Sweden: Part 1 -- Immigration Violence? What's going on?

There's been a lot of talk -- from conservatives -- about immigration violence in Sweden. I paid passing attention to it, but wasn't necessarily convinced as it really was just from conservative sites.



A recent news event has me taking a closer look.

On a Swedish site called The Local (January 17) the following is stated:

Wednesday marked the first Riksdag debate of 2018 between Sweden's party leaders, and crime was one of the main discussion points . . .Jimmie Åkesson, leader of the far-right Sweden Democrats, said his party wants to "declare war" on organized crime, and suggested using military help to support the police could be a way of doing so. Interviewed following the debate, PM Löfven said that using military resources was not his preferred method but did not appear to rule it out.

A Google search indicates that the Riksdag is Sweden's national legislature. Also, a Google search indicates that the Sweden Democrats started out as a Neo-Nazi Party. I also found that in the 2017 debate, the Sweden Democrats leader basically said the same thing. Yet . . .

So in the debate, the Sweden Democrats leader suggested using the military. In an interview after the debate, the Prime Minster (Swedish Social Democratic Party) stated he wouldn't rule it out. Now perhaps the Prime Minister has no intention of using the military and was playing politics, but the fact that he would have to consider playing politics is telling.

Reuters (January 17) has the following that discussed the same comments:

The government has promised police an extra 7.1 billion crowns ($880 million) through 2020, toughened laws on gun crimes and made it easier for the police to monitor private phone calls and emails, among other measures. But a report by the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention shows increasing numbers of Swedes worried about crime with confidence falling in the police and the judicial system.

I guess one could make two arguments. First, the Sweden Democrats are over-exaggerating an issue and have overly influenced popular opinion on immigration. Second, the people have every reason to be worried about crime and that the government is responding by increasing the budget for police.

In Part 2, I'll look at what Mother Jones, The Times (UK) and Reuters has to say about the topic of Sweden.