Story By: Sofija Dizdarevik, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News
CEN
This footage shows a group of young women reportedly from Latin America fighting with local girls in Switzerland.
The shocking footage was shot at a train station in the Swiss capital Bern.
It was filmed by an onlooker, where it quickly went viral after being shared on social media.
The two groups had apparently clashed in a nearby nightclub, and then resorted to violence when the turned up at the train station together later on.
There were apparently 10 girls from the town of Biel and four who were reportedly from Cuba and the Dominican Republic.
One of the girls from the Latino group was annoyed at the suggestion by one of the Swiss girls about a relationship with one of their boyfriends.
Many people were baffled by the scenes because they happened in Switzerland and also because they involve young women. Many commentators pointed out that Swiss girls would tend to argue rather than resort to violence.
Speaking to local media, Georg Franco, who is president of the Latinos Unidos Association agreed it was more likely people from his community would resort to violence.
He said: “We Latinos are very proud. We don’t want to be seen as weaklings.”
He said that meant that they reacted without mercy when provoked or attacked. He said: “When there is a fight between two Latinas about something important like a man, they fight with each other.”
He added that if for example a woman had made advances to another woman’s husband, it would be normal for the women to fight and tear each other’s hair out until a third person separated them.
He said: “Latinos solve conflicts the hard way. After that it is good and they are all friends again.”
But he added that his people needed to control their tempers more and not react to injuries or insults. He said: “We live in Switzerland in our community and we need to integrate. We need to solve conflicts with words and not with violence.”
However his analysis was rejected by Johannes Kabatek, director of the Latin American centre at the University of Zurich, who saw things differently.
He said: “Violence is not a collective problem of Latin Americans. In fact Cuba is a really peaceful land.” He added that the violence seen in this case was actually an individual problem and nothing to do with where the girls were from.
The president of the Swiss Association for Child and Adolescent Psychology Philipp Ramming was asked if women and girls resorting to violence was more common, and added: “I don’t know about frequency but it remains unusual for women or girls to attack. Women who resort to violence are still very much a no-go in society. It’s therefore something which is attracting a lot of attention when it does happen. Incidents like this occur when children have simply been badly raised.”
He added that it was more often seen in working classes, but added: “Tough circumstances are not an excuse to bloody the nose of somebody else.”
One of the girls on the footage apparently references earlier violence and he says that she is “obviously a repeat offender”. He said showing no remorse or understanding of why it’s wrong then it is clearly criminal behaviour. He added: “The youth welfare office should intervene on this occasion.”
Swiss crime statistics show that there are 122 incidents in which young women aged between 15 and 17 were accused of assault in 2018, the year for which statistics are most up-to-date. For men in the same age group it was 439.
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