Stockholm metro guards did not use excessive violence in clash with pregnant woman: prosecutor
Two security guards who pulled a pregnant woman off a Stockholm underground train after she failed to produce a ticket did not use too much violence, a prosecutor has said.
Videos published on social media of the incident earlier this year sparked debate about racial profiling and security officer violence, after they showed the visibly pregnant woman, who was travelling together with a young child, removed from the train against her will.
One of the videos showed how the woman was forcibly pushed down on a bench, while another security guard attempted to comfort the crying five-year-old girl.
The woman was taken to hospital after the scuffle, but both she and the baby were physically unharmed, the Dagens Nyheter newspaper reported at the time.
The two security guards were suspended pending an investigation into assault or misconduct, but on Tuesday broadcaster TV4 reported the probe had been dropped.
The prosecutor wrote in his decision not to press charges that the video material, which included security camera footage from inside the train, "did not indicate that the person was subjected to serious violence".
"It is a ticket inspection and she has no ticket. They print out a fine which she throws on the ground. You need it to continue the journey and the guards then kindly ask her to leave the train," prosecutor Lucas Eriksson told Swedish news agency TT.
"There is surveillance footage from inside the train as well and you can see there how she resists. It's the woman's behaviour that escalates the situation."
However, he added that considering that the woman was pregnant and travelling with a young child it would potentially have been better to let her continue her journey instead of pressing the matter.
"Sometimes it's simply not worth it. She had a child with her, I'm sorry for the child."
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Videos published on social media of the incident earlier this year sparked debate about racial profiling and security officer violence, after they showed the visibly pregnant woman, who was travelling together with a young child, removed from the train against her will.
One of the videos showed how the woman was forcibly pushed down on a bench, while another security guard attempted to comfort the crying five-year-old girl.
The woman was taken to hospital after the scuffle, but both she and the baby were physically unharmed, the Dagens Nyheter newspaper reported at the time.
The two security guards were suspended pending an investigation into assault or misconduct, but on Tuesday broadcaster TV4 reported the probe had been dropped.
The prosecutor wrote in his decision not to press charges that the video material, which included security camera footage from inside the train, "did not indicate that the person was subjected to serious violence".
"It is a ticket inspection and she has no ticket. They print out a fine which she throws on the ground. You need it to continue the journey and the guards then kindly ask her to leave the train," prosecutor Lucas Eriksson told Swedish news agency TT.
"There is surveillance footage from inside the train as well and you can see there how she resists. It's the woman's behaviour that escalates the situation."
However, he added that considering that the woman was pregnant and travelling with a young child it would potentially have been better to let her continue her journey instead of pressing the matter.
"Sometimes it's simply not worth it. She had a child with her, I'm sorry for the child."
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