Sweden Spinning Out of Control

“Löfven, you have lost control of Sweden,” the leader of the largest opposition party, the center-right Moderate Party, Ulf Kristersson, recently wrote in an article in the daily newspaper Aftonbladet, in which he criticized Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven for failing to solve some of Sweden’s biggest problems. According to Kristersson:

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“Last year, 306 shootings occurred and 45 people were shot dead. According to the police, the number of people killed has doubled since 2014. During the same period, the number of people who have been subjected to sexual abuse has tripled according to BRÅ [the Swedish Crime Prevention Council]…

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“At the same time, we have an integration crisis: More than half of all the unemployed are born outside of Sweden. In our exclusion areas, [utanförskapsområden] there are schools where not even half of the students pass all subjects… Many children born in Sweden hardly speak Swedish, and there is extensive repression [in the name of] honor culture. Here too we have called for reforms, but the Social Democrats say no.

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“Requirements for knowledge of Swedish and financial self-sufficiency [should be conditions] for a permanent residence permit.”

{snip} This criticism is especially significant coming from the Moderate Party: Kristersson’s predecessor, Frederik Reinfeldt, who was prime minister of Sweden from 2006 to 2014 and chairman of the Moderate Party from 2003 to 2015, did not share these concerns. In 2014, Reinfeldt urged Swedes to “Open your hearts” to the refugees of the world.

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One of the realities, according to the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB) — the state authority for community protection and preparedness — is that terrorism is now a threat everywhere in Sweden, and therefore even smaller municipalities need to be prepared for terrorist acts to occur.

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From the beginning of 2019 to the end of July, there were 120 bombings in Sweden, according to police statistics. The figure represents an increase of 45% over the same period last year, when 83 bombings took place. The south of Sweden has been particularly badly hit, with 44 bombings. “At present, one can only really speculate on the reasons why. We have an increased problem with crime and exclusion,” said Petra Stenkula, chief investigator at Police Region south. “It is possible that the supply of dynamite is good, whereas the supply is somewhat more limited when it comes to weapons today compared to before.”

In the southern Swedish city of Landskrona alone — a place of roughly 35,000 inhabitants — since December 2018, there have been seven explosions or bombings. In August, the entrance to Landskrona’s city hall was blown up.

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In August, another city in the south of Sweden, Linköping, experienced its second blast this year. Police found an object that they suspected was explosives. When it was destroyed by the national bomb protection squad, a powerful explosion occurred. It destroyed a police storehouse and damaged several other buildings. In early June, also in Linköping, an explosion blasted through a residential building. Miraculously, no one was killed, but 20 people were wounded. The police suspect that the incident was gang-related.

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Rape and sexual assault also continue apace. In Uppsala alone, a picturesque Swedish university town, where 80% of girls do not feel safe in the city center, four rapes or attempted rapes took place in early August within four days. In Stockholm, two rapes occurred during the “We are Stockholm” youth festival in August, in addition to about a dozen other sexual offenses. At the “Piteå Dances and Laughs” summer festival in Piteå, another rape, involving ten men, took place.

In a recent op-ed in Aftonbladet, a member of parliament for the Moderate Party, Josefin Malmqvist, appealed to Morgan Johansson, who serves as Minister of Justice and Minister for Migration Policy, to “Stop the rapes — you are letting the women down.” In her article, Malmqvist wrote:

“Exposure to sexual crimes has risen sharply during Morgan Johansson’s (S) time as Minister of Justice: for the third consecutive year, the number of reported rapes in 2018 increased to 20 reported rapes per day. So far this year, the number of reported rapes has increased by 14 percent… In Sweden — one of the world’s most equal countries — women’s freedom is diminishing. That women do not have the same opportunity to move freely in the streets and squares without having to worry about being exposed to crime, is a serious restriction on women’s freedom and self-determination. While more women are reporting sexual offenses, the rate of resolved rapes is still frighteningly low. A review of the rapes reported in recent years shows that only 5 out of 100 reported rapes lead to conviction.”

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Another population group that has been suffering under the lack of law and order in Sweden is children. According to BRÅ, there has been a significant increase in robberies against young people in recent years. In just a few years, the number of reports of robberies against people under 18 has significantly increased, from 1,084 reported robberies in 2015 to 1,896 in 2018 — an increase of 75%. There have already been 1,247 reports of robberies against young people in 2019 so far. According to Sven Granath, a criminologist with the Swedish police, the increase in robberies against young people could be because it has become harder to rob older people or to steal from shops. “It has become harder and then they go after a group that cannot protect itself as well. They also have what other youths want, such as mopeds, phones and jewelry” said Granath.

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