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| Europe | ||
| Spread of gang violence wrecks Sweden's peaceful image | ||
| 2023-12-06 | ||
Half an hour north of central Stockholm, Upplands-Bro features lakeside boat clubs, copper-red wooden villas and apartments flanked by pine and spruce trees. But a 14-year-old boy was found dead in a forest here in August, and since January there have been several shootings and bombings targeting houses and apartments. "It's awful. We've [been] woken up by explosions in the neighbourhood and it's scary," says 42-year-old Anna Petterson, who lives in Bro and has three children. "It's very much something that we're aware of, and we talk about a lot, and are afraid of." Sweden has been a European hotspot for gang-related shootings and bombings for several years. But recently the violence has shifted beyond low-income, vulnerable urban areas and police say one reason is that gang members are increasingly targeting rivals' relatives. Detectives suspect some of the latest violence has been organised by criminal leaders based in other countries, including Turkey and Serbia.
"What started out as gun violence between young gangs looking to defend their territory has turned into a vicious circle of firearms trafficking and gun violence," explains Nils Duquet, a firearms researcher based at the Flemish Peace Institute in Brussels. "Gangs have also matured and are no longer just the street criminals, but are often connected to higher-level criminals as well." Swedish police do not currently map gang members' nationalities, but research for the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention in 2021 showed young people born in Sweden to two parents from abroad were overrepresented as suspects in murder cases and robberies. The right-wing coalition government, elected in September 2022, believes the rise in gang violence in recent years is directly connected to Sweden's earlier immigration policies. Until 2016, it had one of the most generous asylum laws in Europe. "We can now see that 'outsideship' and lack of integration, in combination with trade of narcotics and organised crime is creating this very, very toxic mixture," Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom told the BBC in September. The government wants to make it harder for immigrants from outside the European Union to get social benefits, and to make preschool compulsory for children with two foreign parents in some areas, in order to improve Swedish-language skills. Earlier this year, it became an offence to recruit children to participate in criminal activities. Stop-and-search zones are set to be introduced in early 2024 and ministers want to double prison sentences for offences including gun crimes and explosions. Worries about how gang conflicts are impacting the country's international image are also growing. "Sweden has always been viewed as an extremely safe country. Maybe one of the top safe countries in the world. And this image is falling apart," says Hradilova-Selin. According to a recent survey for the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce, eight out of 10 Swedish companies questioned believe it will get harder to attract foreign talent, investment and visitors due to the ongoing violence. | ||
| Posted by:Skidmark |
| #3 ^The fox is ALREADY in the hen house. |
| Posted by: Grom the Reflective 2023-12-06 12:48 |
| #2 There are signs even the Swedes have had enough. The new government (including the only sane party, the Sweden Democrats) is beginning to set higher standards for who can stay in Sweden. |
| Posted by: Tom 2023-12-06 12:27 |
| #1 It was great fun when "Palestinian Freedom Fighters" were blowing up Israeli buses - maybe less fun now? |
| Posted by: Grom the Reflective 2023-12-06 03:05 |