Sweden edition

Residents thwart Rosengård street festival

Published: 23 Aug 09 07:17 CET | Double click on a word to get a translation
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/21632/20090823/

A street festival held in the Rosengård district of Malmö deteriorated into a fight on Saturday evening as activists were forced out by area residents.

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The “Reclaim Rosengård” street festival, which was conceived as a protest against the social conditions in Rosengård, didn’t exactly go according to organizers’ plans. The event was supposed to get underway at 8pm on Saturday, but after about 15 minutes the activists who had gathered to participate were pushed out by Rosengård residents.

The activists' floats with music were also barred from entering the predominantly immigrant neighbourhood.

“There were quite a few who had gathered, not only young people, but also a lot of parents. I think that patience has run out among the residents of Rosengård,” said municipal district representative Inger Leite to the TT news agency.

According to Leite, the Rosengård residents had made it clear previously that they didn’t want people to feel they had the right to come and speak for the residents who live there.

Instead, the activists gathered in front of a nearby petrol station where they threw stones, bottles, and burning objects at police cars.

The activists' stated goal was to force a reduction in a police presence in the are. But Abu Hadis, one of the men involved in pushing back the activists, said Rosengård residents were of a different view.

"We who live in Rosengård want the police out here; their presence has had a calming effect for us and improved the area's reputation," he told newspaper Aftonbladet.

"We don't need drunken upper class kids to come here and speak on our behalf against our will," he added.

By 2am Sunday morning, the disturbances remained in full swing. Several small fires were burning, including a hedge near the petrol station which had also had its windows broken.

Thirty minutes later, most of those involved had gone home and the situation had calmed down.

Other than a few small fires and the damage to the petrol station, no other serious incidents were reported, according to Skåne police spokesperson Lars-Håkan Lindholm.

No one was injured during the night’s disturbance and no arrests have been made.

TT/The Local (news@thelocal.se/08 656 6518)

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08:03 August 23, 2009 by magic1964

Activits are just young emasculated rich kids who have been scared to face Rosengård residents....no brain no muscle and no b.....

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09:39 August 23, 2009 by Pursuivant

The police should have done what the activists wanted - left Rosengård and let the locals "reclaim" it from stupid wannabe-anarcists.

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09:59 August 23, 2009 by Plowbridge

The police and local authority should not have allowed a Reclaim Rosengård festival due to it's highly provocative nature. All the various parties involved are as bad as each other but you would expect better from official sources. In particular Swedish police are consistently embarrassingly amateur in their endeavours.

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10:08 August 23, 2009 by Iraniboy

It doesn't mention what activists were demanding and what exactly was offensive to the residents!!

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10:12 August 23, 2009 by Nemesis

The Swedish police really need to start doing there job. I have been to Rosengård. Water cannons, plastic bullets and proabably soldiers would be best to restore law and order there. There area is totally out of control.

If it was acceptable to use plastic bullets and water cannon in Northern Ireland, it is perfectly acceptable to use them in Sweden.

Afterall lots of Swedes supported certain political and paramilitary wings in Northern Ireland. So if they supported and liked it so much, they can have it at home and enjoy it up close instead of a 1000 kilometres away.

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10:21 August 23, 2009 by skatty

I looked at the clip in DN, and there is a mistake in translation. Leite said the residents of Rosengard are tired of the young activist to consider themselves the right people to talk for the Rosengord residents, and not with the residence as it's mentioned in the article, which I wondered why residents don't want to talk! Leite the bitr. Stadsdelschef of Rosengord one of the largest concentrated immigration ghettos in Sweden is a Swede and not immigrant; so, who suppose to have that right anyway!!

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11:36 August 23, 2009 by farnoxo

In some ways this is a little typical of the Swedish tendency to come across as patronising. "Oh poor silly residents of Rosengård, they cannot possibly speak up for themselves, so us clever Swedes have to do it for them."

In many ways this is the cause of many of the problems that Sweden is currently experiencing trying to integrate other cultures - the belief that the "Swedish way" cannot possibly be flawed and so everyone has to be shoe-horned into it willingly or not. Even as a "European" immigrant, I feel a very strong social pressure to adopt the "Swedish way" of thinking - and I really resent this because I come from a very different background to a lot of Swedes, which has inevitably resulted in a different outlook on some things to most Swedes.'

It is hardly surprising then that people in Rosengård feel even more alienated from Swedish society and, understandably, resent the fact that other Swedes naively feel that they have to take it upon themselves to "speak up for them". Until the people in Rosengård actually feel that they have a legitimate voice to speak out for them, these tensions and issues will continue to simmer away. If one wants any more proof of how bad the result of immigrant social alienation can get, one only has to look at the Banlieues in Paris. In many ways Rosengård sounds very similar - and will continue to experience similar problems.

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11:56 August 23, 2009 by Harding00

I need clarification, what exactly were the activists protesting (what was the festival about exactly), and who exactly started the fights, rock throwing, etc. Maybe I'm reading into it too much, but I am confused. Can someone help me, and post a link to something else, even if it's in Swedish. Thanks.

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12:09 August 23, 2009 by Hairdont

If I had a billboard to use in Malmö, I would post this everywhere:

"Därefter kördes deltagarna i Reclaim Rosengård bort från rondellen av en uppretad folkmassa, däribland fanns medlemmar ur det nya Rosengårdsgänget Lions Family. Samtidigt syntes medlemmar från gänget Black Cobra på aktivisternas sida. Samtliga aktivister tvingades att fly till McDonalds."

Samtliga aktivister tvingades att fly till McDonalds

Samtliga aktivister tvingades att fly till McDonalds

Samtliga aktivister tvingades att fly till McDonalds

I could read that over and over again. In fact, I think I will.

Have a great Sunday.

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#10

13:10 August 23, 2009 by magic1964

A looooong time ago Sweden was the country of Vikings......now we have young super metrosexual activits getting diaria trying to escape from immigrants...

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#11

14:05 August 23, 2009 by La Figaro

Magic1964, what on earth are you trying to say? Viking stories in England, Scotland, Ireland etc is not all that rosy, take note.

Nemesis, it is unfortunate you have no clue about the real problem in Northern Ireland (or its history) unless you are of the protestant section aka landed aristocracy (planters) or unionists.

There's a saying that he who wears the shoe knows where it pinches most. There are many 'holes' in this article (I think TheLocal is doing a great job though) but who better to discuss Rosengard than its residents?! For those complaining about the 'swedish way' of life, no place has the perfect way you either love it or hate it, each has its good & bad sides. If you don't like it, take the next available bus, train or flight out. Its often said that when you are in Rome, you behave like romans.

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#12

14:18 August 23, 2009 by Greg in Canada

"In some ways this is a little typical of the Swedish tendency to come across as patronising. "Oh poor silly residents of Rosengård, they cannot possibly speak up for themselves, so us clever Swedes have to do it for them......resent the fact that other Swedes naively feel that they have to take it upon themselves to "speak up for them".

From what I've known of Sweden, I would tend to agree with Farnoxo's above statements. The sitution in Rosengard is a genuine "made in Sweden" social problem based upon a very naive Swedish immigration policy.

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#13

14:32 August 23, 2009 by SaltWater

Well maybe it's time for all the people that are living from money of Swedish tax payers that are burning wastebaskets in the streets, that don't give a damn to learn Swedish and so on to go away, to the poorly deserts they came or the wars they left. How can people that were saved from these places be so much ungrateful!!!!!

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#14

16:36 August 23, 2009 by here for the summer

Ungratefulness is human and natural .. to expect gratefulness is naive .. As another poster pointed out the volume of immigration in Northern Europe ( perhaps not the mix ) is driven by the desire to maintain social programs specifically retirement by an increased worker tax base. One thing that's missing is an appreciation that a business climate that promotes hiring is essential. Workers without jobs don't contribute ..

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#15

18:29 August 23, 2009 by magic1964

Those activists who look like anorectics dwarfs dress in black have something in commun with the Rosengård crowd....they live on welfare.

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#16

20:01 August 23, 2009 by DamnImmigrant

WTF is the article talking about? "Street festival" is the wrong word! It implies community support and celebration, and PERMITS!

"Reclaim Rosengård" From what?

"protest against the social conditions" what conditions?

"activists ... were pushed out by Rosengård residents" Activists were NOT residents? ALL residents doing the pushing were UNITED in this action?

"activists' floats … barred from entering the predominantly immigrant neighborhood" Like N. Ireland Protestants PARADING through Catholic hoods??? "PREDOMINANTLY" says there are non-immigrants too, were they the ones trying to complain? The IMMIGRANTs are ALL of the same MIND and belief???

"quite a few who had gathered ... also a lot of parents" - "WHO"? gathered? Parents, the activists or the residents?

"they didn't want people to feel they had the right to come and speak to the residents who live there." WTF!?!?!? Welcome to the FREE WORLD! Is this the MORMON church kind of thing? Or the, This Ain't Sweden Thing?

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#17

20:13 August 23, 2009 by lingonberrie

The cure for Rosengard will begin when Sweden adopts the Danish policy on immigration.

Afterward, the mid-east anaconda that is growing in Malmo will starve to death and Sweden will again belong to Swedes.

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#18

20:32 August 23, 2009 by DreEstwd

Rosengård needs to be bombed. Nothing good has ever come out of there and nothing will.

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#19

20:50 August 23, 2009 by FutureHuman

I don't really know about the details of Rosengård, but most of the comments that I'm reading here - especially those which seem to be writen by Sweden - say a lot about what could be the fundamental problem. Noone seems to try to see the bigger picture. Of course, it is easier to blame someone.

The view that immigrants are a generally welfare-suckings beasts is just sick. If some do, it is not because they choose. It is always about the system - not about individuals.

The fundamental problem is that, even at this time, we still don't realize that there is no God-given country to a people. Civilization happenend because people immigrated from place to place.

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#20

22:06 August 23, 2009 by nrc71

Disrespectful young kids who have not a clue how to behave. Send them back to their homeland. Maybe they will learn it there.

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#21

22:24 August 23, 2009 by immigrant-girl

personally, I think that they should build a fence around Rosengård and say "police do not come here. ambulances do not come here. firetrucks do not come here. When you learn to act we will help." Sorry, I am sick and tired of hearing this crap about being mistreated blah blah. All immigrants have problems yet we learn to adapt and get over it and thrive.

I have gone to language school with some of these "adults" and can tell you that some of them, 70% are just bad seeds here to exploit the government while living off the TON of money they have back home. If you don't like the country that was kind enough to take you in when you were "down and out", a government that gives and gives and if all you are going to do is destroy property and hurt people then GO BACK HOME!

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#22

22:37 August 23, 2009 by Greg in Canada

Countries like Canada, USA, Australia were built on immigration so "multi-culturalism" was a naturally occuring process over a two hundred year period. Euro countries such as England or France had a colonial past, so when immigrants move there they are at least familiar with the mainstream culture and language.

Sweden suddenly declared itself "multi-cultural" twenty-five years ago despite having a relatively homogeneous population, no history of mass immigration, no colonial past and a language that very few newcomers are familiar with. Now they have the problems that they do. Their immigration policies and the implications to calling themselves "multi-cultural" has been incredibly naive and overly idealistic.

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#23

01:00 August 24, 2009 by Paul Goodman

Here we have an interesting story. First, the "Left" in question involves activists who (not by intention) give the Left a bad name. It's really a story about the elites using hierarchical power to save the immigrants, just a kind of recycling of proselytizing found in religious, Communist and Old Left movements based on recruitment campaigns. Sweden, where the Church and Communists come together in one big country, is an ideal locale for politics as proselytizing. The immigrants are not going to be helped by the Church, or Communists, this time. But by an "activist group" whose very form reproduces the archaic models of politics. And then, just like Swedish pagans smited the proselytizers of Christianity, the immigrants try to smite their new incarnation. How touching, how symmetrical, how fitting! But behold, this story is very Swedish and has nothing to do with ethnicty, multi-culturalism, etc. It has to do with colonization.

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#24

02:00 August 24, 2009 by Bumblebeetuna

More integration! Boy meets girl! Got to love those middle eastern women. Screw communism.

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#25

08:54 August 24, 2009 by magic1964

So many Arabs must laugh their head off, they live on welfare and burn cars with no consequences.....So many Swedish are so stupid and naïv, they still love to pay high taxes !!!!!! it´s just unreal to me !!!!!!

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#26

09:39 August 24, 2009 by hpunlimited

It is very easy to solve the Rosengård problem. Shut down all government activity there, no police, no ambulance, no social security. Declare it a "non Sweden" zone. Demand passport to leave the zone. Let them lay in their own sh*t that they caused. Maybe one day they will wake up and get tired of it. It is the ONLY way!

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#27

09:49 August 24, 2009 by bocagill

what country are these people from, all i hear is that there are arabs or mulsim , are there from bosnia or serbs or what, also the swedish goverment are a bunch of wimps to lets this continue it will only keep growing and it will spread to the rest of the country and then what do they do. So you idiots in the govenment stop hiding under the table and do something

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#28

09:54 August 24, 2009 by hpunlimited

If they act against "immigrants" then it would be considered "rasist". If they were 100% Swedes there, then you would have had rubber bullet, water canons and mass arrests. The Swedish government are afraid to be labeled racists. That is why they are not acting!

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#29

10:39 August 24, 2009 by magic1964

Now we understand why so many Arabs looooove to come all the way north.....money and welfare for nothing !!!!!!!

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#30

11:48 August 24, 2009 by Nutcracker

The almost totally uninformative article posted here at The Local (and it was intended to be so), is a perfect example of just why Sweden has the problems it does: a free press, unencumbered, investigative, questioning, critical, analytical and unafraid to confront the truth, is essential to the well-being and continued existence of a nation and the welfare of its people. Most of the Swedish press is politicised, cowed by political correctness, self-loathing, agenda-driven, cowardly and unprofessional. Sweden and its castrated press are bywords on the internet for a surrender of the West, its beliefs and its peoples, that is being carried out through craven silence.

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#31

12:02 August 24, 2009 by Lys

Here is an idea.

Instead of 'locking them in', why not spread these people out throughout society? That would help them to integrate better and get rid of the ghetto problem. I understand not everyone in Sweden is so keen on living next door to immigrants but helping them to become more integrated into society would benefit both them and Swedes in the long run. Or...?

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#32

12:08 August 24, 2009 by magic1964

Let´s give them an islamic welfare just for them self since they always want to have islamic things......this welfare will be payed by muslims only....then they will have to work and check for vandalism .......

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#33

12:40 August 24, 2009 by skatty

I agree with "Nutcracker". However the press are reflecting the society in Sweden and the lack of what you say in Swedish press is the lack of the same things in society. I believe it partly depends to the education system; universities are like factory in here. Students should pass some subject to get a paper to search for job rest of their life!! It doesn't work on brains; in contrast it kills intellectual thinking!

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#34

14:06 August 24, 2009 by Sensiblenick

Stunning. An article about people from OUTSIDE of Rosengård barging in and causing trouble, Being made to leave by the residents, and THEN fighting with the police.... and Noone seems to have read the damned article.

It's NOT the people of Rosengård who started this. It's a bunch of tits looking for an excuse to fight. A large amount of Rosengård inhabitants have just started Rammadan and want nothing but peace and quiet... then this stuff kicks off and the media's all over them again.... fuelled by blinkered narrow-minded muppets who're shouting to have the place cordoned off.

Hands up if you've worked there in the community and actually KNOW what the kids see and think. Anyone? Has anyone perhaps taught day-classes there for people who're not employed? .... I thought not.

If the only solution you can see is "Bomb Rosengård" or "put a wall around it" Then you must have your head stuck firmly up your own ass.

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#35

17:27 August 24, 2009 by Paul Goodman

Sweden should do something about youth and immigrant unemployment....not just reduce taxes. The Left is not creating any jobs by marching around and engaging in 1970s style politics which smacks of some kind of middle class paternalism. The racist and anti-immigrant sentiment shown here just makes me want to throw up. I understand how you think the people in this Swedish "ghetto" are ingrates, but why can't you understand that this country lets refugees in, puts them in segregated zones, abandons them and then feels good about themselves as being humanitarian. They are humanitarian but they don't want to spend the extra money necessary for integration. They are more interested in "tax breaks" so people can buy Volvos and Saabs which were run down by American transnational corporations which the free market Swedes did not want to challenge because after all the market is so wonderful.

So much superficial thinking here....encouraged by the pseudo intelligent media which is entertainment run by the native Swedish middle class occupying army.

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#36

21:30 August 24, 2009 by DreEstwd

Hey, Paul Goodman-

So.....letting the asylum seekers and immigrants come into their country, giving them an unlimited-in-length monthly salary for doing no work, giving them free lessons in the Swedish language, letting them bring in all of their family members, letting them open up Islamic schools/stores/mosque, providing subsidies for the multitude of children that they have and basically giving them a free pass on their crimes being reported in the media isn't enough for you? Now Sweden has to give them jobs as well?

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#37

04:52 August 25, 2009 by magic1964

@Paul Goodman

So you just say that the Swedish government don't want to spend the extra money necessary for integration ????? but what about free schools, free health care, welfare, language ??? what´s next ??? we have to provide dippers ???

No other immigrants get more help than in Scandinavia.....but it´s like giving caviar to pigs.....

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#38

06:49 August 25, 2009 by JordanR

I think it is worth noting that these brave "activists" have no problem standing up to the "fascists" Swedish government, but run away like cowards from the local population.

As a general rule, "anti-fascists" only stand up to democracies. If they ever stood up against actual fascism, they would be killed or imprisoned.

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#39

08:36 August 25, 2009 by magic1964

I saw once an demonstration with those activists.......they look more like anorectic trolls than activists...so scary.....ooooooooohhhh

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#40

13:59 August 25, 2009 by Marc the Texan

When I lived n Malmo a few years ago, I would walk through Rosengard regularly. I found it pretty tame by American standards. Never felt threatened there at all.

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#41

14:00 August 25, 2009 by bigbill

Paul Goodman, why don't you go solve the "assimilation" "and "segregation" problems of Israel, your Jewish homeland, and then once you have them solved come back to bother Swedes, OK? At least the Swedes are not cluster bombing Rosengard.

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