Sweden: A New York Times article

A month ago, I wrote two blog posts on Sweden. I posted articles from Mother Jones, Reuters, The Local (a Swedish site) and The Times (UK). Here's an article from the New York Times (3 March 2018) and some of the major points are:

1. Gang violence is moving outside of the poorer parts of Sweden.

2. Weapons are entering Sweden via the Oresund Bridge, which links Denmark and Sweden (specifically the city of Malmo). In my previous blog posts, I mentioned that Malmo is the focus of the violence.



3. Here's a quote: Police officials are more likely to attribute gang violence to a failure of integration, citing a recent study of a Swedish street gang that found 24 percent of its members were ethnic Swedes, and 42 percent had been born in Sweden. This quote also goes back to my prior post where I mentioned that Mother Jones seemed to emphasize the gang problem, but The Times emphasized the ethnic make-up of the gangs. It would appear that The Times was more accurate. If I interpret the quote correctly, 24% of gang members are Swedish whereas 42% are 2nd generation immigrants. The word integration would seem to imply that at least some of the blame falls on Swedes for not integrating immigrants properly.

4. Here's another quote via Mr. Appelgren (police superintendent): “I think we’re going to see, if we don’t stop it, more drive-by shootings with Kalashnikovs and hand grenades,” he said. “They throw rocks and bottles at our cars, and they trick us in an ambush. When will it happen that they ambush us with Kalashnikovs? It’s coming.” Once again, The Times (UK) mentioned that kids were roaming the streets with Kalashnikovs so Mr. Appelgren's fears aren't off base. And let's re-read part of the quote (by a police superintendent): They throw rocks and bottles at our cars, and THEY TRICK US IN AN AMBUSH. That almost sounds like a no-go zone. Obviously, the police are in those areas, because they're the ones being tricked into an ambush so it isn't a true no-go zone, but it surely does sound dangerous.

5. The weapons are arriving from Bosnia and Serbia.

6. One gang that is discussed is controlled by a Tunisian with gang members mainly made up from Finland, the Balkans and Africa. Now talk about one diverse ethnic make-up.

I do find it interesting that all these weapons are finding their way into Sweden. If they're getting into Sweden, they must be all across Europe, as well. One has to assume that at some point, another major terrorist event will occur in Europe.