Record number of people killed in shootings – NRK Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
The death toll after shootings in Sweden made a jump last year. The number is significantly higher than in neighboring Norway, Denmark and Finland. The development is also markedly different in 21 other European countries.
The last murder happened on Saturday, a few hours before the year ended. During the New Year’s celebration, one man in his 20s, Scottish in Vällingby northwest of Stockholm. The murder happened right in front of the local MacDonalds restaurant at 6.30pm. The police believe it was several people who shot.
Entourage Aftonbladet must the perpetrators have fired New Year’s rockets during the crime to create confusion. Several of the witnesses said they thought they heard fireworks.
The police quickly linked the murder to a conflict between criminal people in the area, follow SVT’s basements. So far, no one has been arrested for the shooting.
The killing in Vällingby on Saturday is the 63rd in Sweden last year that was carried out with a firearm. Only in Romjula it was three pictures killed. This is a strong jump upwards from the level of the last few years.
SVT has mapped shootings and murders in Sweden in the last five years, distributed by area. According to official statistics, firearms are around 40 percent of drape in Sweden.
Rap artist peeking out
The wall has continued through the New Year’s weekend. On the night of Monday, there were new explosions in the Stockholm area.
On Monday morning, a multi-family residence in Grimsta northwest of the capital city was hit by a strong smell. A little later, a smaller device exploded in Bagarmossen in the south of the city.
No one was injured in these explosions, but the police believe they were aimed at named persons.
I everything five people are arrested and suspected of various offenses in connection with the incidents in Grimsta and Bagarmossen.
Entourage SVT is a well-known rap artist among those who have been arrested. He has a previous criminal conviction. In the house in Grimsta where one of the explosions happened, another well-known rap artist lives.
The police are not investigating whether the explosions may be related to the shooting on Saturday.
I think the power vacuum is behind it
Manne Gerell who is associate professor in criminology at Malmö University, tells NRK that it is not clear what lies behind the spiral of violence.
One hypothesis is that the police’s revelations of criminal networks have created an imbalance and power vacuum.
– Many high up in the criminal network were imprisoned after the police managed to gain access to the contents of encrypted apps such as EncroChat in 2020he says.
Large drug seizures can and do lead to an extra level of conflict and debt that can lead to violence. At the same time, it has become more common for more than one person to shoot, and for several shots to be fired. Several murders seem better planned. It drives up the death toll.
Affects housing prices and grades
There is also a tendency towards younger perpetrators and younger offers. Often it is teenagers who shoot other teenagers,
Manne Gerell believes that gang violence affects the whole of society.
Those who live in residential areas where there is a lot of shooting get scared and move, and this affects the price of housing.
It can also affect the mental health and school performance of children who grow up under such circumstances, he says to NRK.
Theme and officer
Shootings and gang crime were also one of the big issues when Sweden went to the polls last fall. Already then it was about to flow become a grim record in the number of murders with firearms.
The Moderates and the Sweden Democrats in particular insisted that a change of government was needed to overcome the problem.
Before the election, Moderatena leader Ulf Kristersson laid down a tough line:
– A new government will hunt down these people until they are all locked up or expelled from the country, uncompromisingly and ruthlessly. These gangs must leave Sweden, he added Gothenburg Post in September.
Although most rapes take place in a closed environment, it also happens that random passers-by get hit. For example, when a passing woman was injured when a man was killed at the Emporia shopping center in Malmö.
Or then a woman and a child were injured by bullets in a playground in Eskilstuna. Both incidents happened in August and affected the Swedish election campaign.
Think he needs to talk down
Now sit Moderaterna leader Ulf Kristersson at the top of the government table. Veljarane wants to know how he is going to reduce gang crime, as he promised.
On 22 December, he put forward an effort from the government. Among other things, they will manage to:
- Create visitation zones in exposed areas, where anyone who stayed can be stopped and searched by the police.
- Allow anonymous testimony in the courtroom, so that those who are exposed to or see crime can testify anonymously. The measure is meant to break the culture of silence which is a criminal environment.
- Give the municipality the main responsibility for crime prevention in its area.
- Lower the age limit for when a child can be caught by social services to prevent recruitment into criminal gangs.
Kristersson says he thinks it is possible to turn the tide.
– The organized gangs are not going to like this. They will resist. But we must show that it is the state that is in control, Kristersson said during the presentation. He calls it «eit paradigm shift».
He underlined that it will come to take time, and it will be difficult. But he also said that he had faith that it would be possible to change this.
– An iceberg
Minister of Justice Gunnar Strømmer compared the development to an iceberg.
– Drapa is the tip of an iceberg, violence and organized crime have taken deep roots in society, said Strømmer.
He announced that the Ministry of Justice will have its own special department which will coordinate the fight against crime.
More police and tougher punishments
Manne Gerell also believes that it should be possible to reverse the trend.
But then the police must get more resources and tools.
– More investment is needed in leadership development, in addition to the investments that have already been made, such as tougher penalties, more tools for the police and more police officers, says Gerell to NRK.
He believes that the action plan that the government presented before Christmas can have “a certain effect”.
– Eg thinks it can possibly contribute a little, but it primarily focuses on more tools for the police.
– That in itself will not be sufficient, he says.
19 worst area
In a police report from October 2021, Swedish police described 61 “vulnerable areas”, spread over several parts of southern Sweden, with a concentration in and around Stockholm. Vulnerable area is geographically defined area characterized by low socio-economic status, where crime characterizes the local community.
The police pointed out 19 areas as “specially designated areas”. That means the area where the criminal impact is greatest.
These areas were described as “difficult or almost impossible” for the police to conduct training in. In 2021, the situation was described as acute.