Last night in Sweden. And the night before that
I can hardly read Swedish news any more without getting the terrible feeling that the government is gradually losing control. To illustrate what kinds of headlines Swedes have woken up to recently, let me list some of the reported incidents (articles in Swedish but Google Translate will quickly help you get the gist):
- Grenade attacks at Mexican levels and shootings in line with Southern Italy show newly compiled statistics (5 September)
- Kidnapping attempt against policeman’s wife (12 September)
- Police don’t have time to investigate rapes – forced to prioritise gang-related murders (13 September)
- Heavy explosion by the entrance of Helsingborg police station (17 October)
- Heavy automatic fire against policeman’s house in the middle of the night (28 October)
This follows on from a sharp rise in gang violence in Sweden in the last couple of years, centred around a few suburban areas mainly but not exclusively outside the larger cities. These are areas of high unemployment, relative poverty and an almost exclusively immigrant population. The events listed above add to an already atrocious surge in deadly, gang-related gun violence.
The attacks against the police are particularly worrying. As many have pointed out, the constitute an attack on the very foundations of our societal order. The orderly protection of its citizens is the state’s primary duty and concern. Without it, there is only brutality, disorder and chaos. Physical security and order provide the very basis of any other politics.
As with any social phenomenon, there are complex and diverse explanations of these developments, which without a doubt include immigration policy, integration policy and weapons legislation as well as broader socio-economic and cultural factors.
But regardless of one’s favoured explanation, attending to the problem directly and forcefully must not wait. A society with a long history of low levels of violence, high levels of trust and social cohesion, and 200 years of international peace is now completely at a loss, its leaders seemingly unable or unwilling to grasp the seriousness of the situation.
Erik Hammar 