Two security guards have been suspended after forcibly removing an expectant mother from an underground train in Sweden, an incident that unfolded before the eyes of shocked passengers and the victim’s 5-year-old daughter.
According to Sky News, the unidentified woman was at the Hötorget Station in central Stockholm when two officers dragged her from the train onto the platform for allegedly travelling without a valid ticket. The woman insisted she had a ticket, but misplaced it.
Activist Lovette Jallow posted video of the incident on her Instagram, showing the moment officials pull the woman from the train car and force her onto her belly as she tries to stand near a bench. Her young daughter is heard crying in terror as officers lead her mom away.
“The victim is currently in the hospital and all I can do is hope the baby is alright because if anything happens to that child — there will be hell to pay,” Jallow wrote.
In a separate interview with the UK’s Metro.co.uk, Jallow said the mother was left “bruised and traumatized” by the ordeal, arguing the incident is yet another example of how Black “Afro-Swedes” are systematically mistreated in Sweden.
“Unfortunately, we’re the group that is number one on the list of violent hate crimes, and only 4 percent of those crimes ever reach courts,” she explained. “These incidents are very common especially with brutality at the hands of guards and sometimes police.”
The woman, who asked to remain anonymous, told Metro the incident made her fear for her unborn child’s life.
“It felt like I was in a nightmare, a dream I couldn’t believe,” she said. “I lost my last child at eight months pregnancy so to be eight months pregnant and go through this treatment is something I can’t put into words. All I was thinking when they dragged me and laid me on my stomach and sat on me was, ‘My baby! Don’t hurt my baby.’ ”
Officials for the transport company told a different story. In a statement Friday, an SL spokesman said its security officers are free to “reject or apprehend persons who are disturbing the order” and accused the woman of refusing to produce her ticket.
“What we do know is that the woman was caught without a valid ticket in a ticket check and was given a penalty fare,” the spokesperson told the BBC. “She refused this and therefore she, according to our rules, was asked to leave the subway. She refused this too and when she was going to be escorted from the subway by our public security officers she started to scream and make resistance.”
The mother has twice been seen at a hospital in Stockholm since the Thursday incident, first in the aftermath and again on Friday to ensure the health of her baby.
Stockholm Public Transport officer Claes Keisu acknowledged that the security officers involved may have gone too far but declined to comment further on the matter, pending an investigation.
“When meeting a pregnant woman travelling with a small child, should not then some precautions have been taken by the security guards?” he told Sky News. “We don’t why the security guards chose to intervene in this way, but that’s something we will find out.”
Watch more in the video below.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BtUE8rHFjzD/
