the patrols here are much stricter than everywhere else, and the associated problems are much worse as well. I don't think it's entirely due to racism - if you were a border policeman, and you are tasked with bringing in people illegaly entering the country, what would you do seeing a person of color running on back roads near the border of an otherwise extremely ethnically homogenous country? For every case of someone who entered legally and got harassed, they probably bring in thousands of people which they are supposed to bring in (ie. entered ilegally).
  - jdietrich 2y ago
    If you're travelling through sensitive border regions, attracting unwanted attention is unfortunately an occupational hazard. https://www.ndtv.com/offbeat/indy-nelson-man-who-visited-every-country-had-to-prove-hes-not-a-spy-4-times-6507497 https://www.ndtv.com/offbeat/indy-nelson-man-who-visited-eve... https://www.pap.pl/en/news/pole-wrongly-sentenced-life-congo-set-free https://www.pap.pl/en/news/pole-wrongly-sentenced-life-congo...
    - immibis 2y ago
      [flagged]
      - FredPret 2y ago
        It’s not racist and you know that. They also would not want a white person without authorization. Also, in your border-free dreamworld, how far does this go? Can anyone / everyone in the world come live in your country? How about your city? How about your backyard?
        jstanley 2y ago
        Country yes, city yes, backyard no. People within a country can freely move between cities but can't freely use private backyards. We're just saying it should be the same between countries as it is between cities.
tho24h23j4234 2y ago
[flagged]
canadianfella 2y ago
[dead]

by alwa 2y ago

aprilthird2021 2y ago

> I have to say I don’t find myself too surprised that anybody doing extreme-long-distance running through insular Croatian towns might arouse the interest of the local constabularies I don't live in Europe, but just help me out, why call the cops on a guy running down the road, in running gear, even if he's an ethnicity you rarely ever see?

em-bee 2y ago
exactly this, and add to that, the demographics are similar in all eastern european countries. so what's special about croatia? https://brilliantmaps.com/european-black-population-by-country/ https://brilliantmaps.com/european-black-population-by-count... after reading the article i found the links to other articles on the guardian site linked to this: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/oct/10/photos-croatia-police-phones-passports-asylum-seekers https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/oct/10/p... "Croatian police accused of burning asylum seekers’ phones and passports". the problem seems to be more than just never having seen a black person.
- grujicd 2y ago
  > so what's special about croatia To add relevant context Croatia is at the edge of the Schengen zone. On the other side of the border are Serbia and Bosnia with less strict border controls and visa rules, so this is one of the roads for illegal immigrants to reach rich western countries. This and Hungarian borders are what's between them and their goals. Connect that with the fact that Croatia doesn't have non-white minorities, there were probably zero cases before this of black person wondering down the roads who was not an illegal migrant.
- throw73848788 2y ago
  Passport are also needed for deportation. I can not see any reason, why police would burn their documents. It creates a lot of extra paperwork and headaches. Destroying passports is a normal practice for illegal immigrants. It extends their stay in EU by several years. Most countries are considered safe, and it is hard to claim you are from Syria with Egyptian passport.
  - mr_toad 2y ago
    The police aren’t burning passports because it’s procedure, or even legal. It makes it harder for asylum seekers to prove where they’re from.
poincaredisk 2y ago
I'm not from Croatia, but for context >ethnicity you rarely ever see? Rarely... I was 20 years old when I first saw a black person in real life. This was in a center of a big city, and it surprised me so much that I remember exactly where and when it was. Nowadays times have changed and it's not that rare in my country - at least in big cities. But I imagine a Croatian farmer seeing a black person - running! - and calling the police to investigate what the hell is going on.
- aprilthird2021 2y ago
  > But I imagine a Croatian farmer seeing a black person - running! - and calling the police to investigate what the hell is going on. So is this common? I would not call the police immediately among seeing something odd or unusual that isn't threatening...
  - bombcar 2y ago
    You wouldn't, but someone would. Cops get called all the time for out-of-the-ordinary things that you'd not even think of calling for. Power failures, parked cars, loose animals, strange kids, balloons, weather, etc.
    - dudeinjapan 2y ago
      For a laugh I used to read the local paper which published a log of police calls, they were along the lines of "A dead racoon was reported on Oxbow Rd. When officers investigated they found it was a hat."
    - Symbiote 2y ago
      Loose animals can be a danger to traffic, and the police should be called. I've done this when a horse had escaped from a field at the edge of a village.
      - k1kingy 2y ago
        And as unfortunate as it is, some people see black people running in their neighborhood as a danger to society and will call the police (or in some cases will just hunt them down and kill the person themselves https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/federal-judge-sentences-three-men-convicted-racially-motivated-hate-crimes-connection-killing https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/federal-judge-sentences-three...)
sjducb 2y ago
It’s racism. I’m guessing you’re from the US, the least racist country in the world. People see he’s a different race so they treat him badly because of it. No one is worried about being called racist. He was arrested several times a day for being black. No one in the whole chain of events viewed this as a problem.
- throw73848788 2y ago
  [flagged]
  - sjducb 2y ago
    South Africa is a very racist country. You’re not really replying to my comment please re read it.
    - throw73848788 2y ago
      [flagged]
      - bigpeopleareold 2y ago
        I think you should look up what the history of jaywalking laws actually are. They were lobbied by the automobile industry in the early 20th century.
      - tmountain 2y ago
        People do run in the United States (tons of people). It is not a crime.
        devilbunny 2y ago
        I believe this is an example of a “joke”. Perhaps a “troll”. You may have heard of them.
- wholinator2 2y ago
llm_trw 2y ago
He's doing something weird hence the police calls. I'm from that part of the world and had the same thing happen when I went camping. The police officer asked if I lived in the west, then left me alone with a warning about bears and gypsies.
- sabbaticaldev 2y ago
  [dead]
lpapez 2y ago
Most of the comments here are missing the mark IMO. The primary reason why he got so much police harassment is because Croatia is a EU Schengen border country, the patrols here are much stricter than everywhere else, and the associated problems are much worse as well. I don't think it's entirely due to racism - if you were a border policeman, and you are tasked with bringing in people illegaly entering the country, what would you do seeing a person of color running on back roads near the border of an otherwise extremely ethnically homogenous country? For every case of someone who entered legally and got harassed, they probably bring in thousands of people which they are supposed to bring in (ie. entered ilegally).
- jdietrich 2y ago
  If you're travelling through sensitive border regions, attracting unwanted attention is unfortunately an occupational hazard. https://www.ndtv.com/offbeat/indy-nelson-man-who-visited-every-country-had-to-prove-hes-not-a-spy-4-times-6507497 https://www.ndtv.com/offbeat/indy-nelson-man-who-visited-eve... https://www.pap.pl/en/news/pole-wrongly-sentenced-life-congo-set-free https://www.pap.pl/en/news/pole-wrongly-sentenced-life-congo...
  - immibis 2y ago
    [flagged]
    - FredPret 2y ago
      It’s not racist and you know that. They also would not want a white person without authorization. Also, in your border-free dreamworld, how far does this go? Can anyone / everyone in the world come live in your country? How about your city? How about your backyard?
      - jstanley 2y ago
        Country yes, city yes, backyard no. People within a country can freely move between cities but can't freely use private backyards. We're just saying it should be the same between countries as it is between cities.

tho24h23j4234 2y ago

[flagged]

canadianfella 2y ago

[dead]